Review of My Man Godfrey (1936) by Jamie T — 04 Mar 2010

My Man Godfrey (1936).

This is one of my favorite William Powell movies ever. This movie has almost been doomed to the public domain and there are various DVD versions of this in the bargain bins. See if you can score the Critereon Collection version of this for the best picture and sound quality (as well as some great extras). Of course most of the movie makes fun of the idle rich, while encouraging the poor folks, trying to put food on the table.

Godfrey is a hobo, living in the junk yard of the waterfront, when the wild and crazy Bullock socialites come riding in searching for "a forgotten man" to bring with them to a ritzy treasure hunt. The insulted Godfrey scares the eldest sister, Cornelia (Gail Patrick) into an ash pile, causing her to run in fear, but somehow his curiosity gets the better of him and he goes with her scatter-brained sister, Irene (Carol Lombard) to see what they're talking about.

Since Godfrey's help has caused Irene to win the treasure hunt, she offers him a job as the family butler. Godfrey takes her up on the challenge, and the next morning, walks in and meets the family maid, Molly (Jean Dixon) and is introduced to the zany Bullock family led by the brow-beaten Alexander (Eugene Pallette), the Mother, Angelica (Alice Brady) and her protégé, Carlo (Mischa Auer). Irene has taken on Godfrey as her protégé too, while Cornelia wants to extract some revenge.

Unknown to the Bullock family, Godfrey Smith is really Godfrey Park; one of the rich Parks of Boston. His old college buddy, Tommy Gray (Alan Mowbray) is surprised to find him working for the Bullocks (let alone what he was doing before) and what has happened to him after a bad romance. Godfrey wants to help his friends on the waterfront as well as the Bullocks for helping him.