My Man Godfrey

source: My Man Godfrey

This is a marvelous film and is a perfect example of light comedy from the 1930s. The writing and acting by the wonderful ensemble cast is absolutely dynamite and hard to beat. On top of that, it makes for great social commentary. William Powell plays Godfrey, a hobo brought home as part of a scavenger hunt. One of the girls in the family, ultra-dippy Carole Lombard, arranges for him to become their new butler and he is absolutely perfect at his job in every way and does a lot to get this rich but totally flighty family to function well, as when the movie starts it is like a madhouse instead of a family home. The zaniness going on is a lot of fun to watch, but you really have to feel for the father (Eugene Palette) having to put up with freeloaders like Mischa Auer, a stupid wife, one even stupider daughter and another who is a cold little thing. And, on top of everything else, the family is spending him into oblivion. Where the film goes I don't want to tell as it would ruin it. However, be prepared for some of the funniest characters and dialog you've seen in a long time. This film is a wonderful example to young whipper-snappers that they DID make terrific movies in the olden days!

I've seen this comedy many times and never get tired of it. Saw it again today on TCM TV, and still get a kick out of it. The spoiled brats of wealthy family man, played by Eugene Pallette, have hired Mr Godfrey as their butler. Carole Lombard and Gail Patrick are the jealous sisters who contrive to win his affections. There is much clutter and romping and confusion, but it all comes out at the end. Mischa Auer plays his usually outrageously funny character. I remember what a hit it was in 1936, and heartily recommend it today!

I had high hopes for this celebrated. Golden Age "screwball" comedy, what with the casting of Powell and Lombard, not to mention the more than adequate support and high production values, but I was sadly disappointed. A combination of morality tale, treatise on the dignity of man and comedy of manners, it strives so hard for the Capra or Sturges touch but frankly misses by miles. It starts well enough after a superb "city lights" title sequence, then with the opening encounter at a Hooverville camp of two socialite sisters Carole Lombard and Gail Patrick encountering "forgotten man" Powell, but too soon he's morphed into the perfect butler and somehow stolen the heart of younger sister Lombard and gained the enmity of her snooty older sister Patrick. I know that screwball comedies often have fantastic plots but this is all too much to swallow in one sitting. None of the cast are in the least likable or sympathetic, with the arguable exception of the always watchable Eugene Palette as the long-suffering family patriarch. This is the first time I've seen a film starring Ms Lombard and have to say I was far from impressed. She overacts terribly and has the volume button set to 11 throughout. Powell seems far too old for her and there appears little spark between them (weird considering they used to be married) and I failed to perceive his charm to all and sundry. As usual he gets to do a seen-it-before tipsy scene and otherwise seems to play throughout in the one key. Then we're meant to believe that him dousing her in the shower to cure her hangover is a sign of true love. To top it off there's a hanger-on of the mother's, her protégé, if you will, who gets to act like a gorilla and eat like a pig. Very strange. No, I was left cold and unamused by this would-be uplifting farce and thought about how much better Hawks or the afore-mentioned Capra or Sturges would have handled this.

Let me start by saying that I love screwball comedies. I also love big 1930's black and white "isn't it great to be rich in NY" movies. So, I had high hopes for "My Man Godfrey" But I was definitely disappointed. I just found very little of this movie to be funny. I know I'm swimming up-river by saying this, but to me it felt like bad imitative screwball --- like someone was trying to make a screwball comedy but didn't really understand what makes screwball work. The "madcap heiress" part isn't really charming-annoying as she should be, just immature and annoying. The "all-American common-sense hero" is actually a snide, Harvard-educated member of the upper-class himself. The family members who should be nutty and oblivious come across instead as just just self-involved and unaware. For me the dialog didn't sparkle -- it was as if the director had decided that having everyone speak fast and loud was the same think as having them be clever and effervescent. Sadly, though it's a short movie, I found myself watching the clock and waiting for it to end.

