Click on title to link to YouTube's film clip of "My Man Godfrey", starring William Powell and Carole Lombard. The Hemingway point is in the post a comment section at the bottom of this entry.
DVD REVIEW
My Man Godfrey, William Powell, Carol Lombard, 1936, black and white
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously is reputed to have said that the very rich are different from you and I. Well, hell we knew that. Nevertheless the premise of this little 1930's class comedy seeks to turn that proposition on its head, at least partially. William Powell as 1930's down and out hobo (although in reality just another scion of a rich family looking to find himself and his place in the world during the Great Depression) is singled out to be a reclamation project (as the family butler, of course) for the Mayfair swells, a society family of crazies.
In the process that family learns some lessons about how the other half lives and about the universal proposition that it is nice to be nice in the world. Especially in need of that lesson is a class conscious, ruling class conscious that is, daughter who is the foil for old Godfrey's antics. Add a little off-hand romance by Powell with a batty younger daughter played by Carol Lombard and all's well that ends well. Except, as I recall during the later part of the 1930's, the period when this 'slice of life' film was produced, there were little things like the Little Steel Strike Massacre, the sit-downs in order to organize the automobile industry in Michigan and myriad other actions to `level the playing field' with the rich. But, my friends, that is another story.
William Powell, although always identified in my mind as the 'society' detective Nick Charles (with his lovely Nora, played by Myrna Loy, and the ever-present Asta)plays it straight here. Carol Lombard is, well, Carol Lombard a fine comedic actress. So suspend your disbelief and take this funny look at the class struggle for what it is worth.
You know that I worry about the of our poor 'rich' today. So much so that I feel I have to take a side in a literary debate about the merits of F. Scott Fitzgerald's view of his poor, benighted rich segment of the population and his dear friend Ernest Hemingway's.
ReplyDeleteFitzgerald was always in awe of this clan and endlessly charted their temperatures, their tantrums, their faddishness and their nostrums. That he did it well and with a certain literary flair goes without question. And that is the key to the controversy.
To counteract Fitzgerald's class adoration Hemingway dismisses their bleatings in about two sentences in one of his short stories. And here is the gist of it unadorned- the rich are bores and boring. Well, they are more than that but once against Papa hits the nail on the head. Sorry, Scott.