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.
In his 1948 memoir, It Took Nine Tailors, Adolph Menjou, one of Powell’s best friends, gives us a witty glimpse into the creative process between Powell and ace director Gregory LaCava.
During the making of My Man Godfrey, one of LaCava’s best pictures, he and Bill Powell disagreed on how Powell’s part should be played.
“You haven’t found Godfrey yet!” exclaimed LaCava.
This led to a nightlong discussion of the character of Godfrey over a bottle or two of Scotch. As the two parted in the early morning hours, they had finally reached a perfect accord on the character that Powell was playing.
Next morning LaCava arrived at the studio with a terrific headache but determined to get in a good day’s work. However, the star of the picture failed to appear. Finally, a telegram from Powell was delivered to LaCava.
It read: we may have found godfrey last night but we lost powell. see you tomorrow.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
12 Comments
There is no such thing as a big name starlet. The starlet term was coined by publicists and refers to anonymous glamour girls.
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Correct you are! Pardon my faux pas!
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Robert: I have a question for you. Powell married Eileen Wilson in 1915 and they divorced in 1930, I believe, but I saw on Find-A-Grave that she passed away in on Aug 12, 1942, She was only 46 at the time. Did she die of an illlness or accident? She seemed the odd one in Powell’s life. They seemed to have married for love — they had 15 years and a son together. She was a stage actress primarily, wasn’t she? What happened to her? When I google Eileen Wilson, I get a another actress who apparently did quite a bit of voice-overs for big name starlets.
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Prophet Joe:
I’ll have to check my library and get back to you. Give me a few days.
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I first saw My Man Godfrey on a small independent station. It would be on every other month or so and was obviously in public domain just as It’s A Wonderful Life. It even seemed like it could have been a Capra film along the lines of It Happened One Night.
Godfrey, like IAWL and IHON and so many films from that period, was blessed with a tremendous supporting cast complementing the stars. How Gail Patrick and especially Eugene Pallette weren’t nominated is hard to understand. It’s hard to have a good movie with a bad supporting cast unless you’re making Sleuth or My Dinner With Andre.
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Johnny:
People often ask whatever happened to great character actors? The answer is very simple, they are on TV. Tons of them. And many character actors now get leading roles. So in away, things are much better these days for these actors.
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Powell is one of my favorite actors from the Golden Years. I loved him in My Man Godfrey (which I recently viewed for the first time) and the Thin Man series (which Turner Classic Movies just aired in the past few days). I also thought he did well in Mister Roberts (his last film).
It’s a little ironic that I *think* of The Thin Man (1934) as one of his earlier films, when in reality, he began acting in 1922 and had made something like 57 films before The Thin Man! He eventually appeared in 94 movies before retiring in 1955.
His personal life was as astounishing as his movie lives were…. He was married for 15 years to his first wife, then he married Carole Lombard and they divorced after 2 years, then he fell in love with Jean Harlow, but she died unexpectedly in 1937. He finally met Diana Lewis in 1940 and they were married 3 weeks later. They remained married for 44 years until his death in 1984. When I put that all into perspective, it boggles my mind. He was marrying Carole Lombard when my mom was born and he died when I was about 23 years old!
I want to see him the “Life with Father” (one of his later works) and some of the earlier Philo Vance movies (if they are available).
I always thought David Niven and William Powell were very similar actors. Both played sophisticated men capable of a quick, witty remark.
And lastly, I always admired Powell for staying retired. So many actors retire and then their vanity gets the better of them and they come back as a mere shadow of their younger years, but Powell supposedly received many movies role offers and never accepted.
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Prophet Joe:
Powell was a solid guy. When he was involved with Harlow he quickly realized that Mama Harlow and her gigolo husband were stealing Jean blind. He tried to make Harlow see what a nest of vipers she was supporting, but Harlow was deeply attached to her mother and would not do what was necessary to protect her bank account. Powell understood that he had no future with her and right before she got sick he broke it off. Her death was a huge blow and he vowed never to get involved with another Hollywood star ever again. His last wife was nicknamed “mousie,” which tells you an awful lot.
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I think you’re just trying to make sure I never confuse A. Menjou for M. Angelou again…
But that is a good punch-line.
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Alter:
You got me:-)
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I just ordered the James Garner biography The Garner Files - interesting read. Have just started but Garner said his easy going demeanor on the screen - is just that – a screen personna. His childhood in Oklahoma seems out of a Dickens Novel.
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Bill:
I’m going to order Garner’s book too. We’ll compare notes.
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