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.
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.