Twentieth Century
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carole Lombard, John Barrymore, Ralph Forbes, Roscoe Karns, Walter ConnollyBrand: Sony
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); Japanese (Subtitled); English (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Twentieth Century
Movie Review: Barrymore, Lombard and all the ham you could ever want
Summary: 5 Stars
"Now don't be nervous, child," says impresario Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) during rehearsals to Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard), a New Jersey shopgirl he's just renamed Lily Garland and thrust into the starring role of Mary Jo Calhoun in Heart of Kentucky. "You're not Lily Garland anymore. You're little Mary Jo Calhoun. The scent of jasmine is floating through the open window of a summer evening. You've just kissed your lover goodnight. You're full of...vibrations."
Lily Garland becomes a star. She and Jaffe have three hits in three years. Although Jaffe is drawn to shapely legs and mirrors, he and Lily become lovers. Then Jaffe makes the mistake one day of tapping her phone to make sure she doesn't stray. Before you can say "ham" Lily is in revolt and on her way to Hollywood by herself. She becomes a huge film star. And Oscar? It's flop after flop without Lily...until by chance they find themselves in adjoining staterooms on the Twentieth Century traveling from Chicago to New York. Can Oscar convince (or trick) Lily into signing a contract with him? Can Lily forgive Oscar? Will the "Repent for the time is at hand" stickers ever come off Oliver Webb's derby? Will Jaffe find the camels, the elephants, the sand for his Obermangau smash he's planning to have Lily star in as Mary Magdalene? Was there ever a faster, funnier and hammier screwball comedy than Twentieth Century?
John Barrymore was a great actor. He also could be a great ham. The two come together here in his amazingly funny, ripe melodramatic performance. He pulls out all stops, clutching his heart, staggering against a door, even picking his nose. When he lowers his eyebrows and glares, it's 100 per cent Smithfield. The screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur gives him some great, self-involved dialogue. Catching Lily kissing her fiance, he dramatically roars at her, "This is the final irony -- mousing around with boys after Oscar Jaffe!" Carole Lombard just about matches him toe to toe. The end of the movie, by the way, is as amusing as the start.
Key elements in the success of the movie are the character parts: Walter Connolly as Oliver Webb, Jaffe's business manager, always being fired, always making some terrible misjudgment; Roscoe Karnes as Owen O'Malley, Jaffe's press agent, wise-cracking and drunk; Etienne Girardot as an elderly religious zealot plastering repent stickers on windows, hats and people's backs, and writing bum checks. Howard Hawks directs with a fast and furious hand. Everything keeps moving, dialogue overlaps, nothing seems stage-bound even though half the movie takes place basically in one of two train staterooms.
This movie is over 70 years old and still plays as one of the best comedies Hollywood ever produced. Barrymore's hamminess is skilled acting. Lombard is gorgeous and gets away with just about as much ham as Barrymore. They're both just inches from over the top and they're funny, funny, funny.
The DVD picture looks just fine, especially considering the age of the movie.
Summary of Twentieth Century
TWENTIETH CENTURY - DVD MovieScrewball comedy was practically invented by this classic Howard Hawks picture, a breathless farce with not an ounce of sentimentality. John Barrymore, in magnificent form, plays egomaniacal Broadway producer Oscar Jaffe, who molds his latest protégé, Mildred Plotka, into elegant thee-a-tuh star Lily Garland (Carole Lombard). The last hour of the picture has Oscar and Lily, now on the outs, battling each other on the Chicago-to-New York train. These two marvelous creatures are quintessential Hawks characters, figures of pure style who can't exist without the adrenaline and spark so amply supplied by the Hecht-MacArthur script. Hawks's giddyup pacing anticipates Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, and his deployment of character actors (notably Walter Connolly and Roscoe Karns, as Jaffe's long-suffering, oft-fired flunkies) is sublime. Barrymore and Lombard take it at full speed, grand and horrid and silly and probably meant for each other. --Robert Horton
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