The First Annual Carole Lombard Blogathon: Twentieth Century (1934)
Carole Lombard is undoubtedly one the greatest comediennes in cinema history. Born Jane Alice Peters to a wealthy Indiana family on October 6, 1908, Lombard began her acting career at the age of 12, when director Allan Dwan cast her as Monta Blue's sister in A Perfect Crime (1921). Although the film was not widely distributed and paid only $50, the experience spurred Lombard's mother to enroll her in drama school. In 1924, just as she turned 16, she was screentested by Fox Film Corporation, which led to a co-starring role opposite Edmund Lowe in Marriage in Transit (1925). Both movies are now considered lost.
Unlike many other actors, Lombard made an easy transition to sound, signing a five-year contract with Paramount Pictures in 1930. Four years later, she was loaned out to Columbia to work on Twentieth Century (1934), a film that not only made her a major star, but also became the prototype of screwball comedies.
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| LEFT: Carole Lombard and Monta Blue in A Perfect Crime. RIGHT: Carole Lombard and Edmund Lowe in Marriage in Transit. |
In Twentieth Century, a temperamental Broadway impresario named Oscar Jaffe takes lingerie model Mildred Plotka under his wing and, through intensive training, transforms her into «Lily Garland,» the star of his newest play. Her opening night is a triumph and it leads to a successful professional partnership, as well as a tempestuous romantic relationship, with Oscar. Three years later, fed up with Oscar's egotism and jealous possessiveness, Lily tries to end their professional and personal relationship, but he talks her out of it, promising to be more trusting and less controlling in the future. Instead, he hires detective Oscar McGonigle to watch her every move, even to the point of reading her mail and tapping her telephone. When Lily finds out that Oscar has put her under surveillance, she leaves for Hollywood and soon becomes a successful movie star.
Without Lily, Oscar produces flop after flop. After a devastating failure in Chicago, to avoid being sent to prison for his debts, Oscar is forced to disguise himself to board the luxurious 20th Century Limited express train bound for New York City. By chance, Lily also boards the train, accompanied by her young boyfriend, George Smith. Seeing an opportunity to salvage his relationship with Lily and restore his fortunes, Oscar asks her to return to him, but she refuses. After plotting to get George to break up with Lily, Oscar tells her that he wants her to play Mary Magdalene in his new Passion Play, describing the role with great extravagance. Lily, however, is not interested and reveals that she is going to New York to sign with Max Jacobs, Oscar's former stage manager who is now a successful producer. Meanwhile, Oscar finds an investor for his project in fellow passenger Mathew J. Clark, who turns out to be an escapee from a mental asylum. When Oscar is slightly wounded in a scuffle with Clark, he pretends to be dying and gets a distraught Lily to sign a contract with him. At their first rehearsal of their new play, Oscar treats Lily exactly as he had years earlier, much to her desperation.
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| Carole Lombard and John Barrymore as Lily Garland and Oscar Jaffe in Twentieth Century. |
Twentieth Century had its origins in a play called The Napoleon of Broadway, written by press agent Charles Bruce Milholland and inspired by his former boss, theatrical producer Morris Gest. Milholland gave his manuscript to Broadway giant Jed Harris, who then convinced him to hand it to writing duo Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Having met while they were both working as reporters in Chicago, Hecht and MacArthur had achieved success on the New York stage with the comedy The Front Page, which was produced by Harris and ran for 276 performances between August 1928 and April 1929.
Hecht and MacArthur reworked Milholland's original text into a three-act comedy set entirely aboard the observation car of the 20th Century Limited, travelling from Chicago to Grand Central Station in New York City. Retitled Twentieth Century, the play was directed by George Abbott and opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on December 29, 1932. Moffat Johnston and Eugenie Leontovich starred as Oscar Jaffe and Lily Garland, with William Frawley — who later became known for his portrayal of Fred Mertz in the sitcom I Love Lucy (1951-1957) — appearing as Owen O'Malley, Oscar's press agent. Twentieth Century received positive reviews from critics and enjoyed a respectable run, closing on May 20, 1933 after 152 performances.
