My Man Godfrey | |
---|---|
Directed by | Gregory La Cava |
Screenplay by | Morrie Ryskind Eric Hatch Contributing writers: Zoë Akins Robert Presnell Sr. |
Based on | 1101 Park Avenue 1935 novel by Eric Hatch |
Produced by | Charles R. Rogers |
Starring | William Powell Carole Lombard |
Cinematography | Ted Tetzlaff |
Edited by | Ted J. Kent Russell F. Schoengarth |
Music by | Charles Previn Rudy Schrager (both uncredited) |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 94–95 minutes [2] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $575,375 [3] |
Box office | $684,200 [4] |
My Man Godfrey is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Gregory La Cava and starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, who had been briefly married years before appearing together in the film. [2] [5] The screenplay for My Man Godfrey was written by Morrie Ryskind, with uncredited contributions by La Cava, based on 1101 Park Avenue, a short novel by Eric S. Hatch. The story concerns a socialite who hires a derelict to be her family's butler, and then falls in love with him.
In 1999, the original version of My Man Godfrey was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film was remade in 1957 with June Allyson and David Niven in the starring roles.
During the Great Depression, Godfrey Smith lives with other homeless men at a New York City dump in a Hooverville by the East River. One night, spoiled socialite Cornelia Bullock offers him $5 to be her "forgotten man" for a scavenger hunt. Godfrey refuses and makes Cornelia retreat and fall on a pile of ashes, much to the glee of her younger sister Irene. Godfrey finds Irene to be kind and offers to go with her to help her beat Cornelia and satisfy his curiosity regarding their scavenger hunt.
In the ballroom of the Waldorf-Ritz Hotel, Irene's businessman father Alexander Bullock waits resignedly, as his ditsy wife Angelica and her mooching protégé Carlo play the game. Godfrey is authenticated as a "forgotten man", allowing Irene to win that part of the hunt. Godfrey takes the opportunity to publicly express his contempt for the players' antics before leaving in a huff. An apologetic Irene decides to make him her protégé and hires him as the new family butler.
On his first day as butler, Godfrey is warned by the Bullocks' longtime maid Molly that he is merely the latest in a long line of butlers who did not last long due to the female Bullocks' antics. Despite this, Godfrey proves to be up to the challenge, though Cornelia holds a grudge against him. Irene becomes infatuated with Godfrey. He tries unsuccessfully to discourage her. She kisses him, causing him to politely but firmly outline the boundaries of their employee-employer relationship.
Eventually, Godfrey is recognized by his longtime friend Tommy Gray at a tea party thrown by Irene. Godfrey makes up a story that he was Tommy's valet at Harvard; Tommy plays along by embellishing Godfrey's story with a nonexistent wife and five children. Upon hearing this, Irene impulsively announces her engagement to a surprised Charlie Van Rumple, but breaks down in tears and flees after being congratulated by Godfrey. Over lunch the next day, Tommy wonders what one of the elite "Parkes of Boston" is doing as a servant. Godfrey explains that when he lost the woman he loved, he considered suicide, but the undaunted attitude of the homeless men living at the dump rekindled his spirits.
Eventually, Irene breaks her engagement with Charlie. Cornelia attempts to seduce Godfrey on his day off, but when he rebuffs her, she plants her pearl necklace under Godfrey's mattress and calls the police to report it missing. However, the police do not find the pearls under the mattress. Mr. Bullock realizes his daughter has orchestrated the whole thing and informs her that the pearls are not insured. The Bullocks send their daughters to Europe to help Irene get over her broken engagement to Charlie, but when they return, her feelings for Godfrey have not changed. Irene stages a fainting spell and swoons into Godfrey's arms, who soon discovers she is faking it. He puts her in the shower and turns on the cold water. This, however, has an unexpected result. She says, "Oh Godfrey, now I know you love me...You do or you wouldn't have lost your temper."
Godfrey quits. Before he leaves, Mr. Bullock throws Carlo out (literally) and tells his family that his business is in dire straits and he will likely go to jail. However, Godfrey provides good news: he had realized Mr. Bullock's situation, sold short, using some of the money raised by pawning Cornelia's pearl necklace to buy up the stock that Bullock had sold. He gives the stock back to Mr. Bullock, saving the family from financial ruin. Godfrey also returns the necklace to Cornelia, who humbly expresses her gratitude and remorse for her behavior.
With the rest of the money Godfrey got for Cornelia's necklace, he and Tommy become business partners and converted the now-filled-in dump into a fashionable nightclub called "The Dump", creating new jobs for the other homeless men, with a plan to build housing for them. A determined Irene tracks Godfrey down and convinces him to marry her.
