if Universal borrowed William Powell from MGM. Powell, for his part, only would take the role if Carole Lombard played Irene. Powell and Lombard had divorced three years earlier. Powell's casting was announced in January 1936. Universal borrowed Lombard from Paramount. As part of the deal, Universal loaned Paramount Margaret Sullavan for the film I Love a Soldier and Lombard's clothes designer, Travis Banton, accompanied her. Alice Brady joined the cast in March. Shooting My Man Godfrey was in production from April 15 to May 27, 1936, and then had retakes in early June of the year. Its budget was $575,375; Powell was paid $87,500 and Lombard $45,645. The film was one of the first under the new regime of Charles Rogers at Universal, although it had been developed under his predecessor Carl Laemmle Jr. La Cava, a former animator and freelancer for most of his film career, held studio executives in contempt and was known to be a bit eccentric. When he and Powell hit a snag over a disagreement about how Godfrey should be portrayed, they settled things over a bottle of Scotch. The next morning, La Cava showed up for shooting with a headache, but Powell didn't appear. Instead, the actor sent a telegram stating: "WE MAY HAVE FOUND GODFREY LAST NIGHT BUT WE LOST POWELL. SEE YOU TOMORROW." Due to insurance considerations a stand-in stuntman (Chick Collins) was used when Godfrey carried Irene over his shoulder up the stairs to her bedroom. When tensions hit a high point on the set, Lombard had a habit of inserting four-letter words into her dialogue, often to the great amusement of the cast. This made shooting somewhat difficult, but clips of her cursing in her dialogue and messing up her lines can still be seen in blooper reels. Release and reception It was the first film released under the aegis of Charles Rogers and was given a big premiere. My Man Godfrey premiered on September 6, 1936, and was released in the United States on the 17th of September. It was a runaway hit and earned huge profits for the studio. The movie was one of the most acclaimed comedies of 1936. Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a moderately positive review, characterizing it as "acutely funny [for three-quarters of its way]". Particularly praising the scene of the scavenging party, Greene finds it to