Twentieth Century (Hawks, 1934): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 8.40pm
This is the opening film in the Razor Sharp: The Fabulous Women of Howard Hawks season at BFI Southbank. The movie also screens on June 16th and 22nd. Full details here.
Chicago Reader review:
To register a minority opinion, I find this knockdown screwball farce (1934), directed by Howard Hawks four years before Bringing Up Baby, six years before His Girl Friday, and fifteen before I Was a Male War Bride,
a great deal funnier than all three. It costars John Barrymore and
Carole Lombard at their hyperbolic best as egomaniacal theatrical
monsters, a director and a star in a series of duels. The story comes
from a play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur that lampoons theatrical
excess as much as The Front Page lampoons
journalistic excess—a subject that Hawks can view with greater
familiarity. The show here belongs almost entirely to the fast-talking
stars, mainly having it out on the cross-country train of the title, and
the movie is a veritable concerto for their remarkable talents, put
across by Hawks with maximal energy and voltage.
Jonathan Rosenabum
Here (and above) Peter Bogdanovich recommends the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment