My Man Godfrey

A Park Avenue scavenger hunt calls for a forgotten man, and Irene Bullock finds one at the city dump, Godfrey, who becomes the family butler. The Bullocks are a mother who hears pixies, a father who pays, a sister who schemes, and a protégé who imitates a gorilla; Godfrey is a Boston Brahmin who went to the dump to see how the other half lived. The Depression is at the edge of every frame and the film knows it. William Powell and Carole Lombard, from a Morrie Ryskind script, the first film nominated in all four acting categories. Gregory La Cava for Universal, 1936.