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Posted on 05/17/2026 8:18:20 AM PDT by Twotone
Nineteen-thirty-six seemed like a turning point in America after seven years of the Great Depression. The stock market recovered to its 1929 levels, for which voters rewarded Franklin Delano Roosevelt with a second term, which unfortunately began with the country slipping back into recession in the spring of 1937. With that kind of good news you can forgive Hollywood for imagining, if only tentatively, that America had turned a corner.
In the first scene of the 1936 screwball classic My Man Godfrey, we find William Powell's Godfrey in shabby surroundings, living in a shack in a garbage dump on the edge of Manhattan, where he jokes with Mike (Pat Flaherty), another tenant in this shantytown (once called Hoovervilles when everyone knew who to blame for the country's dismal state), that "prosperity is just around the corner."
"Yeah, it's been there a long time," Mike replies. "I wish I knew which corner."
It hardly looks like a promising setup for any kind of comedy, but it's likely audiences who had lived through six desperate years got their sense of humour worn to a rough edge. But it doesn't matter because comic relief is on its way.
Two fancy cars pull up above the dump and issue forth a trio in fancy dress: haughty Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick), a brunette dressed in shiny black, who is trailed by her tuxedoed swain as she marches with purpose through the trash to Godfrey. They're followed in turn by Angelica's sister Irene (Carole Lombard), a blonde in contrasting silver.
Cornelia tells Godfrey that she's on a scavenger hunt and needs to find a "Forgotten Man", and that if he comes with her to the Waldorf-Ritz she'll give him five dollars. Godfrey takes exception to both her quest...
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
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This is one of my favorite movies of all time! Screwball comedy and it’s very best with a social statement
I put The Philadelphia Story over this one, but this is a good one, too!
Another one....Along Came Jones.
LOVE IT! One of the greatest all-time movies. I loved the 4pm movies after grammar school let out at 3:15pm. Mostly depression era and WW II movies. Always looked forward to them.
I like Eugene Pallette , that voice ,LOL
Too many to list:
Ghost and Mrs Muir - Yesterday When I Was Young - Charles Aznavour
https://youtu.be/-f8nn49_P00
1936 to 1940 was the golden era of Hollywood films.
Great movie! The first DVD I bought (cheap public domain). Carol Lombard is fantastic in it. The man who plays Carlo is the perfect leech.
Great movie- Powell was a great actor- loved his detective movies with Myrna Loy. I think we’ve seen them all-
Another great screwball comedy was Born Yesterday with Judy Holliday- She was really funny in it- you have to listen carefully though, but her timing and lines were great- She meshed with the loud Broderick Crawford perfectly- she played a dumb blond, BUT in real life she was anything but dumb-
Here’s a clip of the movie- pretty funny scene- the dynamic/tension between them was fantastic- He wanted her to take lessons from william holden to become ‘not so dumb’ she agreed- but in meantime, they played this game of gin-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90_QCyK1-OQ
It has been the Mrs, and I’s favorite film. It is one we watch every couple of years just to repeat the lines, practice our faints like the Protege and generally have madcap fun.
Agreed.
“Cornelia Bullock (Gail Patrick), a brunette dressed in shiny black,” was one gorgeous babe.
One of the greatest movies of all time, IMHO...
Same here. It’s a classic.
Lombard was a great actress and a beautiful woman.
She died tragically in a plane crash in January 1942 while on a War Bond drive.
I had the pleasure of seeing My Man Godfrey in a theatre playing retro films. I couldn’t stop laughing. “Godfrey loves me! Godfrey loves me!”
It’s one of the great pictures.
Sadly she didn’t live long.
My name is Nora. My boss’s name was Nick. We were the only two who understood why that was funny.
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