My Man Godfrey (1936) is a movie I had been looking at for weeks, but had yet to watch.  When it comes to classic films, I tend to go for titles that are familiar but I had yet to see, or have a cast with a name or two that I recognize.  This is easier with modern celebrities since the internet seems to keep them in our collective faces.  Oh, what is this, Taylor Swift is in Amsterdam (2022)?  I have to see it because of her . . . is a phrase I never said to myself in the months leading up to that release, but others might have felt that sentiment.  Still, because I am unfamiliar with either William Powell or Carole Lombard, two of My Man Godfrey’s stars, I hesitated in viewing it.  None of this is good reasoning.  It has a theme near and dear to my Catholic heart, homelessness, and it is funny to boot.  To clarify, I mean it is a good comedy, not that the homeless are a laughing matter.  Anyway, on with the review.

Following one of the more imaginative opening credits I have seen in classic cinema, incongruously we are taken to the New York City dump along the East River where we meet My Man Godfrey.  Actually, Godfrey Smith (William Powell) is nobody’s man, but is one of the denizens of this area.  They are also referred to as the “forgotten men,” or at least that is how he is referred to by Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick).  Clearly, she does not see them as God sees them.  She has come here as part of a high society scavenger hunt, offering him $5 if he will come with her so that she can win a prize.  While he is not above such charity, the overall sense of entitlement on her part has him refusing and gently pushing her into an ash pile.  She leaves, but her sister, Irene Bullock (Carole Lombard), stays behind.  Irene apologizes for Cornelia’s rude behavior, and there is a rivalry between the two.  Irene’s kindness softens Godfrey, and he decides to help her win the contest, if only to thumb their noses at Cornelia.  With Godfrey’s assistance, Irene does, indeed, win the prize, but it soon becomes more of what he had predicted with the socialites looking down at his scruffy appearance and being passive aggressive about it.  He is about to leave when Irene stops him.  Seeing the indignity with which he had been treated, she wonders what she can do for him.  He bluntly states that he needs a job.  She then promptly offers for him to become the new butler at her home, a notion to which her mother and father, Angelica (Alice Brady) and Alexander Bullock (Eugene Pallette), vaguely agree.  Godfrey can hardly believe his luck, but comes in the morning to begin in this new position.  He is greeted that morning by the maid, Molly (Jean Dixon), who gives him a brief introduction to the craziness that is the Bullock household.  All the women of the household had been overserved last night, a revelry that included Cornelia smashing windows on Fifth Avenue and Irene coming home on the back of a horse that she left in the library.  Angelica is little better.  She is the first one Godfrey serves, bringing her a tomato juice while she fantasizes about little imaginary men running around her room.  Talk about being what the Bible (would probably not) call a good a faithful servant.  She does not recognize Godfrey because he has shaved and is wearing a new suit of clothes.  Cornelia flat out refuses to let him into her room with breakfast, but Irene is inviting.  Irene vows to make Godfrey her protégé, which is confusing for him, but he remains thankful for the work.  The real fun, so to speak, begins when they are all downstairs.  Cornelia and Irene’s rivalry continues as Cornelia threatens to have Godfrey fired as soon as possible.  Cornelia’s needling sends Irene into a fit of hysterics that has everyone on edge as they rush about for a solution.  However, it had all been a ruse to get everyone out of the room so that Irene can kiss Godfrey.  This is only the beginning of his problems.  The next major hurdle comes when Irene decides to host a tea party a few days later.  Godfrey had been doing his best to avoid her despite her dramatic attempts to get his attention.  Yet, his desire to lay low is tested when he is recognized by one Tommy Gray (Alan Mowbray), a party attendee.  You see, Godfrey Smith is actually Godfrey Parke of a high society family from Boston.  Godfrey and Tommy had attended Harvard together.  After college, he had been spurned by a woman and soon slipped into the life of a drifter, which brought him to the city dump on the river.  He had intended to drown himself in the body of water, but had been saved by the men living in this location.  This is all explained to Tommy over a lunch the next day.  At the establishment, essentially spying on Godfrey, is Cornelia.  Faking a call to Tommy, she gets Godfrey alone, basically to try to woo him because she knows her sister likes him.  When she asks for his honest opinion of her, he calls her spoiled, an answer she does not take well.  Indeed, later that night she tries plant her pearls in his room and frame him for theft, but is thwarted by him when the police found nothing upon searching his belongings.  At an impasse, Angelica takes Cornelia and a distraught Irene overseas, hoping that the trip will shake Irene out of her melancholy.  When they return, they find a significantly cheered Godfrey, but he continues to tell Irene that he is wrong for her.  What they are not prepared for is Alexander announcing that the family is out of money.  This is when Godfrey intervenes.  As it turns out, he had used the pearls to make some investments and is able to return all of the Bullock’s lost stocks and with them their fortune.  With that Godfrey resigns from a deeply touched family.  With some of the proceeds, he had opened a night club at the city dump and employed all the people that used to live among the trash.  This is where Irene finds him and essentially forces him to marry her.  The end.

My Man Godfrey is charming.  It also does not take itself seriously, though it does have serious elements that make it rich to discuss from a Catholic perspective.  I genuinely appreciate Godfrey as a character.  One of the Church’s missions is to walk with the poor, and that is something he clearly does.  He may not have intended to do so early on in his life, but living among the homeless seems to have given him a better outlook.  We tend to simplify the situation into “haves” and “have-nots.”  Those of us who are fortunate to have a roof over our head and food on the table would put ourselves in the former of those categories, especially when compared to those in the latter.  A Christian might think of this as being blessed, and that is undeniably true.  What it does not mean is that those without lack blessings.  God is close to the helpless, though Godfrey did not realize this while living amongst the garbage.  He admits to feelings sorry for himself, leading to the attempted suicide, but the homeless modeled Jesus for Godfrey and brought the fallen socialite around. There is also some great phrases used in the film to describe how those that have all the blessings but do not realize it see those to whom God is close.  I already mentioned how Godfrey is called a “forgotten man,” which appears to have been how this rich peoples’ scavenger hunt listed a homeless person.  Godfrey also talks about himself as nobody wanting him.  What makes him a great character is that when he does get the opportunity to lift himself up from the ashes, figuratively and literally, he does not forget those who cared for him.  He goes even further, too, saving the fortunes of a family that probably did not deserve it.  That, too, is being Christ-like.  Whether you take note of those in need around you, or there is some other sin with which you struggle, God still loves you and always will.  We do not deserve, like the Bullocks, any recompense for the crazy stuff we do, and yet God gives it anyway.  That is the truest blessing.

If there is one quibble I have about My Man Godfrey, it is the forced wedding at the end.  Godfrey continues to tell Irene that it will never work all the way up until they are standing in front of a justice of the peace, in this case the mayor of New York, about to be wedded.  The girl is pretty out of her head, but this is a comedy.  Either way, this is one that should be watched.