Twentieth Century

I see no great need to add to the glowing comments others have already heaped on this film. It really is special, and one of my favorites. And because it is, I was hugely disappointed by the DVD. This transfer is pretty bad, and doesn't look much better than you might get from a public domain film some of the other companies grab hold of and slap onto a really cheaply priced DVD. This film is one of those treasures, historically important, and just damn good. You'd have thought that SONY (the parent company for Columbia/Tri-Star) would have invested more effort into ensuring a pristine... more

Of the great screen comedies from the Golden Age of the Hollywood Studio system, few are seen as rarely as TWENTIETH CENTURY. This is tragic for a number of reasons. First, this film is usually considered the first of the Screwball comedies that glorified the thirties and forties. Howard Hawks holds the unusual and unique distinction among the great directors of not only having mastered a huge number of genres but having actually invented several of them. In 1932 he invented the gangster film with his great classic SCARFACE. In 1950, he created the alien Sci-fi film, when he directed... more

"Twentieth Century" (1934) is a brilliant and scathing screwball yarn about a manical Broadway impressario, Oscar Jaffe's (John Barrymore) headstrong attempt to mold a shopgirl, Mildred Plotka (Carole Lombard) into the toast of the Great White Way. A bigger ham than any of his protiges, Oscar's career goes into a sudden tail spin after Mildred, christened Lily Garland, breaks free of his artistic stronghold for a chance to make it big in Hollywood. Now the toast of two coasts and everything in-between, Mildred doesn't need anyone to help her career. Oscar's bitter rejection and... more