Carole Lombard and William Powell are a hoot in this 1936 screwball comedy classic. With one of the finest supporting casts assembled for a film ever, one of the sharpest scripts you'll see and one of the most deftest, original set-ups, 'My Man Godfrey' never disappoints. This is another one of those Depression-era comedies that send-up the idle rich, and make heroes of the underdog. Carole Lombard is excellent as Irene Bullock, the spoiled society girl. This was Lombard's only Best Actress nomination (Why?), and she's terrific in every scene. Irene is competing with her snotty sister Cornelia at a society scavenger hunt, one of the rich people's favourite 'pastimes'. One of the things on the list required is a 'Forgotten Man'. It's almost implausible that anyone could ever forget the delightful William Powell, but his Godfrey has been forgotten, and is currently residing at the dump. Powell of course is too suave to be a derelict, but let's let that minor flaw pass by, shall we? Cornelia spots him first, but her snobby demeanor and bossiness instantly off-put Godfrey, who ends the encounter by pushing her in a dust-pile. Irene is next on the scene, and finds the whole situation terribly funny (Love the trademark Lombard cackle!). Still, she'd love to beat Cornelia, and Godfrey finds her inherently charming, so she takes him along to the Scavenger hunt. She wins, and insists he be the new family butler. And that's where the havoc begins. Irene has obviously fallen head-over-heels for the tramp/butler, and makes no secret of it in her outlandish, yet lovable antics. Her sister finds the whole set-up revolting. Their henpecked father doesn't really care either way as he is having too much trouble controlling the females of the family to worry about the new butler. The mother (delightful Alice Brady) finds Godfrey a great help, but it rather tied-up with her interest in 'sponsored' protégé (really, a toy boy!) Carlo (a wickedly funny scene-stealing performance from Mischa Auer). We should really hate Lombard's character, spoiled little society brat that she is, but we love her! She's not a snob like her sister, and Lombard fills her with that spontaneous charm that makes her so difficult to dislike. She throws tantrums, yes, but she never really means to hurt anyone, apart from getting back at her sister. Lombard was a comedienne never afraid to have a laugh at herself. Here she gets put in the shower by Powell, bawls hysterically and even fakes a turn in order to kiss the butler! She's great, and I absolutely adore Lombard because of this performance. Powell is the sane one in this zany family. He's our hero, the calm onlooker who manages to bring order to the Bullock household. In their interaction with Godfrey, eventually the members of the idle rich take a good hard look at themselves. It's got that Capra feel to it, but this is a Gregory La Cava production. It's classic screwball comedy, and along with 'Bringing Up Baby', may just be the best one ever produced by Hollywood.

The 30s was when movies decided what they want to be. You can spin one of three or four narratives tracing that development. One of those narratives casts genres as beings and has them duking it out, only a few surviving. In this narrative, you'd see a rope from the movies about stage performance to this, movies about life performance, to Citizen Kane (through "O Brother," surely), where you have life and stage performances "folded." Another of those narratives follows the meme of stereotypes, especially sexual ones. In this tale, it is the identities that matter, that survive and all else is wrapping, container. (I suppose if you are particularly broken or fundamentalist, you'll adjust this to some Marxist or sexist or racist narrative.) But today I choose the actor thread. We obsess about our celebrities today, but these folks in the 30s were truly important. Women of course, nearly always women. But of the men, William Powell is near the top of my list. If I were building these narratives, he would be one of the key male actors. No, not Wayne or Gable or any of those folks who were celebrities first and actors second, and then only acting themselves. Powell seems to have understood how to bend the detective persona and may have been the first actor to noticeably wink at the camera. You and he were in cahoots when discovering what happens next. Here he is teamed with his exwife Carol Lombarde and teases out of her one performance worthy of remembrance. She would have a similar screwball relationship with husband number 2. So no matter what sort of narrative you build of the history of films, you will find it passes through this fine little project. Ted's Evaluation -- 4 of 3: Every cineliterate person should experience this.

