Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Kirpianuscus Irony. splendid performances. social critic. and a fairy tale. a film about people, perspectives, using a noble message and the right cast. and a brilliant script. in fact, a parable about selfishness and superficiality. special for the bitter humor and the impecable dialogues. and, sure, for the portrait of a familiar world, maybe too obvious but enough for succes to large public. the great virtue - maybe the performance of Will Powell and the adorable sweetness of Carole Lombard in two roles who are not real unique in the context of the cinema of period but who works in beautiful manner. and, maybe, that is the key for the seductive force of this old movie about money, family, society and ...love.

touser2004 I love screwball comedies but My Man Godfrey really isn't very good.William Powell is decent enough but the writing is poor and really not very funny.I loved Bringing up Baby and It Happened One Night but this is nowhere near the quality of those two classics.Lombard was crazy but totally unbelievable and hard to believe that Godfrey would fall for her.In fact the whole family was too crazy to take seriously. I love old films and wanted to love it but the quality just isn't there

SimonJack William Powell isn't William Powell in "My Man Godfrey." That is to say, he's not his usual witty, hilarious and funny self. But his character and role are crucial to the zaniness of this film. And, especially with the over-the-top performance of Carole Lombard. She, by the way, isn't Carole Lombard either. Lest the reader think this reviewer has lost his marbles as well, let me explain further. Neither great comedic actor plays his or her usual role of a witty, clever, funny person. Their roles are different. Lombard is what people for ages have called a nut case, a fruitcake. She's not insane, because she has short snippets of awareness before she moves on to the next hair-brained moment. And, Powell, who usually plays the smug, clever, and witty hero, instead here is a combination sounding board for Carole and the rest of the cast, and a thread of calm and sanity that holds the plot together. Without him, there would be repetitive scenes of chaos and mayhem to no avail. Now, other actors contribute as well to this wonderfully crazy film. And, it is much more than a comedy of relief during the Great Depression. It's a biting satire on the very wealthy and their seeming indifference to the plight of all others – anyone outside their own class. Oh, sure, the gala fun of the scavenger hunt is to benefit charity. But take away the fun and games, and most of the spoiled rich, as Godfrey describes Gail Patrick's character, wouldn't even be aware of the downtrodden. Powell plays Godfrey whom Lombard's Irene Bullock "rescues" from the city dump to buttle for the Bullock family. The only seeming sane member of the family is the patriarch, Alexander, played by Eugene Palette. Alice Brady plays his overly zany wife, Angelica. Patrick plays the ultra- snobbish, conniving, vengeful, and spiteful Cornelia. These players are superb in their roles. And, those in a supporting cast of other characters are equally tops in their roles. Mischa Auer as Carlo, does the best imitation of a gorilla I've ever seen by a person. One might say he apes a banana-gorging jungle climber perfectly. Most readers will know of the plot already. If not, other reviewers give more details. The movie is based on a short novel by Eric Hatch, "1101 Park Avenue." I don't know the year of publication, and one would be hard pressed to find an original book even over the Internet. It was reprinted in 1947 with the title used for this film. Hatch also helped write the screenplay for "My Man Godfrey."In the 1930s, it wasn't yet popular or common to film movies on location. Instead, the Hollywood studios had huge lots with large stages. Some also had California ranches where they could build town sites for films. Just imagine what it took to shoot the scenes in the dump. The IMDb Web site lists the shooting as done at Universal Studios. If Universal didn't go to the L.A. landfill or another large dump, I wonder where they got all the junk to create their own dump for this film. And what did they do with it afterwards? This is a wonderful comedy that also is a morality tale, with redemption of at least some of the spoiled rich of the day. I can't imagine anyone not enjoying this film.

weezeralfalfa As the title suggests, this is a love story between a middle-aged aloof homeless man(Godfrey) living in a city dump and a carefree, impulsive, spoiled society girl(Irene Bullock): seemingly a most unlikely pairing, given their radically differing economic situations, ages, and personalities. But, it's also an examination of the relationship between the dispossessed unemployed and the wealthy, especially during a time of widespread unemployment. The Bullocks represent how the wealthy should not spend their time and money, while Godfrey, toward the end of the story, exemplifies. how this advantage might be usefully employed in helping the dispossessed get on their feet.It's clear that Irene was attracted to Godfrey from the time she met him in the dump during a scavenger hunt game. Although, on the surface, Godfrey maintained an aloof posture toward Irene's romantic overtures, Irene had the intuition that Godfrey had probably fallen into bad luck, and was not a hopeless derelict. Eventually , we discover why Godfrey landed in a dump and why he resisted Irene's throwing herself at him, indeed, the romantic overtures of any woman.It's of interest that Carol Lombard, who played Irene, and William Powell, who played Godfrey, had been married and divorced. Nonetheless, Powell insisted that Carol should play Irene.Cornilia: Irene's aloof sister, exhibits an antagonistic attitude toward Godfrey. It appears this is due to a combination of motivations:(1) assuming that homeless men must be hopeless derelicts, thieves, and possible murderers (2)a personal grudge against Godfrey for the way he treated her and spoke to her at the dump(3)jealousy that Irene had rescued a seemingly worthy man from a life of homelessness. In any case, her attitude soften toward the end, and she cried over his leaving the Bullock household. It's interesting that her aloof personality seemed much more suited to Godfrey's similar aloof personality than the impish, impulsive, Irene. But, sometimes opposites attract, in this case, each taking a big chance that the other would prove unsuitable as a mate in the long run.