IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028010/
IMDB rating: 8,1
Director: Gregory La Cava
Main Cast: William Powell, Carole Lombard, Alice Brady, Gail Patrick, Eugene Pallette
"My Man Godfrey is one of the 1930's most delightful, classic screwball comedies. It was directed by Gregory La Cava for Universal and is now considered the definitive screwball comedy, with its social commentary on life during the 30s. The film, filled with marvelous character actors (Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette, Gail Patrick, and Mischa Auer), resonated with Depression era audiences for its statements on morality and class. [On a side note, the real-life divorced couple of Powell and Lombard were married previous to the film's making, from 1931 to 1933.] The screenplay by Morrie Ryskind - a co-screenwriter for the Marx Bros.' A night at the opera (1935) - and Eric Hatch was based on Hatch's own short novel 1011 Fifth Avenue.
The film displays the mad-cap personalities of a wildly rich, eccentric family. One of its members - a flighty socialite/heiress, finds a down-and-out 'forgotten man' tramp in a hobo colony during a scavenger hunt, and hires him as the family's butler. The bum teaches them the realities of life, ultimately regenerates their confused, scattered lives, and reverses the nobility of rich and poor.
The entertaining film was both a commercial and critical success, with six Academy Award nominations (but no wins), including Best Actor (William Powell), Best Actress (Carole Lombard with her sole Oscar nomination), Best Supporting Actor (Mischa Auer), Best Supporting Actress (Alice Brady), Best Director, and Best Screenplay. However, it set a milestone as the first film to receive nominations in all four acting categories and it remains one of the few films with that distinction in addition to not being nominated for Best Picture.
In the same year, another William Powell film - The Great Ziegfeld - won the Best Picture and Best Actress awards, and Powell also appeared in Libeled Lady (1936) and After the Thin Man (1936). The film was remade in 1957 with David Niven as the 'forgotten man' and June Allyson (in her next-to-last film) as the Lombard character."
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