****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
My Man Godfrey, one of the great classics of the Thirties is one of those special movies preserved in the National Film Registry, one of AFI's 100 Funniest Films Ever (#44), one of those rare films to have a 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for six Academy Awards. It deserves all that. The script is witty, the acting excellent in every role and the direction by Gregory La Cava keeps everything moving briskly. Made by Universal just as owner Carl Lammely was being forced to sell the sinking studio, it became a major hit that helped the studio keep going. It was one of those unfortunate films that fell into public domain when the owners didn't renew the copyright. This resulted, as it always does, in the market being flooded with terrible VHS and DVD copies (a major reason to support copyright laws). I'm happy to say that Amazon has a perfectly beautiful copy here and you have no reason to hesitate seeing it.Eighty years have passed since the making of the film and this causes me to bring up two things that the current audience may not get. This is a prime example of what was called a "Screwball Comedy" as are It Happened One Night, Bringing Up Baby, The Awful Truth and many others. It was mostly popular in the Thirties and early Forties until the War made it seem out of place because it's mostly a type of farce. The form inhabits almost a fantasy world where everything is exaggerated and not quite like reality, full of rapid dialogue, outlandish situations and often different social classes intermingling with comic results. in this case as in almost all these comedies, the wealthy family (the Bullock's) are revealed as a bunch of nitwits and eccentrics with no knowledge of everyday reality, especially during the Depression. The characters are fairly standard: an airheaded mother, the airhead mother's protege (a hanger on with pretensions of artistic talent), a sweet daughter, a snobby daughter or son, a down to earth businessman father, a nice housekeeper and loyal butler. No butler here, nor is there a chauffeur who spouts leftist slogans, but the rest are standard. The rich were shown to be out of touch zanies because it made for lots of comic possibilities.So to enjoy the film you have to set aside notions of it happening in the real world and see it as the kind of fantasy where a magical character, in this case William Powell's Godfrey, come on the scene to set things right in a family that is highly disfunctional. The superb opening shows the callously clueless rich visiting the local dump to find a "Forgotten Man" (a euphemism for some of the jobless who had reached a staggering 25%) for their scavenger hunt. The scene in the hotel ballroom with a typically frazzled Franklin Pangborn overseeing the scavenged items is equally priceless, peaking with an exasperated Godfrey calling the crowd a collection of nitwits to their faces, This sets up the rest of the film, where Godfrey accepts employment from Irene Bullock as the family's butler which provides the action of the rest of the film.William Powell and Carole Lombard work wonderfully well together, he being the unwilling subject of her romantic interest. Powell had recommended her for the part as they had been married until three years prior and he said their romance had been a lot like that in the film. In the end things are set straight: Father Bullock (Eugene Palette with his wonderfully gruff voice and exasperated manner) learns some humility; snobby and cruel daughter Cornelia (Gail Patrick) sees how wicked she has been,; Carlo, the leech, (Mischa Auer) is kicked out; and ditsy mother Angelica (Aice Brady), well, she's really too old to change, but was always harmless anyway.But that brings us to Irene (Carole Lombard) and that's where I do have a little trouble with the film. She has apparently used the family's wealth to remain a spoiled ten year old child, and that is how she acts throughout the film. Sure, it's funny, but I expected her to grow, to show some maturity or judgment after knowing Godfrey, but she doesn't change at all. Because of this, I don't quite see what Godfrey really could see in her. But the film is otherwise so good that I have to let that pass, though i do wish she had shown more depth. At least she's a good soul at heart.There are lots of laughs to be found in My Man Godfrey, and it is also a showcase for William Powell at his best.
