My Man Godfrey

This film is somehow greater than the sum of it's parts. What I mean is while watching it, from beginning to end, I felt mostly bored, annoyed, and impatient. The wild incessant chattering of the rich and the crazy got to me after only the first scene, which I assume was the point of it. But afterwards, sitting in my car only a few minutes later, waiting for it to warm up, my mind was completely enwrapped in the movie. I thought about it for much of last night and much of today. The annoying characters would have been much more appropriate to a depression era audience, I bet they would have really ate it up. But what I found I could appreciate just as much as that audience is the character of Godfrey. He's a hero along the lines of Robin Hood or Dr. Van Helsing. He's mysterious, skillful, knowledgeable, and above all else incredibly resourceful. Not only does he raise himself up but he raises all those around him up also. But he's even more as those that he might have found an enemy in he found friends and helped them too.

That aside, wtf did he let that whiny, irritatingly idiotic child-woman take his hand in marriage? I feel like if the film had shown us just five more seconds into the plot that Godfrey would've made a run for it. When I said he was heroic I didn't mean he was self sacrificial.

And I always mean to imply that while her sister changes for the better, Godfrey's stalker and obsessed annoyance not only maintains her stature as the most irritating character but grows and grows as this creature you just wish Godfrey would strangle.

And wtf is the maid on about? I know there's a joke about Godfrey's allure as a man of mystery and skill and so on, but it feels tacked on and useless.


Ok, so besides some annoying characters and plotless points poking out this was a pretty great film to look at in the depression era context, I think we can assume a lot of the general opinion and mood in America from it.