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| LEFT: Playbill for the original Broadway production of Twentieth Century. MIDDLE: Eugenie Leontovich in the original Broadway production of Grand Hotel (1930). RIGHT: Moffat Johnston in the film Midnight (1934). |
After Twentieth Century finished its run on Broadway, Columbia Pictures purchased the property from Hecht and MacArthur for $25,000, hiring the two writers to pen the screen adaptation. Since the entire play takes place during a sixteen-hour train trip, they had to open it up and create some new locations for the action. They also rewrote the character of Lily Garland, who was changed from «an imperious grande dame to 'Sadie Glutz' from Third Avenue.» In addition, they significantly altered the structure. In the play, from the beginning, Oscar and Lily are seen going head-to-head in the train. For the film, however, they wrote a prologue that revealed the background of their relationship, showing Oscar's domineering character as he transforms Lily into a star, the nature of their love affair, and her eventual escape to Hollywood to get away from his possessive control.
Hecht and MacArthur's script caused some concerns within the Hays Office, Hollywood's self-imposed censorship board. They showed reservations about «the advisability of using the Passion Play and its characters as the comedy element, as it was used in the original play that ran on Broadway,» and requested that the religious angle be toned down. In a letter to Columbia boss Harry Cohn, Joseph I. Breen, who ran the Hays Office, worried that «there will be serious difficulty in inducing an anti-Semitic public to accept a [motion picture] play produced by an industry believed to be Jewish in which the Passion Play is used for comedy purposes.» The censors asked that the writers eliminate the line «I am der lead» in a scene with Oscar Jaffe and the two European actors who are the stars of the Passion Play he decides to produce. After the deletion was made, the Hays Office was satisfied with the screenplay, although they later insisted that the scene where Oscar jabs Lily with a pin be modified to make it less clear where he jabs her.
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| John Barrymore and Carole Lombard in publicity stills for Twentieth Century. |
Roy Del Ruth, Lewis Milestone, Rouben Mamoulian and William Wyler were all approached to direct Twentieth Century, but Cohn ended up giving the job to Howard Hawks instead. An alumnus of Cornell University, Hawks had entered the film industry in 1917 as a prop boy for Famous-Players-Lasky, which later became Paramount Pictures. In 1925, he joined Fox Film Corporation, where he began his career as a director. Just before he signed on to helm Twentieth Century, Hawks had terminated a three-picture contract with MGM before its expiration, due to constant studio interference on his work. He wanted to become «an independent operator who would work on his own terms or not at all.»
Hawks was a friend of Hecht and MacArthur. They had developed a relationship when Hecht and Hawks collaborated on Scarface (1932) for United Artists. The director had attended a performance of Twentieth Century during its short run at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, in June and July 1933, and worked closely with the writers on the screen adaptation of the play. In fact, it was Hawks who suggested they change the character of Lily Garland and create new scenes giving background information on her relationship with Oscar. Reportedly, the three men would sit together swapping lines and when they had a good idea locked in, Hecht would write it while Hawks and MacArthur played backgammon.
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| Howard Hawks with Carole Lombard and John Barrymore during the making of Twentieth Century. |
Cohn hired Hawks on the condition that he could both make the film cheaply and get John Barrymore to play Oscar Jaffe. Born into a prominent theatrical family, Barrymore began his acting career on the Broadway stage in 1904, achieving great success playing the iconic title role in a 1922 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Having appeared in a variety of films throughout the 1910s, he went on to become one of the biggest matinee idols of the following decade, starring in the hugely popular The Sea Beast (1926) and Don Juan (1926), the first feature-length motion picture with synchronized sound effects and a musical soundtrack. However, his struggle with alcoholism, which had began at the age of 14, led to turmoil in his personal life and a decline in his professional work. By 1934, he was no longer a major box-office name, but he was still enough of a star for Cohn to want him for the lead male role in Twentieth Century.
When Hawks approached Barrymore and told him about the story and the role he would be playing, the actor asked why he wanted him for the part. The director said, «It's the story of the biggest ham on earth and you're the biggest ham I know.» Hawks's words seemed to convince Barrymore, who immediately agreed to take on the project. Barrymore always considered Twentieth Century his favourite of all the pictures in which he appeared, regarding Oscar Jaffe as «a role that comes once in a lifetime.»
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| Carole Lombard and John Barrymore as Lily Garland and Oscar Jaffe in Twentieth Century. |
Cohn initially negotiated with Eugenie Leontovich to recreate the role of Lily Garland for the film, but the deal fell through. Gloria Swanson, Miriam Hopkins, Ina Claire, Tallulah Bankhead, Ruth Chatterton, Constance Bennett, Ann Harding, Kay Francis and Joan Crawford were all considered for the part, before Carole Lombard was cast. Even though Lombard, who was borrowed from Paramount to co-star in the film, was Hawks's second cousin and had appeared in a bit part in his first effort as a director, The Road to Glory (1926), they had never had much contact with each other. Hawks had reservations about her acting abilities, but after seeing her drinking at a party, he thought she was «hilarious and uninhibited and just what the part needed.»
