Mansion Movie Scenes: Servants at the Door
My Man Godfrey 1936
Godfrey (William Powell) arrives at the kitchen door of the Bullock Mansion in New York City after being hired the night before to be the quirky family’s butler by Irene Bullock who thinks he is a down -‐and out-‐bum in need of rescue and assistance. As he is a mere servant, he lets himself in to start his new job, as Molly the housemaid (Jean Dixon) ignores his arrival.
Holiday 1938
The butler opens the kitchen door of a grand Fifth Avenue mansion when Johnny Case (Cary Grant) goes there instead of knocking on the front door of the address his finance, Julia Seaton, gave him because he guessed she had to be an employee working there.
Johnny finds out Julia is a Seaton -‐ of the famous and wealthy New York Seaton family. The butler tells him that Miss Seaton’s guests usually come in the front door and then leads him through the servants wing to the main part of the mansion
The Philadelphia Story 1940
Edward the butler (Lionel Pape) opens the door of the Lord Mansion to greet Tracy Lord’s ex-‐husband (Cary Grant) who brings with him two so-‐called “friends” of brother Julius (in reality a reporter and photographer from “Spy’ magazine to surreptitiously cover Tracy’s second high society wedding).
Rebecca 1940
Frith the butler (Edward Fielding) and Robert the Footman (Phillip Winter) come out in the rain with umbrellas to welcome Max de Winter and his new bride home to Manderley, his ancestral home. Once inside they will be greeted by the staff of twenty servants and the notorious Mrs. Danvers.
The Magnificent Ambersons 1942
Young Eugene Morgan (Joseph Cotton) is denied entry to the Amberson Mansion by Sam the butler (L. Lewis Johnson) after gossip about Eugene’s awkward midnight serenade on the lawn embarrassed Isabel Amberson so much that she rejected him.
Twenty plus years later Eugene now a successful inventor of the Morgan automobile returns to his home town and is invited to the mansion along with his daughter Lucy as guests for the Amberson’s annual holiday ball.
The Heiress 1949
Charming Morris Townsend (Montgomery Clift) is welcomed into the Sloper mansion on Washington Square by Maria, the housemaid, (Vanessa Brown) when he comes calling on the awkward and shy heiress, Catherine Sloper, in pursuit of her hand in marriage right after meeting her at his cousin’s engagement party
Sunset Boulevard 1950
After Joe Gilles (William Holden) turns into the drive of silent screen star Norma Desmond’s mansion on Sunset Boulevard to avoid some men trying to repossess his car, he is mistakenly invited inside the mansion by Norma’s r all-‐purpose servant Max, (Erich von Stroheim) in the belief he is the undertaker who has been called to embalm Norma’s dead pet chimpanzee.
Sabrina 1954
Hearing her beep the horn on arrival, a few members of the staff of the Larrabee mansion -‐Margaret the cook Marjorie Bennett), Charles the butler (Emory Parnell), Jenny the maid (Nancy Kulp) and Ernest the houseman (Kay E. Kuter) -‐ run out of the servants entrance to welcome back Sabrina, the chauffeur’s daughter (Audrey Hepburn), on her return to Long Island NY after being away for some time attending from cooking school in Paris.
The Haunting 1963
Lonely and anxious Eleanor Lance (Julie Harris) initially knocks at the door of Hill House. When she tries to enter when no one answer, the moody housekeeper Mrs. Dudley (Rosalie Crutchley), reluctantly opens the door to let her in. Eleanor is the first of Dr. Markway’s candidates to arrive at the vacant haunted mansion to participate in his study of psychic phenomena at the mansion.