Twentieth Century (1934)

Twentieth Century (1934)

starring John Barrymore, Carole Lombard

directed by Howard Hawks

91 minutes

Playwright Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) pushes Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) to change her name to Lily Garland and become the star of his latest Broadway play. She accepts his mentoring in stride but after she has more than proven her abilities on the stage she rebels from his heavy handed approach. Oscar is not ready to let Lily go and seeks to get her back into his next production.

Thoughts

This was fun. It made me smile a lot and laugh a few times. It falls into the category of screwball comedy. It is a good film but falls short of greatness but it notable for being an early screwball comedy. Preston Sturges is credited as one of the writers. The film ends in a similar place to where it began. I understand that this was not uncommon for this era but I think I would like it more if there had been some sort of twist to differentiate the ending from the beginning a bit more than there is.

Notes

Twentieth Century was originally a stage play that premiered in 1932. It was made into a Broadway musical in the 1970s called On the Twentieth Century. The original cast of the musical cast included Madeline Kahn (Lily Garland) and Kevin Kline.

Roscoe Karns played the part of Owen O'Malley, one of Oscar Jaffe's right hand men. I have seen him in a few other movies in recent years including It Happened One Night (1934), His Girl Friday (1940), They Drive by Night (1940), and Woman of the Year (1942). William Frawley, who is best known for playing the part of Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, played the part of Owen O'Malley in the stage production.

Etienne Girardot played the part of a man with whom Oscar repeatedly crosses paths during a train ride from Chicago to New York City which takes up a good chunk of the second half of the movie. Girardot was also in The Whole Town's Talking (1935) where he played Edward G. Robinson's supervisor.

Charles Lane played the part of Max Jacobs, a director working under Oscar Jaffe. I have seen him in several films including but not limited to Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).