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Critics Consensus: A class satire in a class of its own, My Man Godfrey's screwball comedy is as sharp as the social commentary is biting.
Critic Consensus: A class satire in a class of its own, My Man Godfrey's screwball comedy is as sharp as the social commentary is biting.
All Critics (31) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (31) | Rotten (0) | DVD (7)
My Man Godfrey emerges with that evasive quality that is not skillful playing, writing or direction, but something that mysteriously adds itself to these things, and makes a tip-top picture.
[A] screwball masterpiece.
God, but this film is beautiful.
Gregory La Cava's improvisational style received its highest critical acclaim for this 1936 film, a marginally Marxist exercise in class confusion during the Depression.
William Powell and Carole Lombard are pleasantly teamed in this splendidly produced comedy.
The film has lost some of its allure over the years, but it's still streets and streets ahead of the addled whimsy favoured by latter-day Hollywood.
While My Man Godfrey is full of witty dialogue and classical direction, it's the film's social awareness that really stands out today.
This scintillating comedy was the first film to be Oscar-nominated in all four acting categories.
Gregory La Cava's warm and giddy carousel, a raucous burlesque with a beautiful still center, a lighter and tarter savior fable than Capra's concurrent transmutations of the Gospels
Hasn't lost an ounce of its thematic resonance even after all these decades.
There's a charm to both Powell and Lombard, making the film transcend generations. It's a cute movie that has fun with levels of wealth in society and sibling rivalry.
A brilliantly executed screwball, full of both madcap humour and bitter satire.
the ever vivacious carole lombard only seems to star in this american 30's "upstairs, downstairs" but actually she's only a stand-in, a mannequin for what hollywood powers-that-be must've thought of most of the "girls-next-door", rich or poor: vapid chowderheads. her only real job in this is to admire and long-for the offered smug boy-toy, william powell, who gamely is both "regular guy" hobo and erudite harvard grad, dream man. the lessons he "teaches" the upper class are made-to-order for what hollywood must've believed the lowerer classes (read: ticket buying) public really wanted to hear, which, if one watches, will have one dumbstruck at the audacious stupidity of the plan, played straight and w/o a wink. the only real sparks then in the film are hidden in the scenes between powell and the "bad girl", gail patrick (as smug as powell and blow for blow his equal, his ideal and thus, the right choice), whom he psych-crushes with some smarter-than-thou insightful pity simply because she's hip, knows she's his ever livin' ying, which leaves him bubbleheaded lombard, which powell himself doesn't seem to understand. still, a popular populist bit o'pablum that showcases the strong points of both leads.
Super Reviewer
A witty political satire that will probably leave you smiling more than laughing out loud, especially when showing the hilarious eccentricities of its crazy family, and it boasts some wonderful, Oscar-nominated performances by Powell, Lombard and Brady.
A socialite falls for her butler who has a secret about his past. What great satire. The way the upper classes are exposed as caddy and the way they treat the lower classes as playthings resonates even today when some people wonder at the plight of the poor: "If they don't have enough money, why don't they buy more of it?" William Powell's performance is of the time, reserved and aloof but occasionally charming, and Carole Lombard nails the flighty Irene Bullock. Overall, this is a film that has certainly stood the test of time and remains poignantly funny.
Incredible cinema! This is why we love Carole Lombard, William Powell and screwball comedies.
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