This enduring comedy began life as an unproduced play, Napoleon of Broadway, written by Charles B. Millholland and inspired by his experiences with such flamboyant impresarios as David Belasco and Morris Gest. Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur used it as the basis for their Broadway hit Twentieth Century, which opened at New York's Broadhurst Theatre on December 29, 1932, and ran for 152 performances. Moffat Johnston and Eugenie Leontovich starred as Oscar and Lily, and William Frawley (later to gain television fame in I Love Lucy) played a featured role.

In November 1933 Columbia hired Preston Sturges to write a screen treatment, but removed him from the project for lack of progress. The studio also tried to get Herman Mankiewicz to write a script before turning to the play's authors, who were also accomplished screenwriters. Adapting their own script made Twentieth Century a very profitable project for Hecht and MacArthur, who were paid $25,000 for rights to the play and another $14,525 for the adaptation. As the screenplay was being written, the studio assigned first Roy Del Ruth and then Lewis Milestone to direct, before finally turning the project over to Howard Hawks. Hawks worked with the authors in reshaping their play, especially in turning the leading female character from an imperious Broadway diva into a "Sadie Glutz" from Third Avenue. After hashing out changes in the script, Hawks and MacArthur would play backgammon while Hecht retired to type them up. This was Hawks' first talkie comedy and his first "screwball," predating his other classics of the genre, Bringing Up Baby (1938), His Girl Friday (1940) and Ball of Fire (1941).

John Barrymore had begun to falter because of drink and high living, and Hawks saw an opportunity here for the great dramatic actor and matinee idol to revive his career by going for the gusto in over-the-top comedy. Hawks told interviewer John McBride that, when he met with Barrymore to discuss the role, the actor asked, "Mr. Hawks, just why do you think I would be good in this picture?" Hawks replied, "It's the story of the greatest ham in the world, and God knows you fit that!" Barrymore, the most famous Hamlet of his generation, didn't even read the script before saying, "I'll do the picture." He would later say he considered Oscar to be "a role that comes once in a lifetime" and claimed Twentieth Century as his favorite among all the films in which he appeared.

The daring part of the casting was matching Barrymore with a young actress who was becoming fairly well known, but basically for her good looks and a flair for wearing glamorous clothes. Carole Lombard was under contract to Paramount, where she had performed earnestly in mild comedies and dramas. Before she was cast in Twentieth Century, Columbia head Harry Cohn considered Eugenie Leontovich, who had played the role on Broadway, along with Gloria Swanson and Miriam Hopkins. Others said to be in the running included Ina Claire, Tallulah Bankhead, Ruth Chatterton, Constance Bennett, Ann Harding, Kay Francis and Joan Crawford.

Hawks, who had been impressed by Lombard's uninhibited verve in social situations, held out for her as Lily. He believed that she was a major talent whose comic abilities were just waiting to be tapped. Finally, Cohn reluctantly agreed to borrow her from Paramount. Hawks is said to have told Barrymore that Lombard could be a sensation in their film - if only they could keep her from "acting."

In addition to Walter Connolly and Roscoe Karns as Jaffe's factotums, the supporting cast includes Charles Lane as a rival director, Edgar Kennedy as the private eye on Lily's trail and Etienne Girardot as a little madman who urges everyone to "Repent!" Smoothly handsome English actor Ralph Forbes was cast against type as Lily's spoiled, cloddish husband.

By Roger Fristoe