While searching for a homeless person as part of a scavenger hunt, a mercurial socialite (Carole Lombard) finds her query in the form of Godfrey (William Powell), a charming, down on his luck fellow upper classer (though unbeknownst to her) whom she brings home to wait on her eccentric family. My Man Godfrey is a beloved screwball comedy and considered by many to be the definitive entry in the genre. Though gorgeously filmed and containing nice performances from Powell, Lombard (if pressed, I would probably pick Howard Hawks' Twentieth Century, which she also starred in, as a favorite farcical comedy of the period), and Eugene Pallette, I found the film somewhat stilted and awfully contrived.
