Nominated for six Academy Awards, My Man Godfrey is the quintessential Great Depression diversion film and a boisterous, subtle, and powerfully acted comedy. Masterful actor William Powell is a bum whose life gets irrevocably changed upon meeting the piercingly beautiful Carole Lombard, a rich heiress. Lombard finds Powell intriguing and sets him up as the butler for her large and chaotic household. The contrast between Powell’s derelict but hopeful homeless friends and the wealthy family that he is brought into is drastic, and allows for some insightful social commentary. But not to be bogged down in anything too serious, My Man Godfrey is a laugh a minute all the way to its feel good climax. Few films attain such soaring heights as this gem from the early days of talking cinema.
