Classic Film of the Week: "Life With Father"

Hot Property
During the late 1940s, one of the most sought-after properties was the film rights to Life With Father, the longest-running non-musical play on Broadway. The play written by Howard Lindsey and Russel Crouse, based on stories by Clarence Day, opened in 1939 and ran for seven years. The story has a relatively simple plot: a wife, after discovering her husband hasn’t been baptized, does her best to convince him he needs to, if he wants to see his family in heaven.

From the earliest days of its run, Hollywood was interested in obtaining the film rights. William Powell, after seeing the play, wanted his home studio, MGM, to buy the property for him. He thought the part of Clarence Day (Father) would be the role of a lifetime.

America's Sweetheart No More
While the play was still on Broadway, sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish both portrayed Lavinia (Mrs. Day) in out-of-town productions. Lillian, who was headlining the Chicago production, thought the role of Lavinia would be perfect for her friend, Mary Pickford. Pickford, the silent-film icon, was looking for a property to make a movie comeback. Gish advised her friend to buy the film rights, but Pickford didn’t act swiftly enough. Soon all the major studios were actively negotiating with the playwrights and members of the Day family. With all this competition, the price skyrocketed and the contract stipulations were too much for most. Warner Bros. eventually bought the rights with a down payment of $500,000 plus half of the film’s profits. Warner Bros. thought Life With Father had the potential to be as big as Gone With The Wind, so they were willing to pay the price.

Powell is Clarence Day

When William Powell found out that Warner Bros. obtained the rights, he asked MGM to consider loaning him out for the role. They did, Warner Bros. accepted, and Powell was in. The choice of Powell to play Clarence Day proved popular with the movie-going public, but the casting of Lavinia would prove more troublesome.

Davis Drops Out
Bette Davis, the top female star on the Warner Bros. lot at the time, was offered the role of Lavinia Day. Davis struggled to adequately portray the character’s gentleness and decided not to take the role. Mary Pickford, who missed out on buying the film rights, was in the running. Apparently, her screen tests were good, but director Michael Curtiz (Casablanca) didn’t think she had any box office appeal. She had, after all, been away from the screen for thirteen years.

From Anna to Lavinia: Irene Dunne Takes a Chance

From most accounts, Curtiz wanted Irene Dunne to play Lavinia. Dunne said she had no interest in playing a woman who seemed to cry when things didn’t go her way. But Curtiz thought she would be perfect in the role. Curtiz admired Dunne’s talent as an actress, but he also wanted her because she was a top box office draw. Dunne’s recent success in Anna and the King of Siam was one of the reasons the director pursued her. Curtiz kept asking Dunne to reconsider and he eventually wore her down. In a 1978 interview, Dunne revealed that Curtiz motivated her on the set “because I didn’t like the role very much and he had to placate me to make it more palatable.” Dunne's acceptance of the role meant there would never be a movie comeback for Mary Pickford.

The supporting players were easier to find. Elizabeth Taylor, (who was barely 15 years old) was loaned out by MGM to play Mary Skinner, a role created on the stage by Teresa Wright. Zasu Pitts, Jimmy Lydon, and Edmund Gwenn rounded out the rest of the cast.

Impeccable Production

Life With Father was one of Warner Bros.’s most important and costly films during the late 1940s. The set decoration and costume designs were impeccable. A huge outdoor set was built to recreate New York City’s Madison Ave. during the 1880s. Elaborate indoor sets for Delmonico’s restaurant and McCreery’s Department Store were built, adding to the historical accuracy. The set decorators and the Warner production crew went to great lengths with even the small details. For example, there is a scene where Powell’s character takes a horse-drawn trolley to work. As he enters the trolley to sit down, you notice, in the background, advertisements inside the trolley, but only for a fraction of a second. You can argue whether that detail was necessary, but it shows the seriousness with which Warner Bros. handled the material.

Star Billing at the Flip of a Coin

Both Irene Dunne and William Powell were major movie stars when Life With Father went into production. Dunne, never regarded as a diva, but a shrewd negotiator and business woman where her career was concerned, insisted on receiving top billing. It could be argued that, at this time, she was the bigger box office draw. Powell on the other hand had the title role, the movie was Life with Father. A compromise was struck. Fifty percent of the movie prints would give Dunne top billing and fifty percent would have Powell’s name in front of Dunne’s! This held true for the movie posters (illustrated at left and below) and publicity releases as well. Supposedly, for the New York premier, they flipped a coin to see which print would be used.

A Success for All

Life With Father premiered in August 1947 and was an immediate critical and financial success. Not quite the blockbuster the Warner Bros. studios had expected or hoped, but one that was profitable enough to make all the accountants happy. For Powell it did turn out to be the role of a lifetime and he received his third Best Actor Academy Award nomination (Ronald Colman won for A Double Life). For Dunne, one of her best roles would come two years later in the George Stevens production, I Remember Mama.

Neglected Classic
Due to the unusual contractual arrangements between Warner Bros. and Lindsay and Crouse, the movie, after its initial release and re-release in 1948, pretty much vanished into obscurity. And for reasons not known to this writer, it fell into the public domain. Since Life With Father went into the public domain, there have been numerous inferior prints of the movie classic. With most, the color and sound are inferior. One can hope that someday a restored version will be available so modern viewers can see this wonderful American classic the way audiences did in 1947.



