Recorded at the Historic Camelot Theater, Palm Springs, CA on June 11, 2023
TRANSCRIPT
(LAUREN WOLFER:) What do you think is the most well-known Screwball Comedy?
(ALIECE PICKETT:) I believe this film, “My Man Godfrey” (1936), is the most well-known.
It was an instant hit when it came out.
It was an instant classic.
It was positively reviewed, upon its release.
It was well received by the critics, and audiences flocked to it.
It is a masterpiece, It hasn’t lost its sheen in all these decades.
To be a masterpiece, a film must be exceptional in every element.
And this film is so special.
My work is to study Screwball Comedy.
I try not to have favorites, like children, but this film is so special.
>> LW: Is it your favorite?
>> AP: It’s up there, I just love it.
>> LW: I love the way that it engages with the Great Depression.
We’ve seen that in a few of these films.
“It Happened One Night” (1934), that we opened with, and this one, are a few that directly deal with the conditions of the time.
It’s interesting to see, and how relevant it still is in the social commentary.
>> AP: It still rings true today.
Screwball Comedy was the direct result of five political, economic, and social events in America during the 1930s, the Great Depression, the repeal of Prohibition, women’s freedoms and being allowed to start participating in society, the advent of sound film, and the imposition of censorship on all films.
It all led to the Screwball Comedy genre.
The Depression is probably the number one factor, and a core component of this film.
And the satire on the rich, and how frivolous and foolish they look.
It also humanizes the poor.
You feel it through the “Godfrey” character.
You relate to the people who are homeless and living in the dump.
You see a juxtaposition with the rich people.
You have “Cornelia” (Gail Patrick) throwing rocks through windows on Fifth Avenue.
You have “Irene” (Carole Lombard), riding a horse into the library!
They seem aimless, with no values.
She talks about the charity event and that after expenses, there’s nothing left for the charity.
You see a high contrast between the wealthy and the poor.
>> LW: In my Intro, I got his name wrong; the director is Gregory La Cava.
Tell me about him and his work.
>> AP: The movie mentions the “Forgotten Man”, which is a direct reference.
It had relevance to audiences in the Depression because Franklin Roosevelt had referenced the “Forgotten Man” in a speech in 1932.
I consider Gregory La Cava the “forgotten” director because he was a well-known, big director in the 1930s.
However, he’s obscure today.
There are two primary reasons, one is due to health and an early death.
He didn’t have a decades-long body of work.
Second, he was an independent director.
He didn’t contract with one particular studio.
So there wasn’t a studio promoting his work during his lifetime, nor was there one studio to promote his legacy after his death.
>> LW: Was that uncommon to have a director not tied to one studio?
>> AP: Correct. And he had an independent streak.
He didn’t want to be tied down with one studio.
It was unusual.
He was the son of Italian immigrants, and came from modest-means.
He started his professional life as a cartoonist, illustrator, then transitioned to animation.
From there he went to the silents and then talkies before becoming a film director.
And he has a signature style.
All his films deal in class-based comedy.
W.C. Fields once stated that Gregory La Cava was the most brilliant comic director with the most “comic” mind of anyone in Hollywood.
In class-based comedy, there’s a dynamic in his films, materialism versus humanity, human relationships, and community.
He co-wrote all of his scripts that he directed, though he did not seek or receive writing credit.
And he encouraged his actors to improvise and collaborate.
He believed it made performances fresher and more naturalistic.
That’s unusual for a writer to allow freedom of interpretation.
Consider Billy Wilder’s writing. He was the opposite.
You couldn’t deviate a word.
When there’s a comma, you’d better pause.
Gregory La Cava was opposite.
Freewheeling.
The script constantly evolved during filming.
His movies are better for it.
>> LW: The novel is tailor-made for that sensibility.
The “Godfrey” character is perfect.
It’s interesting because when you meet him, you can tell, there’s mystery.
Who is this guy?
>> AP: It’s a shame Gregory La Cava did not get to continue his career.
He had a personal demon, alcoholism, that he could not get ahead of.
He went to sanitariums repeatedly.
He could not get control of it. And it affected his personal life profoundly, and his professional life.
