How to Survive the Great Depression with a Suave Butler, an Insane Heiress, and a Grown Man Pretending to be a Gorilla
It’s 3:15 AM. My eyes feel like they’ve been rubbed with coarse sandpaper, the cold pizza on my desk is starting to look back at me, and I am currently watching a wealthy, hysterical woman in a sparkling evening gown crying because she just won a high-society scavenger hunt by bringing a highly dignified homeless man from a city dump into the Waldorf-Astoria hotel ballroom.
Welcome, my friends, to the sharp, dizzy, and brilliantly satirical world of Gregory La Cava.
If you’ve never heard of My Man Godfrey, congratulations: you’ve never experienced the absolute pinnacle of 1930s screwball comedy. For the uninitiated, this movie is a savage, hilarious takedown of the idle rich, filmed during the absolute worst years of the Great Depression. The director, Gregory La Cava, had a simple, chaotic, and highly successful strategy:
- Rent a trailer, park it on the studio lot, fill it with booze, and invite your lead actors inside to rewrite the script and ad-lib their lines every single day.
- Cast a divorced couple (William Powell and Carole Lombard) as the romantic leads because their real-life chemistry is so electric they can bicker with absolute perfection.
- Contrast the brutal reality of poverty with a family of wealthy aristocrats who are so completely, hopelessly insane they make cartoon characters look grounded.
The result? My Man Godfrey (1936).
The “Plot” (If we can even call it that)
During a ridiculous society scavenger hunt, spoiled heiress Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard) finds Godfrey (William Powell) living in a shantytown by the East River. Impressed by his dignity (and wanting to beat her incredibly toxic sister, Cornelia), Irene hires Godfrey to be the family’s new butler.
What Irene doesn’t know is that Godfrey is actually a blue-blooded Boston aristocrat who ended up in the dump because of a broken heart. He takes the job and is instantly thrown into a household of complete lunatics. There is the father, who is slowly going bankrupt; the mother, who has a freeloading “protégé” who does nothing but eat; the sister, who tries to frame Godfrey for robbery; and Irene, who falls madly in love with Godfrey and throws screaming tantrums whenever he tries to polish the silver.
It is a rapid-fire, laugh-out-loud comedy about a sane man trying to run an asylum, dressed in a perfectly pressed tuxedo.
Why You Need to Watch This Tonight
- The Savage Satire of the Rich: The opening scavenger hunt scene is a brutal piece of social commentary. Watching wealthy, diamonds-and-fur-wearing socialites scramble to collect “items” like goats, old monkeys, and “forgotten men” (homeless people) is incredibly dark, yet written with such sharp, witty humor that it works perfectly.
- Carole Lombard’s Hysterical Genius: Lombard was the undisputed queen of screwball comedy, and this is her masterpiece. She is a whirlwind of manic energy—she screams, she faints, she cries, and she jumps up and down like a hyperactive toddler. She is dizzy, highly chaotic, and absolutely impossible not to love.
- The “Carlo” Gorilla Scene: At one point, the mother’s freeloading artist-companion, Carlo, decides to cheer up the depressed family by climbing onto the grand piano, jumping onto the mantelpiece, and performing a highly elaborate, grunting gorilla impression. It is one of the most bizarre, unexpected, and funny things ever captured in a 1930s film.
- The Electric “Divorced” Chemistry: William Powell and Carole Lombard were married and divorced years before making this film, but they remained close friends. Powell actually refused to do the movie unless the studio hired Lombard as his co-star. Their mutual respect, sharp timing, and affectionate bickering make this one of the greatest on-screen pairings of all time.
The Verdict
Is it a good movie? It is a masterpiece. It was the first film in history to receive Oscar nominations in all four acting categories, and it is still widely considered one of the funniest scripts ever written. It is fast, incredibly witty, and has a surprisingly warm-hearted, socially conscious soul that still holds up beautifully today.
My Rating: 5 out of 5 gorilla impressions performed in a fancy, wood-paneled mansion.
Wanna watch the absolute king of classic 1930s screwball comedies?
Turn off your phone, grab a martini (or a cold soda), and search for this legendary classic on your favorite retro cinema platform. Because it has slipped into the public domain, you can watch William Powell manage a house full of high-society lunatics completely free and legally.
[WATCH “MY MAN GODFREY (1936)” ON YOUTUBE (Opens in a new window)]
