(1936)

Starring Carole Lombard, William Powell, Alice Brady, Mischa Auer; dir: Gregory La Cava

The ‘Forgotten Man’ theme (ex-GIs from World War I whom the system couldn't accomodate, so lavishly honoured in the eponymous finale to Gold Diggers of 1933) percolates to the surface throughout My Man Godfrey, underlining how central to its concerns are Depression-era social inequities. Not for this film the usual 1930s comedy’s lunatic shenanigans and cat-and-mouse absurdities, thinly based on social class positioning. My Man Godfrey masquerades as ‘screwball’ to savagely lampoon the idle rich in a non-stop gallery of grotesques. Virtually plotless, it’s more Bunuel than Bringing Up Baby.