Carole Lombard: First Lady of Screwball (and Much More!)
Monday, July 5, 2021 at 12:36AM 
The Criterion Channel is honoring Carole Lombard with one of their latest collections. This curated sample of eleven films illuminates different talents in the Old Hollywood star's repertoire, from her comedic chops to less heralded, though not less excellent, work in melodramas. While she's best remembered as the queen of the screwball genre thanks to films like My Man Godfrey, Lombard was a multifaceted actress whose range deserves to be remembered. While her life was cut short by a tragic plane crash in 1942, the starlet's filmography is a thing of beauty, vast and distinctive, full of treasures to discover and enjoy…
Carole Lombard died at the age of 33 when returning from one of the first Hollywood whistle-stop tours to sell war bonds. Her last film, Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be, would be released posthumously, making it clear how the actress was at the height of her powers when her sad fate manifested. That famed anti-Nazi comedy is often cited when discussing the legacy of Carole Lombard. It makes sense, for it represents one of her best performances as well as a prime example of the style of comedic acting she helped define, perfect, and popularize. Despite most of her famous movies dating from 1934 onwards, Lombard's career started at the dawn of the 1920s, the heyday of the Silent Era.
When movies were mute, Lombard was often slotted into the role of innocent ingenue whose bad luck puts her in a fair bit of trouble. However, the arrival of talkies changed that, allowing some of the star's off-screen personality to inform her movie work. A consummate prankster with a sailor's foul mouth, Carole Lombard was much more than the clotheshorse her glamorous promo shots might suggest, full of energy and wit. Her move from Fox to Paramount in the early 30s and a short-lived marriage to William Powell further elevated Lombard's public profile. This allowed her to get more varied roles, in search of a fitting star persona.
She hit the jackpot in 1934 when Howard Hawks cast her in Twentieth Century. Encouraging his actress to be more like herself, to act on instinct, the director guided Lombard into a frenzy that'd become her calling card in years to come. The picture codified the tenets of screwball comedy, and Lombard's zaniness became genre-defining. Then, in 1936, the surge in critical and industry acclaim culminated in an Oscar nomination for her turn in My Man Godfrey, playing an eccentric rich girl in love with the family's mysterious butler. Full of bubbly energy, vibrating with manic intensity and firing lines at the speed of light, these roles made Lombard into the First Lady of Screwball and represent what most people think of when seeing her name.
Nonetheless, just as she was more than a glamorous siren in Paramount photo ops, Carole Lombard was more than the manic pixy dream girl par excellence of the 1930s. Some of her best works tap into a talent for evoking melancholy, for unspooling the madness hiding beneath an eccentric façade and complicating stock roles, elevating them to startlingly modern creations. As proof, here are five highlights from the Criterion Channel's Lombard collection:
NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932)
The screen sizzles with sexual tension when Clark Gable and Carole Lombard share a scene. The actress had excellent chemistry with her future second-husband, and this Wesley Ruggles' movie shows that. Somewhere between dizzy comedy and romantic drama, it finds the starlet playing the epitome of the sexy librarian stereotype. Lombard makes dry wit into a seduction tool while also keeping her feet planted on the ground, anchoring the whole film with a down-to-earth attitude. She makes the lightning-fast love affair feel real by centering her portrait around the character's yearning for a less provincial life. Boredom laced with beautiful frustration turns out to be a perfect complement to Hollywood romance.
VIRTUE (1932)
The actress's personal and political beliefs are sometimes called proto-feminist, a quality that could bleed into her films. While Edward Buzzell's Virtue is no pinnacle of social progressivism, there's much to appreciate about its subversion of the fallen woman subgenre. Playing a working girl turned dutiful wife, Lombard gets to be someone who makes no apologies for her past and whose narrative arc isn't defined by redemptive transformation. Indeed, it's the man in the romantic equation that needs to change, to grow less judgmental for the matrimony to work. Often shot through grids and mirrors, Lombard has seldom been more spellbinding, her toughness always tempered by world-weariness, her joy darkened by reticence.
HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (1935)
Rather than framing screwball romance as a battle of the sexes, director Mitchell Leisen tended to portray his movies' loving couples as pairs of equals searching for joint happiness and willing to compromise to achieve it. This tale of a manicurist and an idle Playboy might be the best evidence of this, allowing the shadows of the Great Depression to encroach on the narrative in significant ways. These lovers tend to put money before romance. Such pragmatism is no match for genuine affection in Tinseltown's fairytales, but Lombard's always sure to give equal importance to the part's inherent sadness as well as its romanticism. Instead of mocking the self-proclaimed gold-digger, Lombard splinters the performance into a kaleidoscope of disappointments. There's a shadow of doubt in the corner of her every smile.
TRUE CONFESSION (1937)
What often made Carole Lombard's most excessive screwball performances work was an underbelly of lunacy she brought to her many queens of silliness. Based upon the French play Mon Crime, True Confession takes this factor to its extreme by casting Lombard in the part of a compulsive liar whose reckless disregard for her own life puts her at risk of the electric chair. This time around, her comedic mania has a dangerous bite, not to mention a charge of marital eroticism. There's nothing like watching Lombard's body vibrate with excitement when riling up her on-screen husband played by Fred MacMurray. Plus, she also gets to fumble in the face of John Barrymore's dipsomaniac lecher – a reunion of comedic titans after the success of Twentieth Century.
