September 8 movie: Merrily We Live. A gentleman gets mistaken for a bum and through a hilarious but unlikely circumstance ends up working as the chauffeur for a zany rich family. The mother loves to adopt unscrupulous men as her protege; the father is grumpy and constantly annoyed at his zany family; and the chauffeur/bum/gentleman falls mutually in love with the beautiful daughter. Sound familiar?
If you've ever seen My Man Godfrey you know exactly where this movie is going. It even ends with the daughter pretending to faint, the erstwhile bum dumping water on her, and the daughter yelling "I knew you loved me!" Sheesh, they should have given screen credit to Godfrey.
Merrily We Live doesn't have the sublime wit of Godfrey, nor the social awareness, nor the talent. (Constance Bennett, Brian Aherne, Billie Burke and Bonita Granville are all good, but no match for Carole Lombarde, William Powell, Eugene Pallette, Alice Brady and Gail Patrick.) But I enjoyed it. What can I say, it's a formula that works. The best part is that Alan Mowbray shows up in both movies! He's the long-suffering butler in Merrily We Live, and Powell's Boston friend Tommy Gray in My Man Godfrey.
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