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Home , After the Thin Man, Alice Brady, Eugene Pallette, Feel My Pulse, Fools for Scandal, Gail Patrick

February 12, 2019 (XXXVIII:3) (1936, 94 min.)

DIRECTED BY Gregory La Cava WRITING & Eric Hatch (screen play), Eric Hatch (novel), Zoe Akins, Gregory La Cava, Robert Presnell Sr. (contributing writers, uncredited) PRODUCER Charles R. Rogers (executive producer) MUSIC Charles Previn, Rudy Schrager (uncredited) CINEMATOGRAPHY (photographer) FILM EDITING Ted J. Kent, Russell F. Schoengarth ART DIRECTION Charles D. Hall

Academy Awards, USA 1937 The film was nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role (), Best Actress in a Leading Role (), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Mischa Auer), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (), Best Director (Gregory La Cava), and Best Writing, Screenplay (Eric Hatch, Morrie Ryskind). ventured to where, in 1922, he would begin directing two-reel comedies, a production genre that was a direct National Film Preservation Board, USA 1999 competitor to animation. During this phase of his career, he The film was selected for preservation in the National Film worked with such comedy luminaries as (Feel My Registry. Pulse, 1928), , and W. C. Fields (So's Your Old Man, 1926 and Running Wild, 1927) He and Fields were also drinking CAST buddies. La Cava worked his way up to feature films in the silent William Powell...Godfrey era, but it is for his work in sound films of the 1930s—especially Carole Lombard...Irene Bullock comedies—that he is best known today. And though he did not Alice Brady...Angelica Bullock always get credit, he also often had a hand in creating the ...Cornelia Bullock screenplays for his films. He was nominated for Oscars for Best ...Alexander Bullock Director for (1936) and (1937). In Jean Dixon...Molly his career, he produced 56 films directed 174 films, including 41 Alan Mowbray...Tommy Gray animated shorts in 1917 and 33 in 1918. These are some of the Mischa Auer...Carlo other films he directed: A Quiet Day in the Country (1916 Short), Pat Flaherty...Mike Flaherty A Tankless Job (1917 Short), Der Great Bear Hunt (1917 Short), Robert Light...Faithful George 20,000 Legs Under the Sea (1917 Short), White Hope (1917 Short), He Tries His Hand at Hypnotism (1917 Short), Abie GREGORY LA CAVA (b. March 10, 1892 in Towanda, Kabibble Outwitted His Rival (1917 Short), Der End of Der Pennsylvania—d. March 1, 1952 (age 59) in Malibu, ) Limit (1917 Short), Bullets and Bulls (1917 Short), The Spider began his entertainment career as an animator with the studio of and the Fly (1917 Short), Der Wash On Der Line (1919 Short), Raoul Barré. By 1915, he was an animator on the Animated Judge Rummy's Miscue (1919 Short), Snappy Cheese (1919 Grouch Chasers series. Later that year, Short), Smash-Up in China (1919 Short), Where Are the Papers drafted La Cava to head up his new outlet for promoting (1919 Short), Transatlantic Flight (1919 Short), Swinging His animated adaptations of comic strips from Hearst papers, the Vacation (1920 Short), The Mysterious Vamp (1920 Short), International Film Service. As Hearst’s financial problems were Smokey Smokes (and) Lampoons (1920 Short), Judge Rummy in compromising legs of his media empire in 1918, La Cava Bear Facts (1920 Short), The Life of Reilly (1923 Short), Restless La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—2

Wives (1924), (1925), Let's Get Married (1926), his other films: Sherlock Holmes (1922), When Knighthood Was Paradise for Two (1927), His First Command (1929), Smart in Flower (1922), Outcast (1922), Romola (1924), My Lady's Woman (1931), (1932), The Age of Lips (1925), Sea Horses (1926), Desert Gold (1926), Beau Geste Consent (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The (1926), The Great Gatsby (1926), Special Delivery (1927), The Affairs of (1934), What Every Woman Knows (1934), Last Command (1928), The Four Feathers (1929), (1935), (1935), 5th Ave (1929), (1930), For the Defense (1930), Girl (1939), Primrose Path (1940), (1942), and The Road to Singapore (1931), Lawyer Man (1932), Private (1947). Detective 62 (1933), Double Harness (1933), The Kennel Murder Case (1933), (1934), Rendezvous (1935), TED TETZLAFF (b. June 3, 1903 in , California— (1936), The Ex-Mrs. Bradford (1936), d. January 7, 1995 (age 91) in Fort Baker, California) was a (1936), After (1936), The Last of noted Academy Award-nominated Hollywood cinematographer Mrs. Cheyney (1937), (1939), Love Crazy active in the 1930s and 1940s. He did cinematography for 115 (1941), (1941), Crossroads (1942), The films. Tetzlaff was particularly favored by the actress Carole Heavenly Body (1944), (1944), Lombard, whom he photographed in 10 films. After World War Ziegfeld Follies (1945), The Hoodlum Saint (1946), The Great II service as a US Army Major he became a , and Morgan (1946), (1947), The Senator Was directed 17 films from 1947 to 1957, most notably the film noir Indiscreet (1947), Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948), classic The Window (1949). During this period, he also continued Dancing in the Dark (1949), How to Marry a Millionaire doing cinematography, including for the famous Hitchcock film (19453), and Mister Roberts (1955). Notorious (1946), starring and . He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Cinematograph, Black-and- CAROLE LOMBARD (b. October 6, 1908 in Fort Wayne, White for The Talk of the Town (1942). These are some other Indiana—d. January 16, 1942 (age 33) in Table Rock Mountain, films he did cinematography for: Atta Boy (1926), Sunshine of Nevada) was