Sources used for this post: Romantic Comedy in Hollywood: From Lubitsch to Sturges (1987) by James Harvey; Life With Father Audience Guide (2008) compiled and edited by Jack Marshall;
Irene Dunne: First Lady of Hollywood by Wes D. Gehring

Ernst Lubitsch, "To Be or Not To Be," and Lombard's last impression

Coming to America

Director Ernst Lubitsch left his native Germany in 1922 at the invitation of silent-screen legend Mary Pickford. He directed Pickford in two popular films, Rosita (1923) and The Marriage Circle (1924). Right from the start, his American films had a quality, polish, and sophistication that seemed fresh and new. Audiences loved the "Lubitsch touch" and his career in Hollywood prospered. When talking pictures took hold, Lubitsch adapted immediately without missing a beat.

Hollywood fights back

In 1935, Lubitsch's German citizenship was erased by the Nazis. Like many Europeans living in America, Lubitsch was horrified by the rise of Adolf Hitler and his ever-increasing stranglehold on his home continent. During the late 1930s the war in Europe was heating up and Lubitsch thought the time was right for a satire about Hitler and the Nazis. After all, The Great Dictator (1940), written and directed by Charles Chaplin was a huge hit. Surely Lubitsch with his talent for comedy would be able to be equally successful with To Be or Not To Be (1942).

Show me the money

At this point in his career, Lubitsch was working independently, without the backing of a major studio. As an independent, he had to obtain funding to make To Be or Not To Be, as well as work out a distribution agreement. From the beginning, the movie was meant to be a star vehicle for Jack Benny. Benny was a superstar on the radio, but his movie career never matched his radio success. To help secure financing, Benny actively courted Lombard to star opposite him. Lubitsch, anxious to work with Lombard didn't think the part was large enough to interest her. Surprisingly, Lombard loved the script. The fact that she would be part of an ensemble cast rather than being the "star" didn't seem to matter. Additionally, Lombard thought that with the rumors of a World War on everyone's mind, a satire like To Be or Not To Be would help in the fight against the Axis powers.

Together again: Lubitsch and Lombard

With Lombard onboard, the financing was guaranteed and production started in October 1941. From all accounts, the filming was a pleasant experience for Lombard and all of the cast. Benny loved working with Lombard and she helped him get past his anxiety about working with a director of Lubitsch's stature. Once again, Lubitsch allowed Lombard to act as uncredited producer, just like he did during the filming of Hands Across the Table, when he was in charge of production at Paramount six years earlier.

Remember Pearl Harbor
During the filming of To Be or Not To Be, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States entered World War II. The mood of the country was somber with American casualties mounting on a daily basis. Americans feared invasion from Japan, especially those on the west coast, which included Hollywood. Ever the patriot, Lombard wrote President Roosevelt to ask what she and her husband, Clark Gable, could do? His response: keep making movies to keep people's spirits up.

War bond tour

Not one to sit by the sidelines, Lombard went on a war bond rally on January 12, including a huge drive in her native state, Indiana. The goal was to sell $500,000 worth of bonds, but Lombard's enthusiasm and star power brought that total above $2 million! After a hectic bond-selling schedule (so hectic in fact that a January 14, 1942 stop in Chicago generated an article in the Chicago Tribune entitled "A Whirlwind! It Was Carole on Chicago Visit"), Lombard wanted to fly back to California, instead of taking the train as originally planned. She was anxious to see her husband and didn't want to waste the time on the train. Traveling with her mother, Elizabeth Peters and MGM press agent Otto Winkler, Lombard tried to convince her traveling companions that flying home was their best option. Peters and Winkler were against flying, but Lombard prevailed.

California bound
After a brief refueling stop in Las Vegas, the DC-3 plane that Lombard and 21 others occupied, took off for the west coast on January 16. They never made it home. The plane, flying too low, slammed into a mountain not far from the Las Vegas airport. Everyone on board was killed instantly.

Farewell to the screwball girl

On January 21 at 4 p.m., funeral services were held for Lombard and her mother at the Hilltop Church of the Recessional in Forest Lawn cemetery, Glendale, CA. According to Lombard's wishes, her funeral was simple with mostly family and friends in attendance. As reported in the January 22 edition of the Chicago Tribune, those present included "...Mr.and Mrs. Spencer Tracy, Jack Benny, Mr. and Mrs. Ernst Lubitsch, ... the William Powells, Louis B. Mayer, ...and the Fred MacMurrays."

To Be or Not To Be released

Lombard's last movie was met with generally good reviews, but audiences weren't flocking to see it. It's hard to know why, since today, To Be or Not To Be is considered a classic. More than sixty years after its release, the American Film Institute in it's list of the one hundred funniest films of all time, ranked it at forty-nine. Some people thought the black humor was too much for wartime audiences. New York Times critic, Bosley Crowther wrote in his March 7, 1942 review, "To say it is callous and macabre is understating the case." Other period reviews were positive: "It's an acting triumph for Lombard, who delivers an effortless and highly effective performance..." (Variety).

Lasting legacy
It's sad that a talent like Carole Lombard was taken from us at the height of her career. The plans to make another movie with Lubitsch, Preston Sturges, and Billy Wilder would never be realized. But fortunately for us, she left a body of work that still brings us joy, laughter, and tears.

"A loud cheer for the screwball girl!"