Twentieth Century

Directed by Howard Hawks, Twentieth Century follows flamboyant stage director Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore) as he attempts to lure his now-famous ex-girlfriend (Carole Lombard’s Lily Garland) back to his struggling theater. There’s little doubt, ultimately, that Twentieth Century fares best in its low-key and relatively compelling opening half hour, as Hawks, working from a script by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, delivers an intriguing behind-the-scenes drama revolving around the rehearsals for a Broadway show and the degree to which Barrymore’s imperious figure terrorizes his various performers. It’s disappointing to note, then, that the picture subsequently segues into a midsection that grows less and less interesting (and more and more interminable) as time progresses, with the emphasis placed on the protagonists’ tedious squabbling and, eventually, their individual exploits aboard a cross-country train. The movie’s increasingly claustrophobic atmosphere is compounded by a stagnant, time-wasting second half that’s riddled with pointless digressions, including a mostly disposable subplot about a fellow passenger placing “repent” stickers on every available surface, and it’s clear, too, that the stars’ excessively over-the-top and downright grating work contributes heavily to the hopelessly underwhelming, uninvolving atmosphere – which does, in the end, cement Twentieth Century‘s place as a disastrously unfunny misfire that feels much, much longer than its 91 minutes.

* out of ****