The Good Fairy is pure, lovely comedy. It is possibly the funniest film I've ever seen, and I highly recommend it (I highly recommend both, but I have a hard time enjoying Dodsworth, I hate the wife so much). The comedy of The Good Fairy gets better and better as it continues from the great line (from the waiter to the heroine about a plate of hor d'oevures), "Here, have some leftovers" to the Lothario's line, "When I'm full of Dutch courage, I behave very Frenchly," not to mention the pencil sharpener and the "Foxine."
With both films, there is the underlying current of bittersweet pathos. When, in The Good Fairy, Herbert Marshall rushes to stop Margaret Sullivan, he reaches her and slumps against the door. In that one movement, the romantic rush becomes more human, almost forlorn, and touchingly uncertain. In Dodsworth, the "noble" decision is accepted with earnestness that borders pain--but being maudlin won't make the decision go away. The hero's return is lovely--it is also the result of realizing that a prior relationship is unsalveagable, which is sad in itself.
Bittersweetness can go too far. Here, the films wind a cliff-edged path between broad comedy, sexual innuendo and human drama, all accompanied by perfect dialog.
Pure art.
