Review of Twentieth Century (1934) by Blake P — 17 Aug 2011

"Twentieth Century" is truly a gem in the screwball comedy genre. Mildred (Lombard) is a plain chorus girl whose life is turned upside-down when the egomaniacal stage director Oscar Jaffe (Barrymore) decides that she would be the perfect star for his new play.

He changes her name to Lily and makes her a star. Soon, she leaves him for films, and when they meet again on the train "Twentieth Century", that's when things get a little crazy ... Howard Hawks has got to be next in line after Hitchcock of the best American director.

He can do any genre-- just look at his filmography: he made "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" but also made "Scarface". But for me, I like his comedies the most. Classics like "Ball of Fire" and "His Girl Friday" are in my list of favorite movies, so I was darn excited to see this one.

I wasn't disappointed a bit. Carole Lombard is probably the second most well known comedy actress next to Lucille Ball, and "Twentieth Century" shows her talents. The archetype known as the "dizzy dame" is often used in this genre, and she plays one to perfection.

She plays the metamorphosis of naive to egotistic wonderfully, and is almost a spoof of Norma Desmond in certain ways. John Barrymore, however, was the one that really surprised me. I've always thought of him as a has-been that audiences for some reason still liked, with little acting talent.

I didn't know how much he was capable of, because he outdoes Lombard plenty of times. His kooky, eccentric character has got to be hard to play, but he makes it look easy. Every line he says, he says it the way Oscar Jaffe would say it, not himself like usual.

I was extremely impressed. "Twentieth Century" is a wonderful movie that should really be watched. Hey-- for those people who whined about it not playing good on instant watch: that's not a review, and this isn't on IW anymore.

:P.