Lambie Reviews My Man Godfrey

Year: 1936
Accolades: Nominated for a slew of Academy Awards
Review on Letterboxd: 'My Man Godfrey' review by Avalanche

My Man Godfrey is the story of a homeless man, Godfrey, who is hired as a butler by the woman who found him as part of a scavenger hunt (no, really). She and the rest of her family turn out to be quite dysfunctional in their own way, she also seems to be in love with him, and the man himself might be keeping a few secrets of his own.

This is the point where I would usually say something like “It's a pretty well made film but it doesn't hold up in the modern, butler-less world of today”. Except it does. The film works because it's not really about the social classes in any way that isn't explained on screen or is otherwise inaccessible to the modern viewer. The entire film relies on things that are still accessible to the modern audiences of today.

The screenplay is easily deserving of its Oscar nomination. The humour in the film, and believe me there'd a lot of it, relies on jokes that are timeless – clever wordplay on witty observations of what's happening on screen. I found myself laughing many times at the wry dialogue that came out of everyone's mouths. At other times it is intriguing, because as events unfold and we get past one layer of a character, we're just left with many more layers and questions until the final scenes of the film.

The characters themselves are all wonderful, as is the acting. Despite the reasonably large cast it's easy to keep track of everyone (unlike some other films with large casts), and they all have their believable flaws. One of the final scenes, in which the solution to a mystery is solved and a few other dangling plot points resurface and are tidied up, has one of the characters realise just how wrong they were about Godfrey. Their reaction (and those of everyone else present) isn't melodramatic, but rather something simple and heartfelt in which we can believe an apologetic and genuine change of heart and opinion has occurred.

Such a grand combination of acting, characterisation, screenplay, and directing is rare in any film, let alone a bizarre little comedy made in the 1930s. I was pleasantly surprised when I started laughing at the jokes, but by the end of the film I realised this was more than just a good comedy. This is a great film.