VIGIL IN THE NIGHT (1940)
A film proclaiming the nobility of those who dedicate their lives to medicine is very appropriate for our plague-riddled times. Add a blunt screed against the handling of health care as a business, and you might have the perfect movie for 2021. This fairly stiff affair showcases George Stevens' ability to dedramatize melodrama while also asking Lombard to act in a mode of perpetual stoicism, stillness, and resolute righteousness. The role of a British nurse who takes her vocation with dead seriousness is so diametrically opposed to the actress' most famous parts one can't help but be fascinated by her casting, not to mention the performance. Preachy to a fault, the movie's still something every Lombard fan should watch at least once.
Please, share your feelings about Carole Lombard in the comments. Are you a fellow fan?
Reader Comments (21)
Great fan of her. To me the 1930s are the great decade of The Great American Comedy in film; not even the academy resisted, rewarding some of them. We can see stars not associated with the genre doing comedy like Dietrich, Garbo and Gable. Carole is one of its main actresses like Arthur, Loy, Dunne, Hepburn, West, Harlow, Bennett, Colbert, Burke, Rogers, among others, each with a unique style and personality.
The First Lady of Screwball being written up by The President of Film Analysis. Perfecto!
The handsome Fred MacMurray starred in a lot of comedies like Ray Milland in the 1930s until Billy Wilder changed his career and life with Double Indemnity, 1945), respectively. Carole Lombard's wonderful.
Her early death was a loss to cinema. I'm sure there would have been an Oscar in her future.
She brought out the best in her leading men. I really like Hands Across the Table and I've read that she worked a lot with Fred MacMurray to help him develop the comedic skills that would end up serving him well as his career progressed.
My Man Godfrey is a wonderful film with interesting layers to it. It's one of William Powell's best performances. But I find Lombard's character kind of grating - definitely more of a reflection of the writing than the actress, since that's a description I've never wanted to apply to any other of Lombard's characters.
The tragic death of Carole Lombard makes for good fodder for romantics, though the 1976 bio pic was less than interesting despite the efforts of Jill Clayburgh. Lombard was a competent actress with one great film, My Man Godfrey, under her belt.
With the tragic death of actor James Dean, there is a real sense of loss when we look at Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and just feel in our bones how good Dean would have been as Brick. There are no post 1942 roles we watch, ache, and say, “I wish Carole Lombard had lived to play this.” Following her death she has been slated to star in the mediocre They All Kissed the Bride. Joan Crawford replaced her. In the final analysis, Lombard’s life and death are more interesting than her output.
I always appreciate these spotlights of early actress icons from Criterion Channel. I find that I don't know as much about them as I should, and the movies from the 1930s are so enjoyable.
My favorite Lombard movie is, predictably, To Be or Not To Be, but I loved discovering Hands Across the Table and am looking forward to seeing some of the others you highlighted, particularly True Confession and Virtue.
So glad to see a spotlight on the divine Carole Lombard!!
Having read a great deal about her she does come across as a genuinely nice person who would have been a ball to hang out with add into that her great talent as a performer and her early death is a great loss. I can't agree with James about the direction of her career. I think her savvy playing in To Be or Not to Be indicated that she would have been able to easily tempter her style into the sort of roles that Rosalind Russell played so successfully throughout the 40's alternating them with dramas when the mood struck her. She was a very powerful player in Hollywood not necessarily tied to any one studio and had secured a profit participation clause in her various contracts years before that became standard.
With the exception of some of her bits in silent films I've managed to complete her filmography. Like many performers she took some time to find her footing once sound came in and her early talkie performances tend to be either stiff or dull but even before 20th Century she was becoming more assured and relaxed but that really tapped into her potential.
This is my personal top 10 of her films in order:
1. Hands Across the Table-She and MacMurray worked together many times and their chemistry is perhaps the best she had with any of her leading men though she works well with Ralph Bellamy in this as well playing the poor snook again.
2. The Princess Comes Across
3.In Name Only-Again she and Cary Grant play off each other very well offering sensitive performances in this entertaining soap opera but the movie is stolen by a deliciously evil Kay Francis as Cary's grasping, devious wife Maida.
4. To Be or Not to Be
5. Swing High, Swing Low
6. My Man Godfrey
7. Love Before Breakfast
8. Bolero
9. Rumba
10. Brief Moment
Sad to say I detested True Confession! What a mess! Both lead characters are fools and irritating in the bargain. Carole's native intelligence shines through which actually weakens the movie since it reminds you that a woman obviously this smart would never do things so stupid. Fred's part is a dullard simp and even he would never believe the ridiculous things his wife comes up with. John Barrymore, or rather what's left of him at this point, is beyond hammy with another character that makes no sense. The only bright spot is Una Merkel who gives a sprightly, cute performance of the only person in the picture who seems like she would actually exist. Aside from her the movie is a dog. Without question her worst movie.
