Product Details

• Actors: William Powell, Carole Lombard
• Directors: Gregory La Cava
• Format: NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: Big D Films
• DVD Release Date: July 28, 2009
• Run Time: 212 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002JEJ2WM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,475 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Music Hall has decided to have its April Fool's Day in September. With Universal's compliments, it presented yesterday the daffiest comedy of the year. My Man Godfrey, from the novel by Eric Hatch, is on the order of the Three-Cornered Moon of a few seasons ago except that it is slightly more insane. There may be a sober moment or two in the picture; there may be a few lines of the script that do not pack a laugh. Somehow we cannot remember them. It's nonsense, of course, but it's something to relish on a damp September morn.

Perhaps you have not read the Hatch novel. Then you are not acquainted with the Bullocks. There is Mrs. Bullock (Alice Brady does her magnificently) who speaks in a stream of exclamation points and has a sad-eyed and voracious protégé, Carlo. There is Cornelia (Gail Patrick will serve), with a vicious temper and an ingrained snobbery. There is Irene, the cow-eyed, who has a one-track mind with grass growing over its rails. It is not a fair portrait of Carole Lombard, but she rises beautifully to the role. There is Mr. Bullock (Eugene Pallette), who glares at his Fifth Avenue ménage and wonders whether he is going crazy or the people around him are.

And, naturally, there is Godfrey. We thought of calling him William Powell, but this isn't Mr. Powell, it's Godfrey. He was the forgotten man that the skirted Bullocks set out to find during a scavenger hunt. They already had goats, Japanese goldfish, corsets, tennis racquets, and a monkey. Cornelia found Godfrey first. He was living in a shack colony of the unemployed on the city dumps near the East River. Godfrey pushed Cornelia into an ash pile. But Irene won him over, captured the loving cup in the scavenger hunt, and rewarded Godfrey with a job. "Do you know how to buttle?" she asked, and Godfrey became a butler for the Bullocks.

That is the way it begins. Godfrey, we learn later, is a Harvard man, momentarily gone to seed, but like most Harvard men he is a thoroughly irresistible chap, equally capable of dealing with Mrs. Bullock's pixies (she sees them on morning-afters), with Cornelia's attempt to plant a pearl necklace on him, with Mr. Bullock's financial difficulties, or the plight of his former co-squatters in the waterfront jungle. But not, we hastily add, with the forthright emotional processes of that bovine divinity (or vice versa), Irene, who is somewhat surer than death or taxes. Godfrey, when we leave him, is being led to the slaughter and it's enough to bring tears to the eyes of an Eli.

Mr. Hatch has assisted in the writing of the screen version of his novel and he has preserved admirably the feather-brained quality of his book. Gregory La Cava has directed the piece with his customary feeling for comedy and, to the work of the players previously mentioned, has been added a cheerful contribution by such reliable clowns as Alan Mowbray, Mischa Auer, Jean Dixon, Franklin Pangborn, and Ed Gargan. The sum of it is that My Man Godfrey is an exuberantly funny picture. --The New York Times

Product Description

My Man Godfrey (COLLECTORS EDITION) 1936

This Collectors Edition has been digitally restored to improve picture and sound quality without degrading the look and feel of this historic example of early cinema.

COLLECTORS EDITION 2009 INCLUDES:
The original un-cut motion picture, MY MAN GODFREY with digitally restored black & white picture and sound.

BONUS FEATURE
Along with MY MAN GODFREY, you also get LIFE WITH FATHER starring William Powell. One of the best comedic family films ever made, LIFE WITH FATHER won a N.Y. Film Critics Award and provides a look at family life in New York in the 1880 s.

For more information about this Bonus Feature or the Feature Film, visit The Internet Movie Database (IMDB) or Rotten Tomatoes.

MOVIE DESCRIPTION
Based on the novel by Eric Hatch, this screwball comedy is a genre favorite. It stars William Powell as Godfrey and Carole Lombard as the rich debutant Irene Bullock.

While on a scavenger hunt for a high society ball, Irene needs to find herself a forgotten man and she finds Godfrey only after he has refused the same request from Irene s sister Cornelia. The hunt sets off an unusual chain of events that brings Godfrey into the Bullock home as a butler. But things are all what they seem to be and Godfrey becomes deeply involved in the Bullock family saga before his true identity is revealed.

This product is manufactured on demand using Dual Layer DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.coms standard return policy will apply.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Appallingly bad transfer, December 21, 2009

By 

Tim Evanson (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Man Godfrey (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

This must be the VERY WORST film-to-video transfer I have seen in 20 years. The image is murky. Half the time, heads are cut off in mid-forehead. It's as if the upper and lower 15 percent of the movie were simply chopped off. The sound is clear, but the image? I would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR buy this product EVER AGAIN.

The company which is foisting this horrific transfer off on an unsuspecting public, Big D Entertainment, claims that although the film has been digitally remastered, it has been done so to keep the "experience of viewing early cinema intact."

This is an outright lie. This simply means that the viewer has to be satisfied with a rotten film print, transferred poorly to DVD, and then poorly digitized.

This DVD is similar in appearance to those pirates who sit in the back row of a theater and videotape a major motion picture. It's that poor.

DO NOT BUY.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Version!, December 19, 2007

By 

Arthur (America) - See all my reviews

My Man Godfrey is a wonderful little film, and after one previous try, I finally found a complete version with no random parts cut out, AND I didn't have to fork out 40 bucks for the Criterion Collection. Of course that means that the case isn't as good, but it's good enough - come on! :) do you really spend more time looking at the case than at the actual movie?

Of course not, and especially not with a movie like My Man Godfrey. It's truly an American classic. Set against the recovery period of the 1930's, an all-star cast pull off a lighthearted screwball comedy. Anyone familiar with films from the time period, or of slapstick comedies with a rags to riches story will really appreciate My Man Godfrey. William Powell and Carole Lombard, the two leads, are great and probably contributed most to the longevity of the film as a classic.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Save for the better restored version, March 29, 2010

By 

Susan Ostheim - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: My Man Godfrey (Collector's Edition) (DVD)

I thought this was going to be the good one but alas, the restored quality is really lacking. The picture is wobbley and over blown. And the additional bonus of Life With Father is a pure joke. I couldn't even watch the picture it was so badly drawn. Here's my advice- save your money and buy the Criterion Collection edition. This was one sad purchase on my part.