I watched one of my favorite movies of all time, My Man Godfrey with William Powell and Carol Lombard. It was made in 1936 during the great depression. It takes place in Boston where the old Boston families still have enough money to carry on there frivolous lives. A “forgotten” man who lives at at the dump in a packing crate enters the life of the wealthy Bullock family. But this forgotten man is not what he seems, he is really Godfrey Park of the wealthy Boston Park family. The Bullock daughters are participating in a scavenger hunt and one of them brings him to the hunt as a forgotten man and wins.
From there Godfrey becomes the Bullock’s butler and the Bullocks have trouble hanging on to butlers because except for the father the family is insane and impossible to please. Godfrey sticks around and proves to be a very good butler but he has a problem – the younger daughter Irene falls in love with him. Godfrey’s real identity is discovered when a wealthy friend of his comes to a party held by the Bullocks. The Bullocks run into some financial difficulties but Godfrey had seen it coming and bails them out.
Godfrey quits his job as butler and opens a night club to employee all of the other forgotten men in his old homeless camp and supplies them with housing. How ever his problems with Irene are not over.
This is a screwball comedy that takes place in a very depressing time and I highly recommend it. BTW it was the first movie to receive Academy Award nominations in all 4 acting categories.