particularly noted for her energetic, often off-beat Paradise Alley (1926), The Ladybird (1927), Eager Lips (1927), roles in the screwball comedies of the 1930s. She was the Ragtime (1927), Polly of the Movies (1927), Temptations of a highest-paid star in Hollywood in the late 1930s. At 12, she made Shop Girl (1927), The Devil's Cage (1928), The Power of the her screen debut in A Perfect Crime (1921). Eager to become an Press (1928), The Apache (1928), The Flying Marine (1929), actress, she signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation at Wall Street (1929), Mexicali Rose (1929), Hell's Island (1930), age 16, but mainly played bit parts. She was dropped by Fox Tol'able David (1930), The Last Parade (1931), The Texas after a car accident left a scar on her face. Lombard appeared in Ranger (1931), The Fighting Sheriff (1931), Men in Her Life 15 short comedies for Mack Sennett between 1927 and 1929, and (1931), Three Wise Girls (1932), Behind the Mask (1932), The then began appearing in feature films such as High Voltage and Night Club Lady (1932), Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932), The Racketeer. After a successful appearance in The Arizona Kid Soldiers of the Storm (1933), Ann Carver's Profession (1933), (1930), she was signed to a contract with . Should Ladies Behave (1933), Fugitive Lovers (1934), Hands She was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Across the Table (1935), Lady of Secrets (1936), Love Before Role for My Man Godfrey (1936). She acted in 79 films, Breakfast (1936), The Princess Comes Across (1936), My Man including: A Perfect Crime (1921), Gold Heels (1924), Dick Godfrey (1936), Murder with Pictures (1936), Hideaway Girl Turpin (1925), Gold and the Girl (1925), Hearts and Spurs (1936), Swing High, Swing Low (1925), Pretty Ladies (1925), Durand (1937), True Confession (1937), of the Bad Lands (1925), The Plastic (1938), Tom Age (1925), Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Sawyer, Detective (1938), Cafe Christ (1925), The Road to Glory Society (1939), Man About Town (1926), The Johnstown Flood (1926), (1939), Honeymoon in Bali My Best Girl (1927), The Girl from (1939), Safari (1940), Love Thy Everywhere (1927), Smith's Army Neighbor (1940), Kiss the Boys Life (1928 Short), The Divine Sinner Goodbye (1941), I Married a (1928), Me, Gangster (1928), Show Witch (1942), You Were Never Folks (1928), Fast and Loose (1930), Lovelier (1942), and Those (1931), Sinners in Endearing Young Charms the Sun (1932), Virtue (1932), No (1945). More Orchids (1932), No Man of Her Own (1932), Brief Moment WILLIAM POWELL (b. July (1933), White Woman (1933), Bolero 29, 1892 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—d. March 5, 1984 (age 91) (1934), We're Not Dressing (1934), Twentieth Century (1934), in Palm Springs, California) was a major star at Metro-Goldwyn- (1934), Rumba (1935), Mayer, who was paired with in 14 films, including (1936), The Princess Comes Across (1936), My Man Godfrey the Thin Man series based on the (1936), Swing High, Swing Low (1937), True Confession (1937), characters created by . He acted in 96 films Fools for Scandal (1938), In Name Only (1939), They Knew and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a What They Wanted (1940), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), and To Be Leading Role three times: for The Thin Man (1934), My Man or Not to Be (1942). Godfrey (1936), and Life with Father (1947). These are some of La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—3

ALICE BRADY (b. November 2, 1892 in , New Blessed (1945), The Madonna's Secret (1946), Plainsman and York—d. October 28, 1939 (age 46) in New York City, New the Lady (1946), Calendar Girl (1947), Horses York) was an American actress who began her career in the (1947), and The Inside Story (1948). era and survived the transition into talkies. She worked until six months EUGENE PALLETTE (b. July 8, before her death from 1889 in Winfield, Kansas—d. cancer in 1939. Her films September 3, 1954 (age 65) in Los include My Man Godfrey Angeles, California) appeared in 260 (1936), in which she plays silent era and sound era motion the flighty mother of Carole pictures between 1913 and 1946, Lombard's character and for including 67 shorts from 1913-1915. which she was nominated He is probably best-remembered for for an Oscar for Best comic character roles such as Actress in a Supporting Alexander Bullock, Carole Role, and In Old Chicago Lombard's character's father, in My (1937) for which she won Man Godfrey (1936), as Friar Tuck an Oscar for Best Actress in in The Adventures of Robin Hood a Supporting Role. She (1938) starring , and his acted in 79 films including: similar role as Fray Felipe in The As Ye Sow (1914), The Boss Mark of Zorro (1940) starring (1915), The Lure of Woman (1915), 1915 The Rack (1915), The . He also starred in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Ballet Girl (1916), Then I'll Come Back to You (1916), La vie de (1939) and Heaven Can Wait (1943). These are some other films Bohème (1916), The Gilded Cage (1916), Bought and Paid For he appeared in: Sunshine Dad (1916), The Children in the House (1916), A Woman Alone (1917), Darkest Russia (1917), Betsy (1916), Going Straight (1916), Hell-to-Pay Austin (1916), Ross (1917), A Self-Made Widow (1917), At the Mercy of Men Gretchen the Greenhorn (1916), Intolerance: Love's Struggle (1918), The Whirlpool (1918), The Death Dance (1918), The End Throughout the Ages (1916), The Ghost House (1917), Tarzan of of the Road (1919), His Bridal Night (1919), Sinners (1920), Out the Apes (1918), Alias Jimmy