One of her favorite personal films is the only opportunity to see her in a Technicolor film: Nothing Sacred(1937) with the Marlon Brando of his time, Fredric March, where she plays a country girl who becomes a national celebrity after it's reported that she suffers from a rare disease and has a few months to live.
James, I'll take her work in Twentieth Century, My Man Godfrey, and To Be Or Not to Be over any of Dean's performances. Throw in her work in Virtue, Hands Across the Table, Nothing Sacred, and, well, you get the idea.
She's competent and good, but I'm never really blown away by her sadly.
What could have happened to Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Carole Lombard, Heath Ledger, River Phoenix, Anton Yelchin, Robert Walker, Andy Whitfield, Paul Walker, Heather O'Rourke, Jon Erik-Hexum, Sharon Tate, Linda Darnell, and many others, had they not died so young - and, in the case of some, at the height of their careers? We don't have the answer. We can only speculate on that.
I just watched Nothing Sacred. And while the material has some ... ummm ... dated (aka, racist) moments ... she and Frederic March are a really fun duo. Some good snappy dialogue. She clearly had great comic timing and had no problem holding her own.
Funny girl with gorgeous face and sense of humor. As evident during the making of Mr and Mrs Smith(1941), the movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock(his only screwball comedy) and having Robert Montgomery as her leading man. Mr. & Mrs. Smith was the last film released before Lombard's death. To Be or Not to Be (1942) was her final film, released two months after she died in an aircraft crash while on a War Bond tour.
Some pieces that show her sense of humor:
1) Carole directed Alfred Hitchcock's cameo and made him do repeated takes.
2) She was a devoted Democrat, while Robert Montgomery, her co-star, was a Republican. During breaks in filming, Lombard made a point of running into the studio parking lot and putting election bumper stickers advocating the re-election of Franklin D. Roosevelt on Montgomery's car.
3) In order to twit Alfred Hitchcock and generate publicity about his comment that "actors are cattle," she set up a miniature cattle pen on the set. The pen held three heifers, each emblazoned with the name of one of the three leads.
Carole Lombard, Irene Dunne and Jean Arthur are my original Charlie's Angels of Classic Comedy: Jill(Carole), Sabrina (Irene) and Arthur (Kelly). I would recommend Now and Forever(1934), a mix of comedy, drama and melancholy starring Lombard, Gary Cooper and Shirley Temple.
"making it clear how the actress was at the high of her powers..." I think you mean height of her powers. I'm smarter than the average bear. Now the list upwards is thought provoking, with Monroe, Dean, Lombard, Ledger, Robert Walker, Erik-Hexum and Darnell being the greatest losses IMO.
Yogi Bear -- Yes, sorry. Thank you for pointing out the mistake, which I'll correct immediately.
@Rafaello Add John Garfield to that list, who died early of a heart attack, probably due in part to the HUAC shenanigans and the black list. He was very watchable.
@Susanita. Love this idea. Those three were brilliant, and like someone said about Lombard, they made their co-stars shine as well.
I *love* her in NOTHING SACRED. such a gift.
More comedy suggestions from the 1930s pt one:
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Katharine Hepburn in her first comedy chases endlessly Cary Grant in their second of four films together. A failure at the time and today a classic that never fades.
Dinner at Eight (1933)
With the success of Grand Hotel (1932) MGM wanted to bring together again big stars in the same movie, this time a comedy, and everyone is great: Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore and Billie Burke, as the most remembered nowadays in the remarkable cast.
Topper (1937)
Constance Bennett and Cary Grant are ghosts that haunt and help a man - the title character - to have a better life.
Easy Living (1937)
The cute and funny Jean Arthur is hit by a fur coat thrown through the window by a wealthy banker and her life turns upside down and things get more and more absurd.
Theodora Goes Wild (1936)
Irene Dunne's first comedy, then known as a drama actress. The film's popularity made her to be cast in other films of the genre and the rest is history. Here she is the writer, under a pseudonym, of a risqué novel that scandalizes the town.
More comedy suggestions from the 1930s pt two:
Every Day's a Holiday (1937)
Mae West's last film at Paramount, which they say, she and her films helped to get out of bankruptcy. Here she runs into trouble trying to sell the Brooklyn Bridge.
Lady for a Day (1933)
Perfect union of satirical comedy and sentimental drama that made Frank Capra one of the most important directors of the decade. The story of the poor mother who pretends to be rich so as not to harm her daughter's future turned 75-year-old May Robson into a star and earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Midnight (1939)
Screenplay co-written by future director Billy Wilder full of misunderstandings, false identities, lies that come true with a great cast led by Claudette Colbert in the role of an American showgirl with no money and no place to stay in Paris.
More comedy suggestions from the 1930s pt three:
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
For those who find Woody Allen's humor sophisticated, next to Ernst Lubitsch, the former is still in high school. Romantic comedy about a pair of high-class thieves who have chosen to live their lives by stealing, and don't see much of a problem with it.
Three Smart Girls (1936)
Flick that turned fourteen-year-old Deanna Durbin into the absolute superstar of the Universal Studios, a huge hit that had a much imitated story: the three girls from the title plot to prevent their divorced father from remarrying a gold digger.