SYNOPSIS

Chorus girl Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) is transformed from a nobody into Broadway star Lily Garland under the tutelage of egomaniacal theatrical impresario Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore), but rebels over Oscar's Svengali-like dominance over her life. When Oscar goes so far as to hire a private detective (Edgar Kennedy) to follow her every move, Lily runs away to Hollywood, where she becomes a movie star. Without his No. 1 attraction, Oscar's theatrical projects fail miserably and he quickly goes bankrupt. As luck would have it, both Lily and Oscar - along with his stooges (Roscoe Karns and Walter Connolly) and her fiancé (Ralph Forbes) - board the Twentieth Century in Chicago, bound for New York. As Oscar tries to talk Lily into playing Mary Magdalene in his new theatrical project, The Passion Play, pandemonium ensues among the trainload of eccentric characters.

Director: Howard Hawks
Producers: Howard Hawks, Harry Cohn
Screenplay: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur (from their play), Gene Fowler (uncredited), Preston Sturges (uncredited), Charles Bruce Millholland (play Napoleon of Broadway)
Cinematography: Joseph H. August
Editing: Gene Havlick
Production Management: Samuel J. Briskin
Music: Howard Jackson, Louis Silvers, Harry M. Woods
Costume Design: Robert Kalloch (uncredited)
Cast: John Barrymore (Oscar Jaffe), Carole Lombard (Lily Garland, aka Mildred Plotka), Walter Connolly (Oliver Webb), Roscoe Karns (Owen O'Malley), Ralph Forbes (George Smith), Charles Lane (Max Jacobs, aka Max Mandelbaum), Etienne Girardot (Mathew J. Clark), Dale Fuller (Sadie), Edgar Kennedy (Oscar McGonigle), Billie Seward (Anita)

Why TWENTIETH CENTURY Is Essential

Howard Hawks's Twentieth Century is required viewing because, along with Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (same year - 1934; same studio - Columbia), this was the film that defined screwball comedy and sparked a craze for the genre that would continue throughout the '30s. Born of the Depression, the genre kidded the privileged class by making them seem more than a little crazy, and their antics were enacted by madly stylish actors moving at a furious pace through often ridiculous situations. This was the film in which Hawks introduced what would become a trademark style of delivering comic dialogue - at breakneck speed, barely pausing to take a breath. Director Hawks also took credit for turning a movie's romantic leads into out-and-out comics for the first time; and, indeed, in Twentieth Century John Barrymore and Carole Lombard clown their way through a pair of the funniest and most entertaining star turns of the 1930s. It was his final great film performance, and her first. Barrymore's over-the-top style may be seen as an influence in such later performers as Peter Sellers, Steve Martin and Robin Williams. Lombard emerged as a genuine star in this film, and in the short period before her untimely death in 1942 would establish herself as the personification of glamorous screwball comedy. It's said that TV sitcom queen Lucille Ball adored Lombard and patterned her own comic persona on that of her idol. Both the rapid-fire dialogue and madcap behavior of this film would echo through countless other screwball classics including My Man Godfrey (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), The Lady Eve (1941) and Hawks's own Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940) and Ball of Fire (1941).

By Roger Fristoe