It also features Gail Patrick who made her living playing that type of character. Have you seen her in My Favorite Wife?

I’ve seen the movie but it’s been awhile and I didn’t remember Patrick as being in it. I’ll have to rewatch it and look for her.

After a vacation from hell, finding Love Crazy on cable at one AM in a random hotel in North Carolina may have saved me from deliberately driving off the interstate in order to end my MIL-in-the-backseat induced torment.

LOL. Glad to see you survived the experience.

A few I didn't see mentioned here are Holiday, Sylvia Scarlet, and Four's a Crowd.

Now Sylvia Scarlet is a movie I’ve always been half afraid to try. The reviews and opinions on it range so widely and it seems that it works for a smaller minority of viewers. Holiday is one I’ve never seen either but I gotta agree with you on Four’s a Crowd. That’s one I’d love to see on DVD.

It also features Gail Patrick who made her living playing that type of character. Have you seen her in My Favorite Wife?

After a vacation from hell, finding Love Crazy on cable at one AM in a random hotel in North Carolina may have saved me from deliberately driving off the interstate in order to end my MIL-in-the-backseat induced torment.

A few I didn’t see mentioned here are Holiday, Sylvia Scarlet, and Four’s a Crowd.

Have you tried Love Crazy or I Love You Again?

No, but I’m going to give them a go too.

As for old movie clips, I love this one:
If Men Played Cards as Women Do, with Fred MacMurray, Franchot Tone, Ray Milland and Lynn Overman.

OMG. Too funny. Especially the conference when Tone went to get the glass of water. I love him in “Five Graves to Cairo” and wish that were out as a DVD.

Another that has gone unmentioned is “His Girl Friday” with a deliciously yummy Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell. I like that one because it has humor, but also tackles a very serious storyline about a man from death row.

I’ve only seen this one once and that was years ago. I’ll have to try it again as I love Grant.

As for old movie clips, I love this one:
If Men Played Cards as Women Do, with Fred MacMurray, Franchot Tone, Ray Milland and Lynn Overman.

But que sera sera, it's just my opinion on a film, on actors, and on a movie genre I dearly love. Not trying to force it down anyone's throat.

I’d be willing to bet that fans of the genre couldn’t agree on every screwball film out there. For instance, I recently managed to make it through “Double Wedding” but wasn’t as thrilled with it as I thought I’d be. Myrna Loy and William Powell, how could it miss? But it did. And I couldn’t even finish “Libeled Lady.” Hated Spencer Tracy, hated Loy, hated Jean Harlow. Powell was the only one who kept me watching as long as I did and even he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere but on that set.

We do agree on “Nothing Sacred” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” I’ve got a few of Lombard’s other movies on my rental list but am about to give up on Loy and Powell outside of the “Thin Man” movies and even those don’t do much for me either.

Ultimately, I didn’t feel any pathos from this movie. A screwball staple is the clash between classes (It Happened One Night, Libeled Lady, Bringing Up Baby, Fifth Avenue Girl), and a) Godfrey’s reasons for becoming a forgotten man weren’t written very well & b) the high society life was distasteful to him, yet Irene was and represented the worst excesses and indulgences of that class–where and when did he fall in love with her? 90% of their conversation was her coming on to him and he trying to defend himself, even that during the dish-washing scene. My Man Godfrey is funny and had most of the tropes inherent to the screwball comedy oeuvre, but even though I’ve watched it multiple times, I never feel any emotion driving the plot. It’s all a bunch of situations strung together with a few moments of scene-and-sequel (mostly those with William Powell).

But que sera sera, it’s just my opinion on a film, on actors, and on a movie genre I dearly love. Not trying to force it down anyone’s throat.

While I find “My Man Godfrey” to be perhaps the funniest screwball film, it’s rivaled by “Nothing Sacred.” Those two films were perhaps the pinnacle of her career, her short life. For a look at her dramatic abilities, I recommend “They Knew What They Wanted” co-starring Charles Laughton, and as a trivia note, was Karl Malden’s first film appearance.

Lombard was truly beloved by Hollywood, there wasn’t a pretentious bone in her body. Her romance with Gable achieved legendary status, perhaps because of that scene that was summarized as “hell on a mountain” – January 16, 1942. With her death, the legend was secure. She left behind a wonderful body of work, as well as a legacy of behind the scenes humanitarian work. “My Man Godfrey” is a fitting tribute to this wonderful woman.

Are there any Howard Keel fans in the house, because my sister just discovered this wonderful/horrifying video of him in a tiny tiny skirt on you tube and I just… had to share. Hair-pulling, animals freaking out, men with trust issues, phallic symbols like whoa- It’s practically a romance novel cover in action!

The Lady Eve (Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda)

Ball of Fire (Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper) and

Libeled Lady (Myrna Loy, William Powell, Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow).

If you love screwball comedies, I can’t recommend them highly enough!!!

linky

edit: oh fooey! foiled by the dreaded regional limits scenario!!

Irene was dim-witted and shrieking for the sake of it; there were no mellow moments with her (compare Irene to Susan Vance in Bringing Up Baby), and Carole's performance was too over-the-top for me

Ah, here is where our opinions differ. I felt she did have some mellow times, especially when she and Godfrey first met at the city dump before heading out to win the scavenger hunt. Then later when Godfrey was washing dishes for the sick Molly and Irene joined him – drying dishes as they talked. I feel that Irene knows exactly what she’s doing throughout the film, it just takes Godfrey awhile to fall under her spell.

I can watch Penelope over and over too (movie is seriously underrated IMO).

I have this in my Netflix queue as well.

I LOVE that movie. James McAvoy is also yummy. :)

I adored him in the first season of “Shameless” which, by the way, I wish would be available in the US. Only season one is currently out from Netflix.

OOH! And Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day. That one's funny and very romantic. And Lee Pace is yummy.

Yes! I cried (figuratively, at least) the when I found out “Pushing Daisies” was cancelled. Loved him, loved Kristin Chenowith, loved the costumes and set design. But I didn’t really appreciate how downright sexy Lee Pace was until I saw him in “Miss Pettigrew”.

@Edie:

ooo.. Bringing Up Baby – the first time I saw that I fell into a lifelong love for Katharine Hepburn.. love that woman!

I felt that way after seeing her in “The Philadelphia Story”. Her over-the-top society miss when she’s stringing along Jimmy Stewart’s reporter at the beginning still makes me laugh even after umpteen viewings.

@Jayne:

And yes, you're right. Powell and Lombard had been married though they were divorced by this time. From what I read, Powell held out for her to be cast in the roll.

I didn’t know this. If true, it means he not only played a gentleman in the movie, he was one in Real Life.

I can watch Penelope over and over too (movie is seriously underrated IMO).

I LOVE that movie. James McAvoy is also yummy. :)

OOH! And Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day. That one's funny and very romantic. And Lee Pace is yummy.

It totally worked for me, and it’s just so darn sweet. But then I can watch Penelope over and over too (movie is seriously underrated IMO).