Runtime: 94 minutes
Directed by: Gregory La Cava
Starring: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick, Eugene Pallette
From: Universal
The Golden Age of Hollywood I’ve unfortunately neglected as of late; one way to fix that is to see a few films this month playing on Turner Classic Movies & their annual Summer on the Star series where for 24 hours each day, a different star is spotlighted. August 1 was William Powell; while My Man Godfrey can easily be found on YouTube, it was selected as a picture w/ many ratings on Letterboxd, and a high overall score.
My Man Godfrey proved to be a rather hilarious screwball comedy concerning an idea that many of us can believe is a thing true in 2024: rich people are quite stupid! Insert your own examples if you wish. Powell is the titular Godfrey, a bum living in a garbage dump who is spotted by Carole Lombard and her sister Gail Patrick as they both are snooty members of high society who want to use him as an item in a scavenger hunt (long story) and to troll Patrick, Lombard hires Powell to be the family butler. The gag is that not only is the family overly dramatic dim-witted fools, they are crazy enough to drive anyone batty.
Among the lunacy of the Bullock clan, Godfrey was rock-steady in acting non-plussed and emotionless. It wasn’t just the aforementioned actors that delighted; all the main players delivered, from Alice Brady and Mischa Auer as starving artist Carlo, Jean Dixon as the maid to my personal favorite, the frog-voiced Eugene Pallette as the patriarch of the Bullock clan that often croaked about the snooty women in his life spending all his money. It’s a charming picture where you love Powell and it must have been especially fulfilling for those Great Depression audiences to laugh at the rich for still being rich.
Those that dig screwball comedies must put this on their watchlist. For being briefly married, it was a wise decision for Powell to request that his ex be the lead girl; that dynamic was swell. So was the awesome opening credits, where in a city skyline the credits appear as neon signs and lighted billboards.
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