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William Powell and Carole Lombard (who were married for a few years before making this film together) star in this screwball comedy from director Gregory LaCava (Stage Door). Powell plays Godfrey, a homeless man living in a New York City dump who is propositioned by two wealthy sisters, played by Lombard and Gail Patrick, who are looking for ‘a forgotten man’ to redeem at a perverse upper-class scavenger hunt. Patrick rubs Powell the wrong way, but he’s charmed by Lombard. He agrees to participate and ends up taking a new job as the eccentric family’s butler. He takes pride in his work and eventually gets back on his own two feet just as the family’s fortune takes a hit. Fortunately for them, they have a conscientious man like Godfrey looking out for them.
My Man Godfrey doesn’t hit the manic highs of Bringing Up Baby or the mesmerizing repartee of His Girl Friday, but it is a charming film without a dull moment, elevated by a uniformly excellent cast. Powell is cast to type as the droll Godfrey, a man who must suffer a wide variety of inane conversations and behavior with the family. The mother (Alice Brady) sees fairies in the morning, while the daughters are prone to riding horses into the library or vandalizing the town during drunken hijinks. One of the reasons the family needs a butler is because they can’t keep one who can tolerate them.
Lombard is perhaps the goofiest character. She falls instantly in love with Powell and schemes to marry him from the beginning of their relationship. Like Cary Grant in Bringing Up Baby, Powell never indulges her fantasy. But at the same time, he is powerless against her self-fulfilling prophecy. Lombard steers the character in many directions, mixing manic energy with exaggerated defeat, and grounding it in just enough genuine humanity to make us care about her — and by extension, the whole family.
Gail Patrick, as the sister, effectively plays the villain of the movie. She never likes Godfrey and tries to make him do demeaning work before framing him in a stealing plot that backfires on her. The last significant cast member is Mischa Auer as an aspiring musician that Brady’s character has — well, adopted? Brady thinks of him as protegee, but pretty much everyone else can see he’s just a moocher. The father (Eugene Pallette) is the sanest member of the bloodline, and when he finally has enough, he begins setting things right by pushing Auer out a window.
The final act is when the message of the movie comes out in force: be kind to those in need, because one day you may be in need yourself. Like all ‘feel good’ movies, this one requires a little suspension of disbelief to swallow its utopian solutions, but hey — it’s the movies.
With Jean Dixon, Alan Mowbray, and Pat Flaherty.
Oscar Nominations: Best Screenplay, Director, Actor (Powell), Actress (Lombard), Supporting Actor (Auer), Supporting Actress (Brady)