My Man Godfrey is both lovable and pointless

My Man Godfrey was an incredibly stupid movie. I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I don't think I do. Now I have to say that the only other "screwball" comedy I've seen is Bringing Up Baby, which I didn't like at all. I am such a huge fan of comedies. And I love dialog. But there's something about this style that bothers me. I think what I don't like about them is the ridiculous portrayals of the wealthy and the incredibly dumb things that happen. I would much rather prefer that the film made some sense.

One thing that I really liked about the film (and the filmmaker's made it incredibly hard not to like) was Godfrey. Now I know there has been a lot of talk about how he doesn't seem to go through a lot of change throughout the film and that he appears flawless and for some reason that makes the movie not as good. But I disagree. I don't understand why a film can't have a character that is relatively set in his ways. Now I would agree to some extent that this makes the movie rather unbelievable and makes the character somewhat one dimensional but from what I've seen of Screwball comedies, it really doesn't seem like any rules have to be followed. With that being said, I would argue that Godfrey does go through some amount of change by the end of the film. Although he doesn't outwardly express it, except one moment when he calls the group of wealthy people a bunch of "empty headed nit wits", he clearly doesn't think much of the family. Although he's polite, he realizes that the daughters are incredibly spoiled and that every member of the family is completely immature and irresponsible. But by the end of the film, Godfrey sees that even though the family has flaws, he has benefitted and changed because of them. Godfrey states, "I learned patience from Mr. Bullock. I found Mrs. Bullock at all times, shall we say, amusing." He also tells Cornelia, "You taught me the fallacy of false pride. You taught me humility."

I didn't really like Irene's character because as much as I felt like there could be a character in a film that doesn't necessarily have to change, I felt like Irene should have. At the end of the film, Irene is still the same psychotic, immature, naive, and stupid girl that she was at the beginning of the film. I think that the movie would've been much more successful or at least have made the audience more emotionally connected if Irene's character "matured" in some ways.

One of the most interesting points that was brought up in the Screwball Capitalism article was when Gallagher mentioned Godfrey's class journey. I thought it was spot on when Gallagher pointed out that Godfrey went from upper to lower to middle class, covering all of the bases. This once again makes his character so appealing to everyone in the film as well as those watching the film. In a way, as Gallagher also writes, this makes the story seem like a fairy tale and Godfrey is the prince in disguise.

I noticed that My Man Godfrey was nominated for 6 academy awards in 1936 and among those that were nominated was lead actor William Powell. I find it interesting that these people were nominated for their performances because I don't think they would be recognized that much today. Especially with Powell's portrayal of Godfrey, I believe that the academy requires much more of a dramatic depth of character than what was delivered.

Although I love Godfrey's character and believe that he is very memorable, I feel like watching My Man Godfrey is kind of a waste of time. I know that when it came out it was supposed to suspend people from their harsh realities. But watching it now, it seems more like we're suspending ourselves from reality and experiencing something that is much more annoying and rather pointless.