He was filming the “One Touch of Venus” (1948) with Ava Gardner.
His behavior, because of the alcoholism, he was fired.
He didn’t work again, and was dead four years later.
It was sad.
I think “My Man Godfrey” is his masterwork. You talk about the character “Godfrey”.
“Godfrey” is a prince.
He is a rich man who’s disguised himself as a bum, and he rescues this family.
He helps them to regain their human values.
His character, throughout the film, sets clear boundaries for the people.
All the women are in love with him.
They cry when he leaves, yet he keeps a respectful distance.
Not only is he a competent butler, he’s ingenious in terms of his business background.
He understands what’s happening to Bullock Enterprises.
He shorts the stock so he can then buy it cheap.
That also funds his operation to build “The Dump” nightclub, to house and employ 50 homeless people.
He was aspirational and inspirational for audiences of the time period, and for today.
>> LW: It looks like a great spot.
I would love to go to “The Dump”.
The family is something else.
They’re hilarious.
“Irene” is a screwy dame.
>> AP She’s kind, and empathetic, but she’s also flawed.
She’s a flawed heroine because she’s spoiled and naive.
But she’s the quintessential Screwball heroine because she’s self-directed, she drives the plot, and she upturns normal courtship rules.
>> LW: “We’re getting married now.” She likes to get what she wants.
Carole Lombard’s comic timing and the physicality of her performance are spectacular.
>> AP: She’s universally considered the Queen of Screwball Comedy, and it’s well deserved.
From my research, her personal attributes closely fit the dynamic of the character, the archetype of the Screwball heroine.
She was zany and madcap in real life.
She was a fast-talker, with an effervescent personality.
She was carefree, and very funny.
The attributes we love in Screwball Comedy, she embodied in real life.
She started out as a bathing beauty, working for Mack Sennett in his comedies.
Then she got a contract with Paramount Studios.
Unfortunately, they used her in melodramas, musicals, and westerns.
Her natural attributes weren’t showcased.
It was only when the great director Howard Hawks saw her at a party and observed her interacting with people. He realized she hadn’t been cast in a film that was anything like her natural character.
He immediately cast her in his upcoming film “Twentieth Century” (1934), which was one of the three films that ushered in the Screwball Comedy genre.
It was a natural fit.
She shined in it, and was off and running.
Ernst Lubitsch, a great director, but also at that time an executive at Paramount, then put her in two Screwball Comedies “Hands Across the Table” (1935), and “Princess Comes Across” (1936).
She knocked it out of the ballpark.
From there she made “My Man Godfrey” (1936), and “Nothing Sacred” (1937), a blistering satire on the media and reckless journalism, “fake news”.
Then she made “To Be or Not to Be”, Alfred Hitchcock’s only Screwball Comedy–sorry, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” (1941).
Her final film before her tragic death at 33 was “To Be or Not to Be” (1942).
>> LW: She and Clark Gable had deep roots in Palm Springs.
>> AP: They honeymooned at the home of Marion Davies, on Tahquitz Canyon Way.
The mansion is now the bed and breakfast, “The Willows”.
There was scuttlebutt they wouldn’t leave her home, they were so happy there.
They loved Palm Springs, so they did buy a home in Old Las Palmas on Chino Drive.
>> LW: So Marion Davies was finally like, “Okay, that was fun. Thanks guys”.
>> AP: She finally did get them out and they bought a home here.
>> LW: Can you imagine going to a dinner party at Carole Lombard and Clark Gable’s house?
What a couple.
I also loved Gail Patrick as “Cornelia”.
She’s icy and has that perfect “evil queen” vibe.
It’s a great performance.
>> AP: She’s diametrically opposed to the “Irene” character.
She’s a schemer, she’s mean, she’s callous, she’s spoiled, she’s rotten to the core.
She tries to seduce “Godfrey”, then tries to frame “Godfrey” for theft.
Gail Patrick stars in two other landmark Screwball Comedy films, “My Favorite Wife” (1940) with Cary Grant, and “Love Crazy” (1941), again with William Powell.
Many people don’t know that Gail Patrick, after her acting career, had quite a second act.