The film was based on a 1935 novel by Eric S. Hatch. [6] Charles Rogers, head of Universal, called it "a sure-fire laugh-getting novel". That studio purchased the film rights and assigned Hatch to write the script with Morrie Ryskind, who received top billing for the screenplay. Rogers hired Gregory La Cava to direct, "the best comedy director in Hollywood." [7]
It was the first major film from Universal after that studio had been taken over by new management, including head of production Charles Rogers. However the studio did not have any major stars under contract apart from Buck Jones, Boris Karloff and Edward Everett Horton, and needed to borrow some from other studios. [8]
The studio's original choice to play Irene, the part eventually played by Carole Lombard, was Constance Bennett, and Miriam Hopkins also was considered, but the director Gregory La Cava would only agree to Bennett if Universal borrowed William Powell from MGM. Powell, for his part, only would take the role if Carole Lombard played Irene. Powell and Lombard had divorced three years earlier. [2]
Powell's casting was announced in January 1936. [9] Universal borrowed Lombard from Paramount. As part of the deal, Universal loaned Paramount Margaret Sullavan for the film I Love a Soldier and Lombard's clothes designer, Travis Banton, accompanied her. [10] Alice Brady joined the cast in March. [11]
My Man Godfrey was in production from April 15 to May 27, 1936, and then had retakes in early June of the year. [2] Its budget was $575,375; Powell was paid $87,500 and Lombard $45,645. [3] The film was one of the first under the new regime of Charles Rogers at Universal, although it had been developed under his predecessor Carl Laemmle Jr. [3]
La Cava, a former animator and freelancer for most of his film career, held studio executives in contempt and was known to be a bit eccentric. When he and Powell hit a snag over a disagreement about how Godfrey should be portrayed, they settled things over a bottle of Scotch. The next morning, La Cava showed up for shooting with a headache, but Powell didn't appear. Instead, the actor sent a telegram stating: "WE MAY HAVE FOUND GODFREY LAST NIGHT BUT WE LOST POWELL. SEE YOU TOMORROW." [12]
Due to insurance considerations a stand-in stuntman (Chick Collins) was used when Godfrey carried Irene over his shoulder up the stairs to her bedroom. [2] [13]
When tensions hit a high point on the set, Lombard had a habit of inserting four-letter words into her dialogue, often to the great amusement of the cast. This made shooting somewhat difficult, but clips of her cursing in her dialogue and messing up her lines can still be seen in blooper reels.
It was the first film released under the aegis of Charles Rogers and was given a big premiere. [14] My Man Godfrey premiered on September 6, 1936, and was released in the United States on the 17th of September. [2] It was a runaway hit and earned huge profits for the studio. [12]
The movie was one of the most acclaimed comedies of 1936. [15] Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a moderately positive review, characterizing it as "acutely funny [for three-quarters of its way]". Particularly praising the scene of the scavenging party, Greene finds it to be "perhaps the wittiest, as well as noisiest, sequence of the year". Considering the end of the film, however, he notes that "the social conscience is a little confused" and he wishes for a more "dignified exit". [16]
Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominee | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
1937 | Academy Awards [17] | Best Director | Gregory La Cava | Nominated |
Best Actor | William Powell | Nominated | ||
Best Actress | Carole Lombard | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actor | Mischa Auer | Nominated | ||
Best Supporting Actress | Alice Brady | Nominated | ||
Best Adapted Screenplay | Eric Hatch, Morrie Ryskind | Nominated | ||
My Man Godfrey was the first movie to be nominated in all four acting categories, in the first year that supporting categories were introduced. It is also the only film in Oscar history to receive a nomination in all four acting categories and not be nominated for Best Picture. It was the only film to be nominated in these six categories and not receive any award until 2013's American Hustle . [13]
In 1999, the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. [18] In 2000, the film was ranked #44 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 funniest comedies, [19] and Premiere voted it one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006. [20] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval score of 97% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's consensus states: "A class satire in a class of its own, My Man Godfrey's screwball comedy is as sharp as the social commentary is biting." [21]
The original film is generally thought to have entered into the public domain in 1965 when the film's copyright was not renewed after 28 years. [22] However the underlying work, the 1935 book 1101 Park Avenue– re-titled My Man Godfrey with the film's release – had its copyright renewed in 1963 and is thus still in copyright. [23] According to Stanford University Library, and under rulings of Stewart v. Abend , in so-called multilayered works, the rights holder of the original work can claim ownership of the film script, though not the pictures, if the original book is still in copyright. [24] "Films are often based on books ... that may maintain copyright. If the pre-existing work is protected, then rightly or wrongly, it has generally been determined that the derived film is also protected." [25]
In 2002, a restored print was made available on DVD by The Criterion Collection, which featured a new cover illustrated by Michael Koelsch. [26] In 2005, 20th Century Fox Home Video released a colorized version. In September 2018, Criterion released the film on Blu-ray with new supplements.
