Dear Old Dad: A Father's Day Tribute

For the first time in many a year my family did not get together for Father's Day today. While that was fine with me (dad gets a chance to relax at home in peace and quiet and I get some much needed work done) I have to admit that something is missing. While puttering around the homestead, I began to recall with fondness my father's charmingly grumpy ways. How he would complain each weekend while I was growing up that we had spent all his cash, the way he would become exasperated should one of us (most likely me) bring up any serious or shall we say unpleasant subjects right as he walked in the door. Didn't I know better than that? All dad wanted to do when he got home from work was to stand against the kitchen counter drinking a Johnny Walker on the rocks with a splash, not be hounded by the fools of women he was surrounded by. Lost in a dead end along memory lane, I became sentimental for times past and for the joy that an afternoon with dear old dad could bring. It occurs to me that plenty of families cannot get together for so important an occasion as Father's Day, so in case you are feeling as I do, I suggest that in honor of fathers everywhere, we have a double feature movie night.

As we all know, fathers have a special gift for exasperation. That look of persecution when the home front becomes too unmanageable, the tendency to retreat into the study or garage or wherever they hole up when they're trying to get away from it all, and, of course, the grin they give one when teased about these very things.

The first film must be Life with Father (1947). Starring William Powell and Irene Dunne with wonderful supporting roles played by Elizabeth Taylor and Zazu Pitts, the film shows how a strongwilled businessman and father loses control of his household when his wife and four sons take over. You'll feel right at home watching Powell carry on about household bills, house guests, and the role of the church, not to mention missionaries, young girls, and the purveyors of patent medicines.

Father of the Bride, please, not the Steve Martin remake, but the 1950 original with Spencer Tracy, Joan Bennett, and Elizabeth Taylor. Told in flashback voiceover by exasperated father supreme Spencer Tracy, the story is about the personal inconvenience to a father's household kingdom when his daughter decides to marry. The way he carries on, you'd think she did it just to spite him!