Valentine (1920), The Three of the Chorus (1921), Little Italy (1921), The Leopardess (1923), Musketeers (1921), Two Kinds of Women (1922), Wandering Broadway to Hollywood (1933), Beauty for Sale (1933), Stage Husbands (1924), Wild Horse Mesa (1925), Without Mercy Mother (1933), The Gay Divorcee (1934), Gold Diggers of 1935 (1925), Whispering Smith (1926), Mantrap (1926), You Never (1935), Lady Tubbs (1935), Metropolitan (1935), Go West Young Know Women (1926), Desert Valley (1926), Jewish Prudence Man (1936), Mind Your Own Business (1936), Three Smart Girls (1927 Short), The Good-Bye Kiss (1928), The Virginian (1929), (1936), Mr. Dodd Takes the Air (1937), Merry-Go-Round of The Love Parade (1929), Pointed Heels (1929), The Kibitzer 1938 (1937), Goodbye Broadway (1938), and Young Mr. Lincoln (1930), The Santa Fe Trail (1930), Gun Smoke (1931), (1939). Huckleberry Finn (1931), Girls About Town (1931), Dancers in the Dark (1932), The Half-Naked Truth (1932), Shanghai GAIL PATRICK (b. June 20, 1911 in Birmingham, Alabama— Madness (1933), Caravan (1934), All the King's Horses (1935), d. July 6, 1980 (age 69) in Los Angeles, California) was an Steamboat Round the Bend (1935), The Ghost Goes West (1935), American film actress and television producer. Often cast as the The Golden Arrow (1936), Dishonour Bright (1936), The bad girl or the other woman, she appeared in 64 feature films and Luckiest Girl in the World (1936), Topper (1937), One Hundred television series, notably My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door Men and a Girl (1937), Young Tom Edison (1940), Ride, Kelly, (1937) and (1940). After retiring from acting Ride (1941), (1941), The Bride Came C.O.D. she became, as Gail Patrick Jackson, president of Paisano (1941), The Male Animal (1942), The Big Street (1942), The Productions and executive producer of the Forest Rangers (1942), The Kansan (1943), The Gang's All Here television series (1957–66). She was one of the first women (1943), Pin Up Girl (1944), In Old Sacramento (1946), and producers, and the only female executive producer in prime time Suspense (1946). during the nine years Perry Mason was on the air. These are some of the other films she acted in: MISCHA AUER (b. November 17, 1905 in St. Petersburg, (1932), The Mysterious Rider (1933), (1933), Russian Empire [now Russia]—d. March 5, 1967 (age 61) in Pick-up (1933), (1934), Murder at the Rome, Lazio, Italy) was a Russian-born American actor who Vanities (1934), Wagon Wheels (1934), Rumba (1935), Smart moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in film Girl (1935), Wanderer of the Wasteland (1935), The Big in 1928. Auer had a long career playing in many of the era's best Broadcast of 1936 (1935), Two Fisted (1935), The Lone Wolf known films. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Returns (1935), Two in the Dark (1936), White Hunter (1936), Best Supporting Actor in 1936 for his performance in the Artists & Models (1937), (1938), Disbarred My Man Godfrey, which led to further zany (1939), Reno (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), The comedy roles. He appeared in 177 films and television series, Doctor Takes a Wife (1940), Gallant Sons (1940), Love Crazy such as: Something Always Happens (1928), Marquis Preferred (1941), Tales of Manhattan (1942), Quiet Please: Murder (1929), Why Be Good? (1929), Command Performance (1931), (1942), Hit Parade of 1943 (1943), Women in Bondage (1943), Working Girls (1931), Mata Hari (1931), Arsène Lupin (1932), Up in Mabel's Room (1944), Brewster's Millions (1945), Twice The Midnight Patrol (1932), The Last of the Mohicans (1932), La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—4

Almost Married (1932), The Sign of the Cross (1932), Rasputin Born on March 10, 1892 in Towanda, PA, La Cava and the Empress (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), studied painting at the Chicago Institute of Art and the Art Corruption (1933), Storm at Daybreak (1933), Tarzan the Students League of New York, before being forced to leave due Fearless (1933), Viva Villa! (1934), Beyond the Law (1934), to financial considerations. Instead, he abandoned his studies Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934), The Lives of a Bengal altogether to take a job as a newspaper reporter in Rochester, Lancer (1935), Clive of India (1935), Anna Karenina (1935), The NY, and later worked as a cartoonist for both the New York Princess Comes Across (1936), The Gay Desperado (1936), Globe and the Evening World. In 1913, he moved on to Three Smart Girls (1936), That Girl from Paris (1936), One performing odd jobs at the studio of silent era animator, Raoul Hundred Men and a Girl (1937), You Can't Take It with You Barré, and two years later, he was an animator on the "Animated (1938), Destry Rides Again (1939), Margie (1940), Seven Sinners Grough Chasers" series. Toward the end of 1915, La Cava was (1940), Hellzapoppin' (1941), Twin Beds (1942), Lady in the hired as the editor-in-chief of the International Film Service, an Dark (1944), Up in Mabel's Room (1944), Brewster's Millions animation studio founded by William Randolph Hearst, where he (1945), And Then There Were None (1945), For You I Die worked with the likes of on "The Katzenjammer (1947), Snow White and the Seven Thieves (1949), School for Kids" and "Silk Hat Harry." Despite an unlimited budget, La Love (1955), Frou-Frou (1955), Thirteen at the Table (1955), Cava was hampered by his own limited creativity in the genre, as Mannequins of Paris (1956), The Foxiest Girl in Paris (1957), his works were clearly derivative of newspaper comic strips, Clémentine