TWENTIETH CENTURY

US, 1934, 91 minutes, Black and white.
John Barrymore, Carole Lombard, Walter Connolly.
Directed by Howard Hawks.

Twentieth Century is based on a play by Charles MacArthur and Ben Hecht. It was called Napoleon of Broadway. However, it was based on another play by Charles Bruce Milholland and his experience of the famous entrepreneur, David Belasco.

The film was directed by Howard Hawks, usually best known as an action director with a range of films including Only Angels Have Wings, Come and Get It, Red River and a number of John Wayne action films including Rio Bravo and El Dorado. However, he also made a number of comedies of the screwball kind including Bringing Up Baby with Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. He also directed the musical, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, with Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell.

This film is a variation on the Star is Born theme. John Barrymore, an eccentric screen presence, always intense with the touch of the Svengali, appears as a Broadway entrepreneur who works well with an actress, played by Carole Lombard. When she decides to go to Hollywood, his career goes into decline. He attempts to revive the career when he encounters the actress during a train trip on the Twentieth Century.

With the Star is Born theme, the decline in career as another career ascends, the film has a perennial interest and appeal. However, it is interesting to see it as a fast wisecracking version of 30s screwball comedy which Hawks was to bring to a perfection in his version of Hecht and Mac Arthur’s Front Page Story, His Girl Friday with Rosalind Russell, Cary Grant and Ralph Bellamy.

1. The significance and emphasis of the title? the train and the journey? The original play was Napoleon of Broadway. The emphasis on Oscar Jaffe? Which was a more appropriate title?

2. The film as an example of early talkie comedies, the nature of its style the emphasis of the theatre, the attitude towards Hollywood films, the train journey?

3. Audience involvement in the structure: initial presentation and expectations of Jim, Lily, interaction between the two their ending up in the same situation as at the beginning? The difference in what had happened? Was it evident that the film was based on a play?

4. The appeal. of American screwball comedies: the nature of their style, situations, humorous lines, artificial
characters? Audience involvement in this kind of impossible comedy? The importance of the world of the theatre, theatricality and poses?

5. What did the film say about the world of theatre, drama and its effect on the actors, what is communicated by drama?

6. Theatricality and the theme of appearanoenand reality, in human relationships, the question of genius and artistry? The grandeur of genius, the irony and comedy of genius?

7. The character of Oscar Jaffe: the initial poster with the emphasis on himself, audience expectations of his first arrival, his manipulation and domination. the way that he directed, the way that he used and abused people, the chalk on the stage etc.? John Barrymore's style in portraying Jaffe? The details of self-ridicule as he even laughed at the character that he was portraying? The humour of his disguises e.g. at the station? The theatricality of his performance on the train, the encounter with Lily? The irony that ultimately he was a failure and could only succeed by fraud?

8. A comment on the genius impresarios of the American stage? How telling was the satire? The portrayal of Lily, the ordinary girl and the comedy of her rise to stardom, her inability to act at first, the challenge by Jaffe, his pressurising her, sticking the pin in her, changing her? The transition from rehearsal to her achievement in performance? How was she transformed? For the better, worse? Her self dramatisation, the clashes with Jaffe, his pretending to suicide and her being pressurised by him? The irony of her going to Hollywood and succeeding, Jaffe’s failing? Her being as theatrical as Jaffe?

9. The humour in Jaffe’s two helpers, his manager, the newspaper reporter? Their loyalty to him, their being mocked, their drinking? Their manoeuvres and their being outmanoeuvred especially on the train? The contrast with the character of Max who became a success? The irony of Jaffe’s sneering at Max? Lily's dependence on Max?

10. The importance of the train trip, the 20th century itself, the way that the train was presented? The clashes, the situation, the confined space and character, and the interaction? The manoeuvres on behalf of all for Jaffe’s success? The pressurising of Lily? The arrival of Max?

11. The humorous introduction of the religious fanatic with his stickers, his continued presence, the involvement of the plot especially with his bad cheques? The irony of his encounter with Jaffe at the shooting?

12. The satire in the death scene? The exaggeration of Jaffe, Lily's being taken in by and sudden switch? The fact that all ended up on the same stage as before? What had happened?

13. How funny is this kind of comedy? How much of the 30's? Dated? Satire on human nature?