She became one of the first female executive producers in Hollywood.
She was well-read, and admired the attorney and author Earl Stanley Gardner.
He had written a series of novels based on his “Perry Mason” character.
They had been made several times into films and radio broadcasts that he hated.
He vowed never to allow his works to be adapted again.
She said, “Please let me try.
Let me try to develop it as a TV series.
I will be true to the characters.
You’ll participate.
You will be proud of it”.
He relented, and she ushered that in and brought it to TV.
Then, Raymond Burr came to audition for the “Paul Drake” character for “Perry Mason”.
She had seen Raymond Burr in a small, pivotal role in a movie with Montgomery Clift and Elizabeth Taylor, “A Place in the Sun” (1951).
She told him, “I saw you play the district attorney in that movie.
Would you consider auditioning for the ‘Perry Mason’ role?” He said yes, and got the part.
He so embodied and represented the role, Earl Stanley Gardner was re-energized and he started writing “Perry Mason” novels again.
At one point he even said “Raymond Burr is Perry Mason”.
Her second act made Gail Patrick a very wealthy woman.
>> LW: One thing we haven’t talked about is these amazing character actors.
They’re so critical.
>> AP: They are the unsung heroes of Screwball Comedy.
The movie stars take all the oxygen in the room, so they don’t get much attention.
They should, because without them Screwball Comedies wouldn’t be the great movies they are.
They give that backbone that is necessary.
And they’re comic foils for the lead actors.
They’re indispensable.
This movie is a perfect showcase for them.
Unusual for the Academy, but they did acknowledge two Screwball character actors with Academy Award nominations, Alice Brady as “Mrs. Bullock”, the ditzy mother; and Mischa Auer as “Carlo, the protege”.
>> LW: That gorilla. Who got the Academy Award?
(Walter Brennan, for “Come and Get It” (1936)).
>> AP: They are just two of the supporting cast.
Eugene Palette, “Mr. Bullock” with his bullfrog voice.
Just look at him and listen to him.
You cannot help but crack up.
Then there’s Franklin Pangborn (scavenger hunt judge).
He’s outstanding in every Screwball he’s in.
What a fine cast, Jean Dixon, “Molly” the maid. She’s a stalwart in many Screwballs.
They’re superstars of the Screwball genre.
>> LW: Unsung heroes.
Let’s wrap with your one of your favorite topics, Art Deco.
The sets, gorgeous.
>> AP: You can’t talk about Screwball Comedy without talking about Art Deco because they’re intertwined.
No film genre in the 1930s has Art Deco represented more than Screwball Comedy.
It’s funnier to see a dysfunctional family’s bickering and antics in a luxury mansion.
Put the same bickering dysfunctional family in a modest home, not funny. Pathetic and sad.
But here, in luxe surroundings, and it’s hilarious.
Most Screwball Comedies take place in Manhattan, which in the 1930s was the epicenter of urbane sophistication and elegance.
It’s part of the satire, juxtaposing the rich and the poor.
Filmmakers gave audiences what they wanted.
They not only liked to see the rich skewered, which they’re satirized and lampooned here, but also they were fascinated by the rich.
They wanted to see how the rich live and where they live.
So this gives them an opportunity, and the sets are a character unto themselves.
And with Art Deco, it’s so luxurious.
It immediately, efficiently conveys wealth.
You don’t have to include dialogue and backstory. The settings give you that.
Here, it’s wall-to-wall Art Deco, starting with the opening credits.
>> LW: It makes sense.
Gregory La Cava had a background as an animator.
They’re some of the best opening credits.
>> AP: For those interested in fonts and graphics, see the Art Deco fonts.
Then the “Ritz Plaza Hotel”. It’s Art Deco in its decor.
The “Bullock mansion”, particularly the enormous kitchen, is Art Deco.
You go straight through to “The Dump”, the new nightclub, it’s beautifully outfitted with Art Deco.
That’s the thing about these films. They’re an historical record of that period of time and that beautiful art form.
But for these films, that would be lost.🎥
Film Society of Screwball Comedy®
Edited by Aliece Pickett
Copyright 2025