chérie (1964), The Christmas That Almost Wasn't while his rivals - particularly at Bray Studio - were making more (1966), Arrivederci, Baby! (1966), and Per amore... per magia... successful animated shorts with more original characters. La (1967). Cava stayed with IFS until the money ran out in 1918. La Cava continued making animated shorts, this time latching on to producer John Terry's studio, only to again find himself out of work when the well went dry just a few months later. Instead of joining his fellow out-of-work animators at the newly formed Goldwyn-Bray studio, La Cava moved westward to Hollywood where he was hired as a gag writer for one- and two-reel shorts. He made his feature debut as a director with "His Nibs" (1921), starring , and went on to helm a series of all-star comedy two-reelers starring Charlie Murray. La Cava eventually directed a number of silent films, including the melodrama "" (1924), the comedy "Womanhandled" (1925) and "So's Your Old Man" (1926), starring W.C. Fields. After directing frequent collaborator Gregory La Cava (TCM) Richard Dix in the comedy "Let's Get Married" (1926), La Cava Often overshadowed by Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch reunited with Fields for the classic "Running Wild" (1927), and , director Gregory La Cava was a fine which featured the popular comedian in the typical role of practitioner of the screwball comedy while earning a reputation henpecked husband and meek employee who becomes more for drawing out the best from his leading performers, thanks to a assertive after being put under a spell by a vaudeville hypnotist. penchant for on-set improvisation. He began his career as a La Cava finished out the silent era with forgotten films like cartoonist, making over 100 animated shorts during the silent era "Paradise for Two" (1927), "Gay Defender" (1927), "Half a before making the switch to live-action features, collaborating Bride" (1928) and "" (1928). with the likes of Richard Dix and W.C. Fields. He successfully La Cava entered the sound era with the partial talkie transitioned to the sound era with “" (1931) "Saturday's Children" (1929) and a rare crime drama "Big News" and "What Every Woman Knows" (1934), while finding more (1929), starring Robert Armstrong and Carole Lombard. critical success with "" (1934). He made Following a return to comedy with "Laugh and Get occasional excursions into drama with "Symphony of Six Rich" (1931) and "The Half-Naked Truth" (1932), he directed Million" (1932) and the overtly political "Gabriel Over the White Irene Dunn and in the drama, "Symphony of Six House" (1933), but often his more serious films failed to live up Million" (1932). He next helmed the overtly political comedy, to even his more middling comedies. Meanwhile, La Cava was "Gabriel Over the White House" (1933), which starred Walter Oscar-nominated for directing "My Man Godfrey" (1936), Huston as a corrupt Warren G. Harding-like U.S. president who starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, which was revokes the Constitution, becomes dictator, and solves all the considered by many historians to be one of the greatest screwball nation's woes. La Cava's audacious support of fascism drew both comedies ever made. He followed that with another Academy ire and admiration, though in the end it remained nothing more Award-worthy comedy, "Stage Door" (1937), which marked the than a historical curiosity. After the comedy "What pinnacle of his career. From there, he hit a precipitous downward Every Woman Knows" (1934), he directed the Oscar-nominated slide with a number of box office failures that basically ended his "The Affairs of Cellini" (1934), which earned nods for Best career in the early 1940s. Though he was often forgotten by later Actor (Frank Morgan), Best Art Direction and Best generations, La Cava no doubt left behind an inviting oeuvre of Cinematography. Taking another brief excursion into drama exceptional comedies that ranked alongside the works of better territory, La Cava guided to an Oscar known directors. nomination for Best Actress for her performance as the head of a La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—5 mental hospital contending with Matthew Kennedy: “Gregory a disgruntled head doctor La Cava’s My Man Godfrey () in "Private on DVD” (Bright Lights Film Worlds" (1935). Journal, 2002) Though he displayed Criterion has spruced up the considerable gifts throughout his peerless 1936 Universal career, few were prepared for comedy My Man Godfrey and what became his masterwork, given it a bright new sheen. "My Man Godfrey" (1936), a The digital transfer is so landmark screwball comedy that glimmering, in fact, that we showcased Carole Lombard at might say it has never looked her most definitive in her only better in our lifetime. Oscar-nominated role, while But Godfrey is much more than earning six Academy Award a pretty silver-tinted relic. So nominations altogether, including long as we live in a world of Best Director. Lombard played a vulgar inequalities. Godfrey flighty Depression-era socialite will have relevance. The story who stumbles upon an eccentric of a mysterious butler who hobo, Godfrey (William Powell), during a scavenger hunt and carbonates a household of madcap swells is ageless, and we brings him home, where she makes him her butler. Of course, marvel that such a piquant piece of film can be 65 years old. nothing is as it seems, as the hobo turns out to be a wealthy My Man Godfrey is foremost a screwball comedy, albeit Bostonian who dropped out of life after an unhappy romance and one with considerable tang. As a Depression-era