Just an absolutely delightful heartfelt classic. Lombard and Powell are just magical together. One of the greatest from the Golden Age.

Some sharp dialogue and a lot of energy. However it's quite stagey and has the vibe of a play. The actors throw their lines out a bit too fast and don't give the conversations time to breathe. I liked the quirkiness of the play but really struggled with the shrill voices of the actresses.

This is an enjoyable picture that is part screwball comedy part Downton Abbey. The social commentary is quite Capra like but it is coming out of depression era times. The writing is quick witted and holds up. A great movie overall and a fun time.

Just loved this movie. Delightful entertainment. Very surprised I had never heard of it before. Made in the 30s but, to me, it's more entertaining than most films being produced today.

Powell is always a delight. This is a great vehicle.

🍅 8.1/10 These are some of the sickest burns for 1936. Great 1930s romance comfort film. Grade A-

Great 30s comedy with top performance by Powell and the entire cast. Hollywood at it's peak period.

Great performances and some very funny parts. Loved Eugene Pallette - it was like the part was written form. He was so good at it & he should've gotten a best supporting actor nomination. However, I agree with the Academy when they didn't give it a 1936 best picture nominee — despite the many best actor, screenplay, and Director nominees. It was a cute, amusing film, with the requisite good lesson & romance thrown in for good measure, but a Gone with the Wind, it wasn't.

The colour version is now on Amazon. It is a decent film with some funny comments but a bit daft in the neat and happy ending. A classic of its time but not one of the black and white films that has aged too well.

William Powell was never better than in this screwball comedy. It also stars the love of Clark Gable's life, Carol Lombard. it's a shining example of what Hollywood did right during its Golden Age, and still holds up as an entertaining romp today.

WILLIAM POWELL ! GREAT as always! & CAROL LOMBARD! Very fun and charming movie.

A very enjoyable romp. Although the notion that all the homeless need is a chance to work to solve their homelessness might seem naive today, it is worth remembering that this film was made in the mid 30s shortly after the height of the depression. At that time it was certainly much more common for people without the challenges that we normally associate with homelessness (addiction, mental health, complex needs) to find themselves homeless and simply in need of employment to get a fresh start at life.

For his second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor William Powell was loaned to Universal for My Man Godfrey. At the time this film was made there was a lot of buzz about Powell working with Carole Lombard who only a few years earlier he had been married to. They needn't have worried. The split was an amicable one and Powell and Lombard got along great on the set and created along with Director Gregory LaCava one of the classic screwball comedies of the Thirties. In fact My Man Godfrey got a whole host of nominations, for LaCava for Best Director, for Carole Lombard, for Mischa Auer for Best Supporting Actor and Alice Brady for Best Supporting Actress. In the very first year of the Supporting categories, My Man Godfrey had nominees in all the acting categories, but failed to win any awards. Curiously enough, it wasn't nominated for Best Picture. The Bulloch sisters Carole Lombard and Gail Patrick a pair of ditzy society girls are on a scavenger hunt which takes them to the city dump where they are to find a forgotten man. The expression is taken from Franklin D. Roosevelt who called those who were out of work and without hope forgotten men. The phrase had a lot of currency back in the day. In fact My Man Godfrey's origins are rooted in the Depression Years. When Powell turns down Patrick's invitation to be her trophy in the scavenger hunt, he accepts Lombard's. It turns out he's no ordinary forgotten man, he is the heir to a large estate held by a prominent Boston WASP family. But that's a fact he conceals from the Bulloch sisters when he's hired as their butler. His time with the Bulloch family is a learning experience indeed for both of them. The Depression hasn't hit these two girls, but it almost does save for Powell's financial acumen. As I said the film is firmly ground in those years of the Depression and the New Deal. It's hard to fathom, but when FDR took office on March 4, 1933, twenty five percent of the workforce was unemployed. Today if the number reaches above five percent the doomsayers are calling it a depression. I remember an uncle of mine telling me that when he graduated high school in 1937 a year after My Man Godfrey he could not get work for over 2 years until America went on a war footing before Pearl Harbor. After that he got drafted and didn't have to worry about a job for a few years. He might have been living just like the men in the city dump, but for the fact my grandparents had jobs and kept a roof over everyone's head. Mischa Auer plays Carlo, a kind of permanent houseguest of Alice Brady as Mrs. Bulloch. In today's world long after the Code has been repealed, Auer might well have been more explicitly gay. Eugene Palette is Mr. Bulloch who freely admits he lives in a house of scatterbrains. Though he got no nominations his playing of the Bulloch patriarch set a standard for him in playing a host of put upon fathers. In 1957 My Man Godfrey was remade with David Niven and June Allyson co-starring. Neither of the leads lacked for the charm needed to put over the story, but instead of The Great Depression, David Niven is an illegal alien looking to get a visa. You don't quite feel for him as you do for the jobless and hopeless William Powell. If My Man Godfrey is ever remade in the modern era, let's hope they keep the economic underpinnings of this classic screwball comedy, even if they don't take it back to the Depression Years.

Gregory La Cava's My Man Godfrey is a brilliant screwball comedy, class satire, sweet romance and Depression era plea for the rich to use their wealth to help the unlucky common people. It is also a beautiful film, with sumptuous black & white images of fabulous art deco sets and ladies' fashion. William Powell and Carole Lombard help to set the standards for screwball comedy with this film, supported by great character actors who seem to be enjoying themselves. The plot twists are preposterous, but who cares ?

As implausible as the story is, it's a fast-paced reflection on class and Depression-era society. William Powell is terrific.

Watching this made me think of lazy afternoons in sixties watching Movie of the Week or somesuch - pleasant passing of time, silver screen, comedy of manners, making fun of the rich, Capra-esque treatment of the downtrodden, When I was young enough to think movies were magic.

My Man Godfrey relies on it dialogue, on a biting wit that can make you laugh and shed light on social conditions of the Depression in equal measure. So what does it say when the dialogue does neither of these things particularly well? Powell is well-spoken and both he and Lombard inhabit their characters well, but in Lombard's case that's a shortcoming; her ditziness and humorous takes on melodramatic tropes are fine in small doses, but it completely takes you out of even a superficial enjoyment of the romance that is supposed to exist between the pair, which pops into being for no reason and sticks around. Most of the character design leaves a lot to be desired and the plot is silly without actually being funny. I like most of the classic films that I get the opportunity to watch, or can at least see them as products of their time, but apart from a sincere take on class consciousness and Powell's performance, My Man Godfrey is a rare exception. (2.5/5)

This style of comedy hasn't always dated so well, but this is better than most. William Powell is great, and there are enough smart one liners to raise a smile.

A funny movie. They managed to make engaging and good movies at the time as well.

Another great comedy. Enjoyable, funny and loveable.