“I’ve lived by a man’s code designed to fit a man’s world, yet at the same time I never forget that a woman’s first job is to choose the right shade of lipstick.”
Carole Lombard and William Powell in My Man Godfrey, 1936.
Certainly one of the most talented and able actors during Hollywood’s Golden Age, William Powell personified the image of the sophisticated man about town ready to disarm with the perfect quip.
In My Man Godfrey (1936) the classic screwball comedy in which he starred opposite the great Carole Lombard, Powell found the ideal vehicle as a down at the heels victim of the Great Depression who ends up as Lombard’s wise butler.
Powell inhabits his role as Godfrey with astonishing aplomb.
But like all great performances, what looks effortless on-screen is the result of hard work and fractious collaboration.
