From Eric Hatch novel. Academy Award nominations for Best Director-Gregory LaCava; Best Actor-Powell; Best Actress-Lombard; Best Supporting Actor-Mowbray; Best Supporting Actress-Brady; and Best Screenplay-Eric Hatch and Morris Ryskinch. Great movie!

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Well, this is just one of the best of the half-dozen or so top screwball comedies of the 30's. A dream cast plays it light and loose, with the real world of Depression-era America as a backdrop to a love story and a light lesson in responsibility, both to one's friends & family, to one's society, and to one's better nature.

And what a cast. William Powell is the epitome of debonair (what a quaint term: NO ONE is debonair anymore, alas)with one of the best comedic touches and timing in the business. Opposite Powell is Carole Lombard, young, adorable, beautiful and screwy and a perfect foil for Powell's smooth decorum. The supporting cast is first rate: Eugene Pallete the long-suffering businessman/husband; Gail Patrick, the beautiful but bitchy Cornelia; Mischa Auer's deadbeat Carlo; Alice Brady's clueless mother; Jean Dixon's wisecracking maid & Alan Mowbry as the rich & useless but decent Tommy Gray.

Enjoy comedy played by pros to a fare-thee-well. It's all attitude and delivery and body english and it is great! They can't make them like this anymore. Style and class.

The extras are quite good with a nice commentary track by Bob Gilpin and some hysterical outtakes (yes, they cussed back then too!). The print is pretty much clean and a vast improvement over previous editions.


GREAT FILM, BUT HORRENDOUS TRANSFER TO DVD   October 27, 1999
 36 out of 39 found this review helpful

"My Man Godfrey" is one of the best of the 1930's Screwball comedies, hence the high rating. It would have gotten five stars, but the DVD is taken from an incomplete dupe. The results are, to say the least, virtually unwatchable. Hope is on the horizon; Universal has struck new 35mm prints from the original negative, and it's playing right here in Philly. Hopefully, after the cinema reissue, Universal Studios wil finally do right by this movie and release a pristine DVD(and VHS for those who still only have that).


Which Version   April 3, 2001
 26 out of 28 found this review helpful

For those of you lucky enough to know, or who propose to get to know, this flick, you've come to the right place. Amazon sells two DVD versions of My Man Godfrey. I've seen both, as well as the VHS, and this one, the least expensive, from a company called Platinum, is by far the best quality. The other DVD, by Madacy Entertainment, is a fiasco based on a terrible print that happens to also be missing a crucial scene. Why Amazon continues to sell it, I don't know.


Great Movie, DVD Does It Little Justice   March 2, 2000
 22 out of 23 found this review helpful

I had hoped for a better transfer, but no such luck. Quality is not markedly better than my old VHS version, and it is *missing a scene* which is in the VHS version (where Powell kicks Lombard out of his room, telling her that as his "sponsor" it will reflect badly on her, and thus on him...). This is particularly annoying bacause the later interchange between Lombard's character and Molly (the cook) makes reference to Powell's action, which on the DVD version now has no context. Very disappointing, since this is such a wonderful movie.


one of the first "screwball" comedies   July 20, 2004
 21 out of 28 found this review helpful

This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film.

"My Man Godfrey" remains one of the most famous and most popular "screwball" comedy. In this film, a woman on a scavenger hunt meets a homeless man in the city dump. She recruits him to be the "forgotten man" the scavenger hunt calls for and subsequently hires him as a butler. The newly hired butler, Godfrey Smith brings help for the family and later falls in love with one of the daughters. The film has some risque moments and I am surprised that the censors of the time let them pass.

The film is very dated as well since it was both made and takes place during recovery from the Great Depression. The acting is also very good too.

The Criterion DVD has many bonus features including the theatrical trailer, production stills, a blooper reel, and audio commentary by film historian, Bob Gilpin, who also has taught courses on this very film.

There is also the Lux Radio Theater adaptation of the film is also a special feature.

This DVD is one that fans of 1930's comedies will love!