My Man Godfrey was twice adapted as a one-hour radio broadcast on Lux Radio Theatre : on May 9, 1938, with David Niven playing the part of Tommy Gray; [13] and on November 9, 1954, with Jeff Chandler and Julie Adams. [27] It was also adapted to radio in a half-hour version on the October 2, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater , again starring William Powell. [28] When the film was remade in 1957, David Niven played Godfrey opposite June Allyson, directed by Henry Koster. [29] A stage musical version of My Man Godfrey, produced by Allan Carr and written by librettists Alan Jay Lerner and Kristi Kane and composer Gerard Kenny, was intended for Broadway in 1985, [30] but remained uncompleted at the time of Alan Jay Lerner's death in 1986. [31]
Screwball comedy is a film subgenre of the romantic comedy genre that became popular during the Great Depression, beginning in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1950s, that satirizes the traditional love story. It has secondary characteristics similar to film noir, distinguished by a female character who dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose masculinity is challenged, and the two engage in a humorous battle of the sexes.
Carole Lombard was an American actress. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Lombard 23rd on its list of the greatest female stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
Gregory La Cava was an American film director of Italian descent best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door, which earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best Director.
Nothing Sacred is a 1937 American Technicolor screwball comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, produced by David O. Selznick, and starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March with a supporting cast featuring Charles Winninger and Walter Connolly. Ben Hecht was credited with the screenplay based on the 1937 story "Letter to the Editor" by James H. Street, and an array of additional writers, including Ring Lardner Jr., Budd Schulberg, Dorothy Parker, Sidney Howard, Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman and Robert Carson made uncredited contributions.
Jean Rogers was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for playing Dale Arden in the science-fiction serials Flash Gordon (1936) and Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars (1938).
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Irene Maud Lentz, also known mononymously and professionally as Irene, was an American actress turned fashion designer and costume designer. Her work as a clothing designer in Los Angeles led to her career as a costume designer for films in the 1930s. Lentz also worked under the name Irene Gibbons.
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Hands Across the Table is a 1935 American romantic screwball comedy film directed by Mitchell Leisen and released by Paramount Pictures. It stars Carole Lombard as a manicurist looking for a rich husband and Fred MacMurray as a poor playboy, with Ralph Bellamy as a wealthy ex-pilot in a wheelchair. The teaming of Lombard and MacMurray was so well received, they went on to make three more films together, The Princess Comes Across (1936), Swing High, Swing Low (1937), and True Confession (1937).
Rumba is a 1935 American musical drama film starring George Raft as a Cuban dancer and Carole Lombard as a Manhattan socialite. The movie was directed by Marion Gering and is considered an unsuccessful follow-up to Raft and Lombard's smash hit Bolero the previous year.
No Man of Her Own is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic comedy-drama film starring Clark Gable and Carole Lombard as a married couple in their only film together, several years before their own legendary marriage in real life. The film was directed by Wesley Ruggles, and originated as an adaptation of No Bed of Her Own, a 1931 novel by Val Lewton, but ended up based more on a story by Benjamin Glazer and Edmund Goulding, although it retained the title from Lewton's novel. It is not related to the 1950 film of the same name.
My Man Godfrey is a 1957 American CinemaScope comedy film starring June Allyson and David Niven. It was adapted by Peter Berneis, William Bowers and Everett Freeman, and directed by Henry Koster. The film is a color remake of Gregory La Cava's 1936 screwball comedy of the same name. Allyson played the role created by Carole Lombard in the original version, and Niven took on the role made famous by William Powell. Niven had played the role of Tommy Gray, Godfrey's former classmate, in a 1938 radio version.
William Horatio Powell was an American actor, known primarily for his film career. Under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the Thin Man series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters created by Dashiell Hammett. Powell was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947).
Fools for Scandal is a 1938 screwball comedy film starring Carole Lombard and Fernand Gravet, featuring Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, Isabel Jeans, Marie Wilson and Marcia Ralston, and produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. It was written by Herbert Fields and Joseph Fields with additional dialogue by Irving Brecher, and uncredited contributions by others based on the unproduced 1936 play Return Engagement by Nancy Hamilton, James Shute and Rosemary Casey. The songs are by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
Love Before Breakfast is a 1936 American romantic comedy film starring Carole Lombard, Preston Foster, and Cesar Romero, based on Faith Baldwin's short story Spinster Dinner, published in International-Cosmopolitan in July 1934. The film was directed by Walter Lang from a screenplay by Herbert Fields assisted by numerous contract writers, including Preston Sturges.
Man of the World is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic drama directed by Richard Wallace and starring William Powell, Carole Lombard, and Wynne Gibson.
Etienne Girardot was a diminutive stage and film actor of Anglo-French parentage born in London, England.
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Charles R. Rogers, was an American film producer whose career spanned both the silent and sound film eras. Rogers began his career on the 1924 silent film, A Cafe in Cairo, produced by the short-lived Hunt Stromberg Productions. After Stromberg ceased productions in 1925, Rogers would found his own independent company, Charles R. Rogers Productions. He would also produce for major studios such as RKO Radio Pictures, Universal, and United Artists. The pinnacle of his career would be from 1936 to 1938 when he was chosen as the vice-president in charge of production for Universal Pictures. He died as the result of injuries sustained in a car accident in 1957.
But remember the underlying works may still be copyrighted