Twentieth Century ***** (1934, John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns) – Classic Movie Review 1977

Howard Hawks’s 1934 dazzling, classic Thirties screwball comedy Twentieth Century boasts great performances by John Barrymore and Carole Lombard.

Producer-director Howard Hawks’s 1934 dazzling, classic Thirties screwball comedy Twentieth Century boasts Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s superlative, sharply satirical screenplay, a snazzy production, as well as smart and snappy direction. Plus at the centre of the comic mayhem, there is a hilarious performance by an inspired John Barrymore and a delightful one by Carole Lombard in a brilliant display of her comedic and acting talents.

With its smartly farcical situations and sophisticated rapid-fire dialogue, it is considered a prototype for screwball comedy, together with Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night, also released in 1934, oddly with the same music over the opening titles.

Barrymore stars as the flamboyant, demented Broadway producer/ impresario Oscar O J Jaffe, who has fallen on hard times with a series of flop shows, and is forced to disguise himself to avoid being jailed for his debts, and boards the luxurious 20th Century Limited express train to get to New York City. He turned one-time lingerie model Mildred Plotka into the stage star Lily Garland (Lombard), but they became infamous for their spectacular battles, and finally she leaves for Hollywood and becomes a big movie star.

So now, to resurrect his failing career, restore his finances and possibly revive his love life, he tries to lure back his former lover and star, the lovely but wayward Hollywood diva Lily Garland (Lombard), when he chances to meet her aboard the sleek 20th Century Limited express train travelling from Chicago to New York City’s Grand Central Terminal. Lily boards the train at a later stop with her boyfriend George Smith (Ralph Forbes) and Oscar sees a chance to restore his fortunes. But Oscar has got an uphill struggle. Lily may be dizzy and temperamental, but he is egocentric and befuddled (though charming), and she wants to have nothing to do with him, professionally or personally.

Roscoe Karns and Walter Connolly also get up a head of steam as Oscar (Barrymore)’s long-suffering, hard-drinking minions Owen O’Malley and Oliver Webb (‘It’s typical of my career that, in the great crises of life, I should stand flanked by two incompetent alcoholics,’ Oscar tells them.)

Having bought the rights to the 1932 stage show Twentieth Century, Columbia boss Harry Cohn borrowed Roscoe Karns from Paramount Pictures after failing to get William Frawley from the Broadway cast and also cast Lombard after having unsuccessfully negotiated with Eugenie Leontovich, who had played the part of Lily on Broadway.

Twentieth Century is based on the unproduced play Napoleon of Broadway by Charles Bruce Millholland, inspired by Millholland’s experiences of working for the legendary and eccentric Broadway producer David Belasco. Napoleon of Broadway was turned into the 1932 stage play Twentieth Century by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, which was originally produced on Broadway by George Abbott. It opened on 29 December 1932 at the Broadhurst Theatre, running for 152 performances, and starring Moffat Johnston and Eugenie Leontovich.

The film, the play and the unpublished play are the basis of the splendid 1978 Broadway and London West End hit stage musical On the Twentieth Century, created by Cy Coleman (music), Betty Comden and Adolph Green (book and lyrics). It ran on Broadway for 460 performances.

Legend has it that Hawks told Barrymore: ‘It’s the story of the biggest ham on earth and you’re the biggest ham I know’ and Barrymore accepted the role at once.

Lombard’s acting started stoic, dry and dull. So Hawks asked Lombard what she would do if a man said ‘something’ about her. Lombard said: ‘I would kick him in the balls.’ Hawks said: ‘Well, Barrymore said that, so why don’t you kick him?’ Barrymore hadn’t said that, but Hawks’s plan worked, and, after Lombard shouted a few profanities, she filmed with unforgettable vigour, producing her first great comedy performance. Henceforth, before beginning each new film with an actor, Lombard sent a telegram to Hawks saying: ‘I’m going to kick him!’

Also in the cast are Etienne Girardot as Mathew J Clark, Charles Lane as Max Jacobs, Edgar Kennedy as Oscar McGonigle, Dale Fuller as Sadie, Billie Seward as Anita, Herman Bing, James Burke, Pat Flaherty, Howard C Hickman, Fred Kelsey, Lee Kohlmar, Charles O’Malley, George Offerman, Harry Semels and Lillian West.

Twentieth Century runs 91 minutes, is made and released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, Gene Fowler (uncredited) and Preston Sturges (uncredited), is shot in black and white by Joseph H August, is produced by Howard Hawks, and scored by Louis Silvers, Mischa Bakaleinikoff and Harry M Woods.

Twentieth Century was in production from 22 February to 24 March 1934, premiered in New York at Radio City Music Hall on 3 May 1934, and went on general release in the US on 11 May 1934.

Preston Sturges was removed from the film after a week because he had made insufficient writing progress.

The film was added to the National Film Registry of the US Library of Congress in December 2011.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1977

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Carole Lombard plays Hollywood diva Lily Garland in Twentieth Century (1934).