My Man Godfrey (1936)

This was a rather bizarre film, but then again, it is more than eighty years old.
Godfrey (William Powell) is a homeless man picked up by Cordelia Bullock (Gail Patrick) as part of a ridiculous scavenger hunt for rich people who have too much time on their hands. But it is Cordelia's younger sister, Irene (Carole Lombard, eventually the third Mrs. Clark Gable) who falls in love with him and invites him into her home to be their butler. He accepts this offer and does an excellent job though that family is certainly something else. Dizzy is one word but just plain bizarre is another. Who else would steal a horse and lock it in the library overnight? That was very foolish and certainly wasn't very nice to the horse.
But Godfrey has a secret and it isn't that he stole Cordelia's strand of pearls; he's secretly wealthy. He came from a wealthy family but after a disastrous break-up (need more details!), he abandoned his family and found comfort and true meaning by living on the streets in a hooverville. Along with his old college friend, Tommy Gray (Alan Mowbray) he invests his small income in stocks and while he grows richer, Alexander Bullock (Eugene Pallette), the father, loses of his money, after all, this is the depression.
Godfrey has turned the dump into a successful bar/nightclub and resigns from being a butler but will not admit that he loves Irene so she gives him no choice but to marry him, having the mayor show up and everything to marry them.
While they are meant to be together, after all, this is a Hollywood and the main two characters always end up together, no one should be forced and hoodwinked into a marriage, so that isn't right.
Despite the frivolousness of the characters and plot and that you need more details than the Hayes would allow, it still managed to fly by and keep my interest the whole time which is always a relief and I might even watch it again. It is still somewhat timely (though the government doesn't take sixty percent of the wealthy's income in taxes, too bad), as there are so many wealthy people unaware and uncaring about the poverty living under their noses and there is more to these people than meets the eye. Grade: B+