My Man Godfrey

I'm reading a book about Carole Lombard, about whom more will come in the coming weeks, and I've written about two of her movies, Twentieth Century and Nothing Sacred, I haven't discussed a few of her most famous films. Perhaps her best known role is as the dizzy socialite in Gregory La Cava's 1936 film, My Man Godfrey.

The film is a classic and deservedly so, although there a few things that modern eyes can find disturbing. It is a screwball comedy, to be sure, but rooted in the Great Depression (Sullivan's Travels a few years later would take a similar attitude). William Powell is Godfrey, who is living in the city dump as a hobo when some socialites want to take him to a fancy hotel. They are on a scavenger hunt, and one of the items they are to bring back is a "forgotten man."

Powell is insulted when Cornelia (Gail Patrick) offers him five dollars for this, but he softens when her sister Irene (Lombard) realizes how humiliating it is. He agrees to go with her just to beat her sister. He ends up getting hired as the family butler.

The family is one of film history's greatest (I think they are only outdone by the Sycamores of You Can't Take It With You). However, it could be noted that the portrayal of the family doesn't show a lot of respect for women. Lombard's Irene, while kind-hearted, is pretty much a simpering idiot, and her mother (Alice Brady) is even worse, a total loon who sees pixies and keeps a "protege," Carlo (Mischa Auer), and is constantly saying things like, "Don't confuse Carlo." Patrick is a snake, and when Powell tells her what he thinks of her, tries to frame him for stealing a pearl necklace.

Aside from the maid, the only people in the household who have any sense are Powell and the patriarch, the wonderful Eugene Palette, who is constantly befuddled by his family's behavior. "Look at the lady with the goat," one of the scavenger hunters says of Brady. "I've had to look at her for twenty years," Palette replies. "She's my wife." "I'm sorry," the man says. "Not as sorry as I am," Palette says.

Powell runs into an old college chum and explains what happened--he got dumped, took it badly, was ready to kill himself, but found the men living in the dump, who were just trying to survive, role models, and joined them. He is from an old, respected Boston family. He of course will teach the Bullock family a thing or two--he saves Palette from financial ruin, and Patrick will learn her lesson, but Lombard will teach Powell a thing or two, as she basically forces him into marriage and the end of the film.

The film has plenty of laughs, mostly due to Powell's basic character, a sharpie with great wit. But I laughed at some lines that were topical back then, such as when it is rumored that Godfrey has five children. Brady says, "Why shouldn't he have five children? If that woman in Canada can have five children, why not Godfrey?" Of course she is referring to the Dionne quints. It's something that a reference over eighty years old can still get a laugh.

But the film has also has great pathos. The men who live on the dump are never pitied or patronized, by Powell or the film. There are also some very touching moments, particularly when Palette realizes Powell has saved his bacon. "You did this, for me?" Palette says, barely able to speak, and indeed he can't for the rest of the scene.

Powell and Lombard had been married in real life, and remained very good friends. So good that Powell refused to do the film unless Powell was cast (Constance Bennett and Miriam Hopkins were considered). And for Oscar triviots: the movie received acting nominations in all four categories--Powell, Lombard, Auer, Brady--but won none of them. Only two other films have gained that distinction, Sunset Boulevard and American Hustle.