Before she was cast in Twentieth Century, Carole had enjoyed some critical and commercial success, most notably in No Man of Her Own (1932), which paired her with her future husband, Clark Gable, but she had yet to find a role that would truly showcase her raw talent. With Lily Garland, Lombard was able to tap into her effortless comedic skills and she became the prototype of the «Hawksian woman,» an independent type with a mind of her own who would stand up to men and was not content «to sit around and wash dishes.»
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| Carole Lombard as Lily Garland in Twentieth Century. |
Twentieth Century was filmed in February and March 1934. At age 25, Lombard was petrified at the prospect of acting opposite 52-year-old veteran Barrymore, for whom she had the highest professional regard. According to Hawks, during rehearsals, Lombard «acted like a schoolgirl [...] and she was stiff, she would try and imagine a character and then act according to her imaginings instead of being herself.» At one point, the director took her aside and, in an effort to get her to relax, asked, «What would you do if someone said such and such to you?» Lombard replied, «I'd kick him in the balls.» Hawks continued, «Well, he [Barrymore] said something like that to you. Why don't you kick him?» To an utterly surprised Lombard, Hawks then remarked, «Now we're going back in and make this scene and you kick, and you do any damn thing that comes into your mind that's natural, and quit acting. If you don't quit, I'm going to fire you this afternoon.» Hawks's direction worked, and from then on Lombard was able to impart her performance with a natural spirited quality. Sound engineer Edwards Bernds recalled that the actress «was great from the first day.» For the remainder of her career, before beginning a film, she would send a telegram to Hawks, saying, «I'm gonna start kicking him.»
After being initially unimpressed with her work, Barrymore became Lombard's biggest fan and supporter during the making of Twentieth Century, giving her tips and rehearsing with her at length until Hawks was satisfied with the performances. When filming ended, Barrymore gave Lombard an autographed portrait bearing the inscription, «to the finest actress I have ever worked with, bar none.» Lombard was particularly touched by Barrymore's gift and later, when his career was sharply declining, she demanded that he be cast on her film True Confession (1937). Tragically, both stars died within a few months of each other in 1942.
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| Theatrical release posters for Twentieth Century. |
Twentieth Century premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on May 3, 1934, and went into general release a week later. Critical reviews were generally appreciative of the film's sophistication, expert playing, and direction. Time magazine called it «good fun, slick, wild and improbable.» Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times considered that Barrymore «acts with such imagination and zest that he never fails to keep the picture thoroughly alive» and said that Lombard «gives an able portrayal of Lily.» The reviewer for the Los Angeles Times was particularly taken with Lombard, writing that she «succeeds in showing an entirely new and different side of her personality as well as her ability. Coolly intelligent and calculatedly alluring in former pictures, in this she vibrates with life and passion, abandon and diablerie. So completely it is the best performance she has ever given.» However, as Variety predicted, Twentieth Century was «too smart for general consumption» and ended up being a «dismal financial venture,» according to an article published in The New York Times. Despite being a box-office disappointment, the film revitalized Lombard's career, providing her with an opportunity to achieve leading-lady status.
In December 2011, Twentieth Century was deemed «culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant» by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In its induction, the Registry said that «this sophisticated farce [...] has come to be recognized as one of the era's finest film comedies, one that gave John Barrymore his last great film role and Carole Lombard her first.»
This post is my contribution to The First Annual Carole Lombard Blogathon hosted by Kristen at Hoofers and Honeys. To view all entries, click HERE.
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SOURCES:The Films of Carole Lombard by Frederick W. Ott (Citadel Press, 1972)
Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood by Todd McCarthy (Grove Atlantic, 2007)
Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System by Emily Carman (University of Texas Press, 2016)
«2011 National Film Registry More Than a Box of Chocolates» at Library of Congress
«Cinema: The New Pictures: May 14, 1934» at Time
«The Front Page - Broadway Play - Original» at Internet Broadway Database
«Twentieth Century - Broadway Play - Original» at Internet Broadway Database
«Twentieth Century (1934)» by Mordaunt Hall for The New York Times
«Twentieth Century (1934) - History» at AFI Catalog of Feature Films
«The Year in Hollywood: 1934 May Be Remembered as the Beginning of the Sweetness-and-Light Era» by Douglas W. Churchill for The New York Times
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