Life With Father (1947) review

Prissy adaptation of the play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse (which was based on Clarence Day's memoir) about temperamental - and penny-pinching - businessman Clarence Sr. (William Powell), his three children (all redheads!) and his dutiful wife Vinnie (Irene Dunne), whose only function is to apologize for her husband's rantings (and try to reason with him in private).  Aside from Powell's constant grousing almost everyone in this is so wholesome and pure it's almost like science fiction, and the "plot points" are sitcom-y and frankly stupid: Clarence Jr. (Jimmy Lydon) argues with love interest Mary (Elizabeth Taylor) over who's going to write a letter first, Clarence Jr. freaks out wearing his father's suit and Clarence Sr. refuses to get baptized for whatever reason (even God himself objects to this) which makes Vinnie physically ill, etc.  I guess post-WWII this is what people wanted to see in the theatres, but time has not treated it so fairly.