product, it has restored his humanity among the dregs in the city dump. plenty to say about responsibility in hard times, but it maintains a Naturally, she falls in love and determines to make Godfrey her light touch throughout. The weightier implications of class, husband, while he tries to save her family from their own wealth, and social justice never bog down the lunacy. Director pretensions. La Cava earned his second nomination for Best Gregory La Cava achieves this through repeated crossings of Director with his follow-up effort, "Stage Door" (1937), an class lines. In a country divided by money and status, we first see impressive film that easily shifted between comedy and drama, the rich folks mucking around the city dumps. Moments later a and featured a mainly female cast headed by , bedraggled hobo shows up at the Waldorf Ritz Hotel. That’s just that also included , , and the beginning of the incongruities that spoke to audiences in the . Hepburn starred as a young woman from a wealthy 1930s as they do to us today. Rich and dizzy Irene Bullock family trying to make it as an actress while slumming with other (Carole Lombard) dares to cross the divide by her active aspirants in a boarding house. As he did on many of his films, La adoration of “forgotten man” Godfrey (William Powell). Irene Cava allowed his talent to improvise their lines, which resulted in and maid Molly (played by brittle wisecracker Jean Dixon) a number of witty exchanges. commiserate over Godfrey and further break down barriers of the While "Stage Door" was the only film La Cava made working and idling classes. Repeatedly, La Cava and company that earned an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, it also marked serve up the rich as silly, frivolous, childlike, and trivial, while the first of three consecutive collaborations with actress Ginger the poor are strong, dignified, generous, and compassionate. Rogers. The two next worked together on the comedy "Fifth Miraculously, he gives us these elemental distinctions without Avenue Girl" (1939), where she played an unemployed girl given the torpor of penny-ante philosophizing or the goo of Capraesque the chance to see how the other half lives by a neglected speechifying. millionaire () and ultimately falls in love with My Man Godfrey is chock full of wonderful acting. the man's son (Tim Holt). In their third and final film together, Eugene Pallette, as the gravel-voiced patriarch of the Bullock "Primrose Path" (1940), Rogers went against type to play the family, has a charming befuddlement that defuses any sinister daughter and granddaughter of prostitutes who vows to stay undertones. (Pallette was one of those reliable supporting players away from the business, only to confront unavoidable who were in hundreds of movies without becoming famous. consequences that may indeed lead her down an undesirable You’ll find him in Topper, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Mr. path. From there, La Cava worked with star on a Smith Goes to Washington, Young Tom Edison, The Lady Eve, pair of comedies, "Unfinished Business" (1941) and "Lady in a The Bride Came C.O.D., The Male Animal, Heaven Can Wait…) Jam" (1942), both of which failed at the box office - particularly Alice Brady as mother Angelica flutters about with such the latter, which was one of the most expensive comedies made daffiness that she nearly floats away on a diaphanous skirt. at the time. With his career in shambles due to increasing Mischa Auer is Carlo, the free loading “protégé” whose only alcoholism, La Cava's output dropped to nil over the next few discernible talents are eating and imitating a gorilla. Raven- years. He returned behind the camera with the musical comedy haired Gail Patrick, as scheming daughter Cornelia, is the closest "Living in a Big Way" (1947), starring , and was thing My Man Godfrey has to a villain. Her arched eyebrows and uncredited on "One Touch of Venus" (1948), with Robert Walker general haughtiness offer perfect counterpoint to the twittering and Ava Gardner. Four years later, on March 1, 1952, La Cava people that otherwise infest the Bullock home. died of a heart attack in Malibu, CA. He was just 59 years old. Lombard was made of the stuff of movie stars, blessed with the rare and precious combination of genuine talent and radiant beauty. Garson Kanin called her an “on the level La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—6 woman,” and that forthright quality shines right through to her Explain that if you can. Perhaps a great screwball comedy can be performance as Irene, possibly the ditsiest member of a made of Academy “logic.” In loving tribute, it could be household teetering on the brink of chaos. When she conducts an called My Man Oscar. ad hoc job interview on Powell, she asks him “Do you Roger Ebert on My Man Godfrey buttle?”, and the line has (2008): double funny impact because When Carole Lombard and the family of her sincere and clarion-clear maid discuss the newly hired butler, we delivery. can read her mind when she says, "I'd Volumes have been like to sew his buttons on sometime, written about the charms of when they come off." In 1936, when Lombard, but less on William elegant men's formalwear didn't use Powell. His Godfrey is a zippers, audiences must have had an wonderment of reserve and even better idea of what she was benign passivity. With thinking. The two women both have seeming invisible technique, crushes on Godfrey (William Powell), a he moves from bum to butler homeless man who Lombard, competing to Harvard man to drunk to in a scavenger hunt, discovers living at entrepreneur. He