<!-- m --><a href="http://www.archive.org/details/LifeWithFather" target="_blank">http://www.archive.org/details/LifeWithFather</a><!-- m -->

You can tell Life with Father is based on a series of short stories (or on a Broadway play based on a series of short stories, same difference) because it is very nearly plotless. It might as well be several episodes of a sitcom mashed together. Nevertheless, as a comic character piece, it is very amusing indeed. William Powell is perfect as the obtuse, opinionated patriarch who will argue with God himself if he needs to, never bending the knee to anything or anyone (cue the only baptism farce I've ever experienced in any medium), and Irene Dunn is his match, expertly handling him to get her way, with some confounding but funny ideas about home finances. But it all comes from a place of love, or else it wouldn't be as charming. The subplots involving their four sons (and a young Elizabeth Taylor as love interest) are only interesting insofar as they connect to the lead couple's relationship, but there's some useful mirroring going on there. I might have tuned in to see these people week in, week out, which is to the film's credit, but AS a film, it does tend to meander.