TOPPER/’37, that popular ghostly tale of a just-dead free-spirited couple who haunt a dull fellow and teach him how to live, was a different sort of success for slapstick titan Hal Roach, a classy success. Releasing at the time thru M-G-M (later TOPPER pics out via United Artists), a quick follow up with much the same talent was a no-brainer. Literally a no-brainer for Roach, as he stole a good half of it from MY MAN GODFREY/’36. Wealthy screwball family; newly hired tramp servant who’s really no tramp (Brian Aherne); a household in need of order; ditzy Matriarch Billie Burke; grouchy Pops Clarence Kolb; love match between classes; etc. Not bad, actually, though director Norman Z. McLeod backloads too much of his best physical comedy bits.* But where GODFREY is assured, and director Gregory La Cava makes Screwball look easy, even inevitable, and ties into social conditions for real dramatic/emotional ballast, MERRILY, like so many second-tier Screwballs, feels forced/unnecessary, and dies a bit every time a joke falls flat. Somehow, the film got five Oscar noms (M-G-M party-line voting?), not for soigné leading lady Constance Bennett or overplaying Aherne (no Cary Grant, he), but in tech categories and for Billie Burke (next year’s Glinda the Good Witch), her only nomination. She does gets the funniest line. At the breakfast table (thoughtfully): ‘I’m so hungry. I haven’t had a thing to eat since last night.’
DOUBLE-BILL: The original TOPPER is only slightly better (though you do get a look at Cary Grant becoming Cary Grant), whereas MY MAN GODFREY, works under the same rules, but plays a different game entirely.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *That’s solid Clarence Kolb as Dad showing off completely unexpected physical slapstick chops. No stuntman, it’s really him doing those slips & falls. Go Kolb!
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