is the pivot, the stranger who passed this way the city dump. Lombard wins the hunt by producing Godfrey at a while silly people find strength and wisdom through him. The society ball and then, during an argument with her bitchy sister character device has fueled many a movie to great effectiveness, and loony mother, hires him to be the butler for her rich family. from Shane to Mary Poppins to Being There, but never with "Do you buttle?" she asks him, so crisply and directly that she more lighthearted élan. could mean anything, or everything. Her romantic obsession is Film historian Bob Gilpin, one of the world’s leading hopeless because Godfrey has transformed himself overnight Godfreyologists, supplies the accompanying audio commentary from an unshaven bum into a polished, sophisticated man who on this disc. He guides us through every scene with loving detail prides himself on his proper behavior. When she grabs him and on the expectations of Depression-era audiences and the kisses him, he regards her with utter astonishment. conventions of the screwball comedy. On the debit side, he "My Man Godfrey," one of the treasures of 1930s sounds ever so slightly pretentious using lingo such as deus ex screwball comedy, doesn't merely use Lombard and Powell, it machina and sotto voce, and occasionally his interpretations are loves them. She plays Irene, a petulant kid who wants what she suspect. He claims we are uncertain at one point of the outcome wants when she wants it. His Godfrey employs an attentive of the triangular romantic complications between Irene, Cornelia, posture and a deep, precise voice that bespeaks an exact and Godfrey. Since when was Gail Patrick ever a threat to Carole measurement of the situation he finds himself in. These two Lombard? I’d say we know precisely how things will turn out. actors, who were briefly married (1931-33) before the film was Our pleasure is derived from riding the labyrinthine plot all the made in 1936, embody personal style in a way that is (to use a way to the inevitable matrimonial clutch of Godfrey and Irene. cliché that I mean sincerely) effortlessly magical. Consider Any other resolution would be an unimaginable violation of the Powell, best known for the "Thin Man" movies. How can such genre, which Gilpin otherwise insightfully analyzes. reserve suggest such depths of feeling? How can understatement Occasionally Gilpin pulls a real boner. He states that My and a cool, dry delivery embody such passion? You can never, Man Godfrey was Lombard’s first starring role, which must ever catch him trying to capture effects. They come to him. And come as a big surprise to anyone who ever saw No Man of Her Lombard in this film has a dreamy, ditzy breathlessness that Own(1932), Twentieth Century (1934), or any one of her movies shows her sweetly yearning after this man who fascinated her at Paramount and Columbia in the early 1930s. He also states – even when she thought he really was a bum. twice – that William Powell competed with himself for the Best Like Preston Sturges' "Sullivan's Travels" (1941), Actor Academy Award for My Man Godfrey and The Great Gregory La Cava's "My Man Godfrey" contrasts the poverty of Ziegfeld, winning for the later. Wherever did Gilpin get such "forgotten men" during the Depression with the spoiled lifestyles wildly inaccurate information? Powell wasn’t a nominee, much of the idle rich. The family Irene brings Godfrey home to buttle less a winner, for The Great Ziegfeld. The 1936 actor prize went for is the Bullocks, all obliviously nuts. Her father, Alexander to for The Story of Louis Pasteur. Such errors do way (that gravel-voiced character actor of genius, Eugene Pallette), is too much harm to Gilpin’s credibility. a rich man, secretly broke, who addresses his spendthrift family Speaking of , Godfrey’s nominations in tones of disbelief ("In prison, at least I'd find some peace"). illustrate just how screwball voting can be. It was the first film to Her mother, Angelica (Alice Brady), pampers herself with receive nominations in all four acting categories. In addition to unabashed luxury and even maintains a "protégé" (Mischa Auer) Powell’s mention, Lombard was up for Best Actress, Mischa whose duties involve declaiming great literature, playing the Auer for Best Supporting Actor, and Alice Brady for Best piano, leaping about the room like a gorilla and gobbling up Supporting Actress. Mentions were also given to Gregory La second helpings at every meal. Her sister Cornelia (Gail Patrick) Cava for Director and Eric Hatch and Morris Ryskind for is bitter because she not only lost the scavenger hunt but got Screenplay. Godfrey was up for every major award except Best pushed into an ash heap after insulting Godfrey. And there is the Picture, and in 1936 there were ten films nominated. One of maid, Molly (Jean Dixon), who briefs Godfrey on the insane them, Libeled Lady, wasn’t nominated in any other category. world he is entering. She loves Godfrey, too, and perhaps down La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—7 deep so does Cornelia, and so might the protégé, if he didn't like The movie also benefits from the range of sharply chicken legs more. defined characters, and the actors to play them. Even the biggest Godfrey buttles flawlessly, bringing Alexander his stars in those days were surrounded by other actors in substantial martinis a tray at a time, whipping up hors d'oeuvres in the roles that provided them with counterpoint, with context, with kitchen and keeping his secret. He has one. Unmasked by a emotional tennis partners. Notice here the work of Eugene Harvard classmate at a