1936 – Alice Brady
My Man Godfrey
And as nominations go, I believe Alice Brady, playing the part of Mrs. Angelica Bullock, was a worthy nominee. True, I think Gail Patrick, who played her daughter Cornelia would have been a better nominee, but that’s just me. But apparently the Academy voters had their own ideas about who the first nominees in the Best Actress category should be.
Alice Brady did a fine job of playing the ditzy wife of a wealthy man. The way the part was written, she was habitually selfish and self-centered, and Brady made the character memorable. She was just loopy enough to be amusing, but not so off the wall that she was annoying. Mrs. Bullock was enamored with her protégée Carlo, played by Mischa Auer, a part for which he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Every time she pronounced his name, “Carlo!” it was with just the right amount of both obsession and possessiveness, and she made me smile.
Brady also had a flightiness about her that the character needed. She was not completely in touch with reality, and was willfully oblivious to anything serious. Brady’s take on the role made Mrs. Bullock a delightfully flippant chatterbox who fit in quite nicely within the film that was, after all, a screwball comedy. The over-privileged Mrs. Bullock seemed to be a perfect fit for Brady. She just seemed very natural in the part, whether she was proffering a goat at a scavenger hunt, or dealing with a hangover the next morning.
I also liked that she had a couple of funny lines. When Mrs. Bullock said, “My ancestors came over on the boat. Oh, not the Mayflower, but the boat that came after that. What did your ancestors come over on, Godfrey?” He replies, “As far as I know, they’ve always been here.” Her dated but amusing reply was “They weren’t Indians, I hope.” Godfrey patiently says, “One can never be sure of one’s ancestors.” To which Angelica quips, “You know, you have rather high cheekbones…” No, I suppose the joke doesn’t age well, but that was fair humor at the time, and Brady delivered the line with the perfect amount of suspicion. Well done, Alice.