The "screwball" comedies of the 1930s was an attempt to try to lift the depressed feelings of millions of Americans who were out of work and facing near starvation - and a collapse of optimism and belief in the American Dream. Frequently they showed the wealthy were eccentrics who were facing bankruptcy (THREE CORNERED MOON) or bored and looking for excitement by solving crimes (THE MAD MISS MANTON, or THE THIN MAN), or trapped by their public persona into nearly ruinous scandals (EASY LIVING). These comedies, at their best, remain very enjoyable. Of course there were clinkers (for example, HE MARRIED HIS WIFE), but I always find pleasure in the best ones. MY MAN GODFREY is among the best, and curiously thoughtful. One person I know, listening to it, called it a "morality" play. William Powell is a hobo named Godfrey who is living in a "Hooverville" on Manhattan Island. There is a scavenger hunt going on for a charity, and a woman named Cordelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) and her boyfriend show up - they need a "forgotten man" to win the contest. Powell dislikes Patrick's snobby demanding nature and rejects her offer. Shortly her sister Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) shows up, and Powell willingly goes with her (she's a feather-head, but a nice one). After he goes to the hotel which is the center of the contest, he accepts a job offer from her. The Bullocks are a wealthy family on Fifth Avenue. Eugene Palette and Alice Brady are the parents. Since Brady has a protégé (Mischa Auer as "Carlo"), Lombard feels that she should make Powell her protégé too. Powell finds that working for the Bullocks is difficult for three reasons. Lombard is falling for him, and he knows that socially a butler is not supposed to be the lover of an heiress (sort of the reverse of the plot of SABRINA). Secondly Patrick is gunning for him, unwilling to forgive his snubbing her offer - and she is treacherous. Finally there is a background matter that might turn up: Godfrey is not poor by fate but by his choice - he's from a wealthy Boston family, but he is trying to prove himself as a worthy person and not a spoiled brat. There are great set pieces throughout the film: Auer's performance of what he does best - which is why Brady patronizes him - acting as a gorilla. Palette is pretty sensible, and he dislikes this leech. His comment about what he'd like to do to Carlo is in the "Summary Line". There is also the mystery of the missing jewelry, and how it blows up in Patrick's conniving face. There is the business of how Powell's college roommate (Alan Mowbray) has to lie to explain how he lost "Godfrey's" services as a butler after a serious tiff (except we never understand how the tiff developed to become serious!). There is Grady Sutton's amazement to hear he has just proposed to Lombard. And there is Palette's friendly willingness to show Powell (before he realizes he is the new butler) his boxing abilities. A fable on materialist failures and proper use of wealth in a national crisis, MY MAN GODFREY may be set in the Depression, but it's meaning has never faded out of fashion. It remains a fine example of first rate movie making from the 1930s.

Irony. splendid performances. social critic. and a fairy tale. a film about people, perspectives, using a noble message and the right cast. and a brilliant script. in fact, a parable about selfishness and superficiality. special for the bitter humor and the impecable dialogues. and, sure, for the portrait of a familiar world, maybe too obvious but enough for succes to large public. the great virtue - maybe the performance of Will Powell and the adorable sweetness of Carole Lombard in two roles who are not real unique in the context of the cinema of period but who works in beautiful manner. and, maybe, that is the key for the seductive force of this old movie about money, family, society and ...love.

In New York post-Great Depression, the spoiled socialites Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) and her sister Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) are disputing a scavenger hunt where the winner is the one who brings a "forgotten man" first. They go to the city dump and Cornelia offers five dollars to the derelict Godfrey Smith (William Powell) to go with her and her companion to the Wardolf Hotel. The man pushes her in the garbage and Cornelia leaves the landfill with her companion. However, Irene talks to Godfrey that she wanted to beat Cornelia to it and he accepts to go with her to win the prize. Irene offers the position of butler to Godfrey and tells her parents Alexander (Eugene Palette) and Angelica Bullock (Alice Brady) that she has hired Godfrey to work for their dysfunctional family in their mansion. Irene has an infatuation on Godfrey and protects him while Cornelia hates him and wants to harm him. During a party in the Bullock's house, the Harvard graduated investor Tommy Gray (Alan Mowbray) recognizes Godfrey and salutes him. But the butler asks him to keep the secret of his past and schedules an encounter in the restaurant to explain what is happening. "My Man Godfrey" is a delightfully naive and funny romantic comedy with magnificent performances of William Powell and Carole Lombard, who is wonderful in the role of a spoiled and reckless woman. The dialogs have great moments and one of the best quotes is when Godfrey Parker tells to Tommy Gray that "the only difference between a derelict and a man is a job". "My Man Godfrey" had six nominations to the Oscar in 1937 (Best Actor in a Leading Role: William Powell; Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Mischa Auer; Best Actress in a Leading Role: Carole Lombard; Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Alice Brady; Best Director: Gregory La Cava; and Best Writing, Screenplay: Eric Hatch and Morrie Ryskind). My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Irene, a Teimosa" ("Irene, the Stubborn")