Fifth Avenue socialite Irene Bullock needs a "forgotten man" to win a scavenger hunt, and no one is more forgotten than Godfrey Park, who resides in a dump by the East River. Irene hires Godfrey as a servant for her riotously unhinged family, to the chagrin of her spoiled sister, Cornelia, who tries her best to get Godfrey fired. As Irene falls for her new butler, Godfrey turns the tables and teaches the frivolous Bullocks a lesson or two.
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A fun but ultimately somewhat misguided movie. It tries to have some social commentary, but it’s just incredibly out of touch. It feels like it was made by the people that exist within it, which essentially it was. Godfrey cosplays as a homeless person, and then he cosplays as a butler, and all we ever learn about him is he wants to help the little people and pretend he’s one of them. And his solution? To turn the dump where the refuse of high society gets relocated and where these little people lived into a nightclub. And the homeless? Made to work for the millionaires whose mere existence is the cause for their destitution. I don’t know. I don’t mind extravagance and glamor, but when it is disguising itself as altruism, I find it distasteful. But it’s all with good intentions, so in some ways, I can’t judge them too harshly. They still treat the homeless as real people and not just a problem to be swept aside and forgotten. William Powell in top form as usual, but I just find the whole thing too shallow. It’s not a bad time, but it’s far from a favorite.