A Review of My Man Godfrey

(Spoiler Alert: Stop before the fifth paragraph, if you plan on watching the film. It is currently on Amazon Prime and is a fun movie to watch with your family)

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of watching a 1936 black and white film called My Man Godfrey directed by Gregory La Cava. It stars William Powell and Carole Lombard who were actually married in real life for a period of time. Frankly, I had never heard of either of the two actors prior to viewing the film. I attributed this to their lack of an illustrious career relative to contemporaries like James Stewart and Katharine Hepburn. But the investigation of my unfamiliarity goes slightly further than just their résumés. Aside from Charlie Chaplin, any person would be hard-pressed to name an actor, such as William Powell, who was born in the 19th century. So to place it in layman’s terms, Powell was just an older actor who did not peak during a time when Hollywood was booming. But setting aside these vapid pontifications, let me get back to why I found this film to be wildly intriguing.

I have watched several older black and white films and thus cannot lie about the fact that the lack of color is an obstacle for any viewer accustomed to the films of today’s generation. As Marvel and other action franchises have proven, the box office is driven by films that engage the eye through continuous movement and overbearing visual effects. For obvious reasons, there is not much that directors in Early Hollywood could do to create the same optical charm that grasps moviegoers today. Instead, there was a heavy reliance on A-lister acting performances and creative storytelling. My Man Godfrey excelled in both of these categories. The story explores the intrusion of a “Forgotten Man”, Godfrey, on a wealthy, but extremely spoiled New York–based family. Godfrey, played by William Powell, becomes the family’s butler and serves them all a plate of much-needed humility. It’s the classic clash of social classes. But unlike other films that portray this complex, My Man Godfrey explores the differences between rich and poor in a comical manner. Hearing the synopsis, one would expect Godfrey to be a dramatized character that imposes his disgust of the leisure class in overly extended monologues. Do we long to see this version of Godfrey because of an inner desire or because we have visualized this archetype in so many stories already? That is a question for another day. What makes the character of Godfrey special, is that it is his reticence, stability, and awareness amidst the wild family drama of the Bullock household that eventually allows each member of the family to realize their conceit. So is the creation of a character like Godfrey truly perfect?

I believe not. In a later twist, we realize that Godfrey was born to an affluent family and attended out of all universities, Harvard! This reveal obviously explains his understanding of propriety and social elegance, but one must pose a question: could a character that had seen poverty his whole life have the same effect on the Bullock family? The answer is probably no, but then what does the film actually leave us with. While the film does not raise the worth of a poor man, it does heavily criticize the nature of the leisure class. To further this idea, I want to shift my attention to the lead female, Irene Bullock, who is played by Carole Lombard. Earlier I mentioned that films of this era have to rely on strong acting and that is exactly what Lombard provided. Although Powell delivers an extremely charismatic performance, Lombard takes this film up several notches. It’s strange because if someone had asked me halfway through the film to give an overacting award, it would have definitely gone to Lombard. But that is before I understood that her character is supposed to be extremely melodramatic.

Irene Bullock, the youngest daughter of the household, entirely represents someone who gets trapped in the excess of luxury. However, I am not talking about money, but rather a surplus of time. This is a trope that was explored in none other than Shakespeare’s classic Hamlet. Following his father’s death, the eponymous main character, Hamlet, is stranded at home with no defined work and an overabundance of time. To pass the time, Hamlet overindulges in philosophical thoughts to a point where his sanity is in question. While Misses Bullock does not nearly possess the intellectual characteristics of Hamlet, she does quite frequently engage in fantastical visions of love. The biggest piece of evidence is a newspaper clipping that writes about how Misses Bullock was “sent to [Europe] to forget her latest broken engagement”. These love stories are simply fabrications of her mind, but they truly hold no merit. And when Irene realizes this, she falls into an abyss of misery until another man enters her life and the cycle continues.

In fact, the story centers around Misses Bullock’s unrealistic obsession with the “Forgotten Man”, Godfrey. And this leads to my final point about the film. The ending was simply disappointing. I cannot wrap my mind around why Godfrey, a character of such great conviction, would easily submit to Misses Bullock and seemingly marry her. There were few indications throughout the film that would lead anyone to believe that Godfrey and Irene Bullock could be compatible. And because the ending was so rushed, there never really was an explanation for it. Instead, I felt that it would only make sense for Godfrey to end up with one individual: Cornelia Bullock, who is Irene’s older sister. She is the one person of the Bullock family that has always hated Godfrey from the onset of the film solely because of his poverty. So if writer Eric Hatch was truly attempting to portray the charming effect of this “Forgotten Man”, he would have written for Cornelia’s character to develop feelings for Godfrey. It is undeniable that there is an underlying tension between Godfrey and Cornelia despite their shared animosity. They both have edgy personalities that would make them a far better match then Godfrey and Irene. Now whether Godfrey would have reciprocated these sentiments is unclear, but regardless Hatch’s decision to have Godfrey and Irene married in such a rushed fashion is a blemish to an otherwise remarkable script.

So using Roger Ebert’s renowned scale, I would give My Man Godfrey 3.5/4 stars.