Life With Father follows the lives of the Day family- parents and four sons- through a number of misadventures. Father, a businessman, struggles to get his wife, whom he adores, to run the household finances in a more business-like manner. Meanwhile, he inadvertantly causes turmoil in the house by constantly terrifying maids into quitting with his bellowing and stomping, and habit of critiquing their serving skills while they're in the room. He then wonders innocently why they can't seem to keep servants. Mrs. Day, not at all intimidated by her husband's shouting, usually manages to get around him. She is aghast, however, when it comes to light that Mr. Day has never been baptized. She insists that he do this at once and, when he flatly refuses, hatches various plots to trick him into getting baptized, enlisting the help of their vicar. Meanwhile, their eldest son- Clarence, Jr.- has his own troubles: having had one of his father's suits altered to fit him, he's horrified to discover that, when he wears it, he can't do anything that his father wouldn't do. This greatly inhibits his blossoming romance with pretty houseguest Mary, played by a young Elizabeth Taylor. Another plot involves one of the younger sons attempting to make money by peddling patent medicine door-to-door.
This is a really fun movie, and Powell is a great curmudgeonly, bombastic Father Day, with Dunne holding her own as his flighty but loving wife. Their relationship is really the heart of this movie (and play). Day's caustic and outraged comments when he is inconvenienced- by visiting relatives, nosy vicars, or poorly made coffee- are hilarious and basically the film is a great way to spend an evening.
By the way, due to a clerical oversight, the copyright on Life With Father expired in the 1970's so if you don't own a copy, it can be watched guilt-free on You Tube because it's in the public domain.