Trailer
Plot summary
In Depression-era New York, Godfrey lives in a shantytown at the city dump by the East River, alongside other homeless men. One night Cornelia Bullock, a spoiled socialite, offers him five dollars to be her forgotten man in a scavenger hunt; he refuses and topples her into a pile of ashes. Irene, her younger sister, is kinder, and Godfrey agrees to go with her so she can beat Cornelia. At the Waldorf-Ritz Hotel, judges confirm him as a genuine forgotten man, and Irene wins that part of the game. Disgusted by the guests' antics, he tells them so and walks out. An apologetic Irene hires him as the family butler. The maid Molly warns him that butlers before him have seldom lasted long.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about My Man Godfrey (1936)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Constance Bennett was Universal's first choice to play Irene, and Miriam Hopkins was also considered, but director Gregory La Cava would only accept Bennett if Universal borrowed William Powell from MGM. Powell agreed to take the part only if Carole Lombard played Irene.
- Director Gregory La Cava and star William Powell hit a snag over how Godfrey should be portrayed and settled it over a bottle of Scotch; the next morning La Cava arrived with a headache, but Powell sent a telegram reading: "WE MAY HAVE FOUND GODFREY LAST NIGHT BUT WE LOST POWELL. SEE YOU TOMORROW."
- Because of insurance considerations, a stand-in stuntman, Chick Collins, was used when Godfrey carried Irene over his shoulder up the stairs to her bedroom.
- My Man Godfrey was the first movie nominated in all four acting categories, in the first year the supporting Oscars existed, and it remains the only film in Oscar history with all four acting nominations and no Best Picture nomination.
- When tensions ran high on set, Carole Lombard cursed so much that shooting became somewhat difficult, and clips of her cursing in her dialogue and messing up her lines survive in blooper reels, along with cursing from William Powell.