party, he turns out to be born rich but Pallette, who bluntly speaks truth even though his family is deaf down on his fortune after an unhappy romance. The Bullocks to him. By God, he's had enough: "What this family needs is never figure out he's too good to be a butler (or a bum) because discipline. I've been a patient man, but when people start riding they're all blinded by their own selfishness, except for Irene, who horses up the front steps and parking them in the library, that's dreams of his buttons. Under the surface, emotion is churning. going a little too far. This family's got to settle down!" His voice Godfrey, having come to like and admire his fellow hobos at the is like a chain saw, cutting through the vapors around him. dump, is offended that the Bullocks flaunt their wealth so This movie, and the actors in it, and its style of uselessly, and that leads to one of those outcomes so beloved in production, and the system that produced it, and the audiences screwball comedy, so impossible in life. that loved it, have all been replaced by pop culture of brainless God, but this film is beautiful. The cinematography by vulgarity. But the movie survives, and to watch it is to be rescued Ted Tetzlaff is a shimmering argument for everything I've ever from some people who don't care that it makes a difference ... to tried to say in praise of black and white. Look me in the eye and some people. tell me you would prefer to see it in color. The restored version on the Criterion DVD is particularly alluring in its surfaces. Everything that can shine, glimmers: the marble floors, the silver, the mirrors, the crystal, the satin sheen of the gowns. There is a tactile feel to the furs and feathers of the women's costumes, and the fabric patterns by designer Louise Brymer use bold splashes and zigs and zags of blacks and whites to arrest our attention. Every woman in this movie, in every scene, is wearing something that other women at a party would kill for. These tones and textures are set off with one of those 1930s apartments that isintendedto look like a movie set, all poised for entrances and exits. I found myself freezing the frame and simply appreciating compositions. Notice a shot when Godfrey exits screen right and the camera pans with him and then pushes to poor, sad Irene, seen through sculptured openings in the staircase and chewing the hem of her gown. Look for another composition balanced by a light fixture high on the wall to the right. You'll know the one. A couple of reviewers on the Web complain that the Wikipedia: Screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic plot is implausible. What are we going to do with these people? comedy film that became popular during the Great Depression, They've obviously never buttled a day in their lives. What you originating in the early 1930s and thriving until the early 1940s. have to observe and admire is how gently the film offers its It is widely known for satirizing the traditional love story. Many moments of genius. Irene has a mournful line something like, secondary characteristics of this genre are similar to film noir, "Some people do just as they like with other people's lives, and it but it distinguishes itself for being characterized by a female that doesn't seem to make any difference ... to some people." dominates the relationship with the male central character, whose Somehow she implies that the first "some people" refers to masculinity is challenged. The two engage in a humorous battle theoretical people, and the second refers to other people in the of the sexes, which was a new theme for Hollywood and room. audiences at the time. What sets the screwball comedy apart from Her futile love for Godfrey shows itself in the scene the generic romantic comedy is that “screwball comedy puts its where he's doing the dishes in the kitchen, and she says she emphasis on a funny spoofing of love, while the more traditional wants help: "I want to wipe." I know, it sounds mundane in print, romantic ultimately accents love." Other elements of the but the spin she puts on it brings buttons back to our minds. screwball comedy include fast-paced, overlapping repartee, The "implausibility" involves the complications of a farcical situations, escapist themes, physical battle of the sexes, theft of pearls, some swift stock market moves, and Godfrey's disguise and masquerade, and plot lines involving courtship and plans for the city dump. OK, it's all implausible. That's what I'm marriage. Screwball comedies often depict social classes in here for. By pretending the implausible is possible, screwball conflict, as in (1934) and My Man comedy acts like a tonic. Nothing is impossible if you cut Godfrey (1936). Some comic plays are also described as through the difficulties with an instrument like Powell's knife- screwball comedies. edged delivery. He betrays little overt emotion, but what we Screwball comedy has proved to be one of the most glimpse is impatience with some people who will not do the popular and enduring film genres. It Happened One Night obvious and, indeed, the inevitable. (1934), is often credited as the first true screwball, though Bombshell starring preceded it by a year. Although La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—8 many film scholars agree that its classic period had effectively that leads to romance. Often this mismatch comes about when ended by 1942, elements of the genre have persisted or have been the man is of a lower social class than the woman (Bringing Up paid homage to in contemporary film. Still more, other film Baby, Holiday, both 1938). The final romantic union