Twentieth Century
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Movie Reviews of Twentieth Century
Movie Review: The Greatest Screwball Comedy of The All
Summary: 5 Stars
TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) is perhaps the greatest of all screwball comedies and is the film that established Carole Lombard as the "queen" of that genre. Howard Hawks directed the Charles MacArthur/Ben Hecht screenplay.
John Barrymore, in what may be his "grandest ham" performance, is an egomaniacal Broadway director who discovers shopgirl Lombard and builds her into a major star, as well as making her his mistress. Their relationship is a volatile one, thus three years later she leaves him to go to Hollywood and, shortly thereafter, he goes broke producing plays without her.
Sneaking out of Chicago on the Twentieth Century to New York, Barrymore discovers that Lombard is a fellow passenger. Now, if he can only sign her to a contact before they reach their destination, he can get the financing for his next production. The only problem is that she hates him...or does she?
Walter Connolly and Roscoe Karns co-star.
© Michael B. Druxman
Movie Review: The Art of Great Over Acting!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the great screwball comedy based on the stage play of the same name. It is said that the screwball comedy was basically invented by this film. It was filmed in 1934, about the same time as It Happened One Night. John Barrymore is the playwright, producer and director of plays who discovers a lingerie model played by Carole Lombard and puts her in his newest play. She can't act and everyone tells him to get rid of her but he bullies her into a great actress. She becomes a star and is seduced by him. He dominates her every step and they make 3 plays together in 3 years. She finally seizes an opportunity to run away with another man and escape. Finally, the meet on the train, the Twentieth Century and a show down begins. Will she come back or won't she? The overacting, over dramatizing brings the two together yet throws them apart each time. What shall they do? This is a great comedy and anyone who loves acting, drama and comedy will love this picture. Love is a Farce.Movie Review: "She loves me! I can tell that through her screaming."
Summary: 5 Stars
TWENTIETH CENTURY is an explosion of amazing talent all at the top of their game: John Barrymore (turning in one of the greatest performance of all time!), Carol Lombard, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Charles Lane (who lived to be 102!!!), Etienne Girardot and Howard Hawks (RIO BRAVO, BRINGING UP BABY, HIS GIRL FRIDAY, THE BIG SLEEP, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD, etc.).
Oscar Jaffe, is a hyperactive megalomaniac stage director, who after discovering Carole Lombard and making her into a gigantic star smothers her with his controlling nature (including tapping her phone) until she finally has enough and leaves for Hollywood. After her departure she becomes a big star and he has nothing but flop after flop and is in danger of loosing his theater, so in one desperate last ditch effort he tries to get Lombard back...of course as a favor to her.
Even after numerous viewing (easily over 20) I still love this movie and enjoy every minute of it.
Movie Review: Twentieth Century
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the great early screwball comedies, and an opportunity to see Barrymore in his funniest performance as the desperate, histrionic Jaffe. As Lily, Lombard is leading lady gorgeous, but also possesses unmatched comic flair. The screenplay, by partners Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht, moves as fast as that train. Get on-board.Movie Review: Ah, romance, old-school style.
Summary: 4 Stars
Twentieth Century (Howard Hawks, 1934)
Put an Oscar-nominated director responsible for eleven movies on They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?'s list of the thousand best movies of all time together with a legendary screenwriter with two Oscar wins and four more nominations and magic is bound to happen. Hawks and Ben Hecht collaborated nine times; it's no surprise that two of those collaborations, Scarface and His Girl Friday, are on the TSPDT list. It's also no surprise that the films that didn't make the list on which the two collaborated are some of the best-known work from either; The Thing from Another World, Barbary Coast, Monkey Business, etc. Oddly, however, Twentieth Century seems to have fallen through some sort of celluloid nook; despite Hawks, Hecht, and a top-notch cast, the movie has faded into the kind of obscurity usually reserved for Z-grade mysteries that lasted less than an hour. While this odd little attempt at a comedy-romance is wide of the mark more often than it hits the bullseye, it certainly deserves a better fate than that.
Lily Garland (the great Carole Lombard, nominated for an Oscar for My Man Godfrey two years later; she lost to Luise Rainer) is, as we open, a bad actress. A very bad actress, in fact, a Minnesota farm girl who came east to try her luck on Broadway and has failed miserably. Until, that is, she tries out for a production to be directed by Walter Jaffe (John Barrymore, one of the scions of acting's greatest family). Jaffe's no-nonsense directorial style turns Garland into a star, and the two of them begin a relationship. Fast forward a few years, and that relationship has gone sour; Jaffe is as controlling offstage as on, and Garland hops the first train to Hollywood to try her hand at film. Jaffe's career goes sour, while Garland soars to new heights. When they wind up on the same train, Jaffe's advisors hatch a plot to get the two of them back together. Hilarity ensues.
Hecht's screenplay is strewn with silly subplots, some of which work, some of which don't, and sillier characters, most of whom work. The oddest note here, though, is that for a comedy, especially a Depression-era comedy, this is a dark, dark movie. We're used to that nowadays; few contemporary comedies are released that don't have some sort of tearjerker factor. But back then, in the days when Chaplin and Keaton were still kings, comedy was all about, well, laughing. Here, you cringe on a fairly regular basis. While the academic part of me wants to praise Haws and Hecht to the heavens for being so forward-thinking, the emotional part of me says that there were scenes here that simply didn't feel like they fit. Not to say they weren't good, naturally. Have you ever seen a single scene in a Howard Hawks flick that wasn't directed to perfection? No, and you never will. The man was one of Hollywood's masters. But sometimes they felt as if there was another movie they should have been dropped into.
Still, it's a good picture, and you'll get the requisite number of chuckles out of it. And any chance to see Carole Lombard onscreen is to be treasured, since she died far younger than she should have. Well worth checking out if you have a soft spot for Depression-era romance, and maybe even if you don't. *** ½