DIRECTOR: Howard Hawks
SCREENPLAY: Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur & (uncredited) Preston Sturges, Gene Fowler
PHOTOGRAPHY: Joseph August
EDITOR: Gene Havlick
WITH: John Barrymore (Oscar Jaffe), Carole Lombard (Lily Garland/Mildred Plotka), Walter Connolly (Oliver Webb), Roscoe Karns (Owen O'Malley), Ralph Forbes (George Smith), Edgard Kennedy (Oscar McGonigle)   

REVIEW

There's a Pygmalion element to Twentieth Century: an egotistical theatre director fashions a star out of an unpromising lingerie model, only to fall in love, then lose her, through jealously and excessive demands.  That the film is far funnier than anything in George Bernard Shaw has to do with the talent involved, both before and behind the cameras.  Celebrated 1930s wits and playwrights Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur wrote the original Broadway show and were assisted in the screen adaptation by future auteur Preston Sturges.  Director Howard Hawks, master of genre film making, took the opportunity to create something of template for screwball comedy, with lightening fast pace and dialogue, broad performances and slapstick.
 
John Barrymore, once renowned as a great Shakespearean, was convinced to go over-the-top, giving the first of many exercises in self-parody as the theatrical "genius".   Carole Lombard was inspired to new comedic heights by Hawks' suggestion that she (metaphorically) "kick him in the balls".   What's especially refreshing is how neither character compromises their essential nature, each remaining insufferable to the last.   Made just before Hollywood's production code lowered the veil of prudery, so there's sensuality and a hint of sleaze.​

— Richard Swainson, Hamilton Film Society

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