is often scholars argue that the screwball comedy lives on. planned by the woman from the outset, and the man is seemingly During the Great Depression, there was a general oblivious to this. In , the woman says to a third demand for films with a strong social class critique and hopeful, party: "He's the man I'm going to marry. He doesn't know it, but I escapist-oriented themes. am." The screwball format These pictures also arose largely as a result offered a kind of cultural of the major film studios' escape valve: a safe desire to avoid battleground on which to censorship by the explore serious issues increasingly enforced such as class under a Hays Code. In order to comedic and non- incorporate prohibited threatening framework. risqué elements into their Class issues are a strong plots, filmmakers component of screwball resorted to handling these comedies: the upper class elements covertly. Verbal are represented as idle, sparring between the pampered, and having sexes served as a stand-in difficulty coping with the for physical, sexual real world. Some critics tension. Though some believe that the portrayal film scholars, such as of the upper class in It William K. Everson Happened One Night was argue "screwball brought about by the comedies were not so Great Depression, and the much rebelling against the Production Code as they were financially struggling moviegoing public's desire to see the rich attacking–and ridiculing– the dull, lifeless respectability that the upper class taught a lesson in humanity. (See also My Man Code insisted on for family viewing. Godfrey, 1936.) By contrast, when lower-class people attempt to The screwball comedy has close links with the theatrical pass themselves off as upper-class, they are able to do so with genre of farce, and some comic plays are also described as relative ease (The Lady Eve, 1941). screwball comedies. Many elements of the screwball genre can Another common element of the screwball comedy is be traced back to such stage plays as Lysistrata by Aristophanes, fast-talking, witty repartee (You Can't Take It With You (1937) William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and His Girl Friday (1940)). This stylistic device did not and A Midsummer Night's Dream and Oscar Wilde's The originate in the genre (although it may be argued to have reached Importance of Being Earnest.Other genres with which screwball its zenith there): it is also found in many of the old Hollywood comedy is associated include slapstick, situation comedy, cycles, including gangster films and romantic comedies. romantic comedy and bedroom farce. Screwball comedies also tend to contain ridiculous, Characteristics farcical situations, such as in Bringing Up Baby, where a couple Films definitive of the genre usually feature farcical must take care of a pet leopard during much of the film. Slapstick situations, a combination of slapstick with fast-paced repartee elements are also frequently present, such as the numerous and show the struggle between economic classes. They also pratfalls takes in The Lady Eve (1941). generally feature a self-confident and often stubborn central One subgenre of screwball is known as the comedy of female protagonist and a plot involving courtship and marriage remarriage, in which characters divorce and then remarry one or remarriage. These traits can be seen in both It Happened One another (The Awful Truth (1937), The Philadelphia Story Night and My Man Godfrey (1936). The film critic Andrew (1940)). Some scholars point to this frequent device as evidence Sarris has defined the screwball comedy as "a sex comedy of the shift in the American moral code, as it showed freer without the sex." attitudes toward divorce (though the divorce always turns out to Like farce, screwball comedies often involve have been a mistake). masquerade and disguise in which a character or characters resort Another subgenre of screwball comedy has the woman to secrecy. Sometimes screwball comedies feature male chasing a man who is oblivious to or disinterested in her. characters cross-dressing, further contributing to elements of Examples include chasing Henry Fonda (The masquerade (Bringing Up Baby (1938) I Was a Male War Bride Lady Eve (1941), chasing Antonio Moreno (The (1949), and Some Like It Hot (1959)). At first, the couple seem Cardboard Lover (1928), Marion Davies chasing mismatched and even hostile to each other but eventually ( (1933), and Carole Lombard chasing William overcome their differences in an amusing or entertaining way Powell (My Man Godfrey (1936).

La Cava: MY MAN GODFREY—9

COMING UP IN THE SPRING 2019 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS (SERIES 38)

Feb 19 The African Queen 1951 Feb 26 Jean-Luc Godard Breathless 1960 Mar 5 Luis Buñuel The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie 1972 Mar 12 Dr. Zhivago 1965 Mar 26 Arturo Ripstein Time to Die 1966 Apr 2 Michelangelo Antonioni Blow-Up 1966 Apr 9 Michael Cimino The Deer Hunter 1978 Apr 16 Terry Jones Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life 1983 Apr 23 Eyes Wide Shut 1999 Apr 30 Frederick Wiseman Monrovia, Indiana 2018 May 7 Alfonso Cuarón Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 2004

CONTACTS:...email Diane Christian: [email protected]…email Bruce Jackson [email protected] the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto [email protected] cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/ The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the State University of New York at Buffalo and the Dipson Amherst Theatre, with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News.