| re: Life with Father. Don't judge it with 2021 blinders on. | |
| Posted by: NewtonUK 07:32 am EST 12/14/21 | |
| In reply to: re: Life with Father. - keikekaze 10:37 pm EST 12/13/21 | |
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| The play was based on a series of stories by Clarence day, about his family and his (comically) despotic father (1935). People loved these stories, and this led to the dramatization by Lindsay and Crouse (with Lindsay playing Father, and his wife Dorothy STickney, playing Mother). Contemporary critics and audiences saw clearly what the play was about: The New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson wrote in his review "Sooner or later every one will have to see Life with Father, which opened at the Empire last evening. For the late Clarence Day's vastly amusing sketches of his despotic parent have now been translated into a perfect comedy by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, and must be reckoned an authentic port of our American folklore." When Life with Father surpassed Tobacco Road as the longest-running Broadway play, Elliot Norton of the Boston Post celebrated the play as "warmly human and heartily comical and completely inoffensive," thus restoring his faith in the theatre-going public. Contemporary scholar Jordan Schildcrout describes Life with Father as "a comedy in which characters challenge and ultimately win over a figure of authority," which allows the play to appeal to nostalgia for more conservative times, while also finding pleasure in gentle subversion and anti-authoritarianism. There have been many movies and sitcoms where seemingly mild mannered wives actually rule over their seemingly 'despotic' husbands. Its a constant plot device, never far out of sight. You know the mantra, 'he only thinks he wears the pants in this family ...!" William Powell and Howard Lindsay both had charm by the mile, which allowed them to play Father without alienating audiences because you know these men are at heart. Just as Clarence Day knew who Father was. Its more than a bit subversive showing a 1940s audience a 19th Century family where the Father is so totally gotten around as is the one in LIFE WITH FATHER. A delightful play, which could be revived if just the PC police would take a nap. |
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| Previous: | re: Interesting that in the film, Irene Dunne especially pronounces the word "baptized" with the emphasis on the second syllable - NewtonUK 11:40 am EST 12/14/21 |
| Next: | re: Life with Father. Don't judge it with 2021 blinders on. - portenopete 02:38 pm EST 12/14/21 |
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