From star to superstar

If 1936 was a watershed year for Carole Lombard, 1937 wasn't too bad either. Lombard starred in three films released in 1937, all of which were critical and box office successes. Swing High, Swing Low was the highest grossing film for Paramount Studios in 1937 as well as being one of the biggest box office hits of the year.

Lombard and MacMurray: Together again
Swing High, Swing Low was directed by Mitchell Leisen and costarred Lombard once again with Fred MacMurray. Not well regarded today because it seems to be one part screwball comedy, one part melodrama, and one part musical. What seemed innovative and inventive when first released seems a bit muddled and confusing to modern viewers. Frank S. Nugent in the New York Times wrote, "Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray skip through the formula devices of "Swing High, Swing Low" (nee "Burlesque") with their usual ease at the Paramount, raising a routine story to a routine-plus picture. The plus is extremely small, sometimes being almost invisible." Nugent ended his review by stating, "Its players really are worthy of better treatment." Still it has its moments and the Lombard/MacMurray chemistry delighted film-going audiences and most other contemporary film critics.

Lombard's next film for 1937 would be the much-heralded Nothing Sacred, costarring Fredric March with a script by Ben Hecht and direction by William A. Wellman. Produced by David O. Selznick, the film was given the A-treatment. Selznick spared no expense when it came to the film's production, including filming it in Technicolor, still a rare event in the late 1930s, especially for comedies. Nothing Sacred has the distinction of being the only color film Lombard ever made. The story goes that some people went to see the film just to get a glimpse of Lombard's beauty in color and they weren't disappointed: she looked luminous.

She's the top

One of the ironies of Lombard's career is how quickly she began to eclipse the stars that she used to support. In 1934, Lombard appeared with Fredric March in The Eagle and the Hawk, a film in which he received top billing. In less than three year's time, Lombard was the bigger star when they made Nothing Sacred, with her name above March's. Cary Grant, who also starred in The Eagle and the Hawk, billed above Lombard, but below March, would be billed under Lombard in In Name Only, released in 1939. In a relatively short period, Lombard was becoming one of the biggest stars in Hollywood.



Liar, liar
Lombard's last release of 1937 was True Confession,  with MacMurray and John Barrymore, her costar (again she's the bigger star now) from her breakthrough film, Twentieth Century. True Confession stars Lombard as a struggling fiction writer and habitual liar. MacMurray, her husband, is a straight-arrow lawyer who will only defend people he knows aren't guilty. Since they're both working hard to make ends meet, Lombard just doesn't understand how her husband can be so choosy about who he represents. To help out with the finances, Lombard secretly takes a job that doesn't require any skills, but pays a remarkable $50 for not even a full week's work! It doesn't take long for Lombard to realize that the job is mistress to the boss. Being an honorable, if a bit daffy wife, she quits almost immediately. When her boss ends up dead, with Lombard implicated in his murder, she concocts a story that helps get her acquitted of the murder and generates publicity to further her husband's law career.

True Confession was directed by Wesley Ruggles, who directed Lombard in No Man of Her Own. Ruggles was an early champion of Lombard's, considering her an actress of great depth and potential. Unfortunately for Lombard, Ruggles didn't run the the star factory at Paramount, where she was under contract, or her star might have risen sooner.

With three hit films, both commercially and critically, it seemed as if anything Lombard touched would turn to gold. Her relationship with Clark Gable was blossoming and her film career was approaching its zenith. But for Lombard, there were still more things she wanted to accomplish as a star and as an actress. The next few years would test her talent, resolve, and resiliency.

Is Carole Lombard in love at last?

That was the title of an article that appeared in Liberty magazine in 1936. That was the year the world discovered what most of Hollywood already knew: Clark Gable and Carole Lombard were in love.

Lombard and Gable 
The article is an interesting look back in time when the lives of Hollywood's rich and famous were followed and covered by the press as if they were royalty. The titillating, if overly long subtitle, "An Intimate Look at Hollywood's Newest Romance and--Most Discussed Question--Has the Screen's Blonde Venus Captured Clark Gable?" sets the reader up for a juicy read and it doesn't disappoint.

Most photographed movie star
Filled with plenty of 1930s name-dropping to satisfy die-hard movie fans, the article includes some insights into Lombard's previous high-profile romances, including her short marriage to William Powell. It also includes the fact that Gable was still married, although separated from wife Rhea. One interesting fact: Lombard, by 1936, had had her picture taken more than 200,000 times, putting her in such rarefied company with Marlene Dietrich and Claudette Colbert.

For the complete Liberty article, click here.

Lombard Comes Across

If 1935 was a good year for Carole Lombard, 1936 was the year she became a screen immortal. The three films she made in 1936 were critical and box offices successes, with My Man Godfrey (which will be the subject of a future post) becoming one of the most famous film comedies of all time.

Becoming a film icon
Lombard's first release of 1936 was Love Before Breakfast, a modern-day take on The Taming of the Shrew, costarring Preston Foster and Cesar Romero. On loan to Universal, Lombard's name is the only one appearing above the title. The poster art for the film features a painting of Lombard with a black eye. When the poster, plastered on a wall in an Atlanta, Georgia, town became the subject of a photograph by Walker Evans, it only helped burnish Lombard's emergence as a screen icon.  Love Before Breakfast is far from a classic, but it is an entertaining film and it showcases Lombard's ability to carry a picture.


The second Lombard release is an interesting comedy, The Princess Comes Across. It reunited her with Fred MacMurray, who she costarred with the year before in the much-heralded Hands Across the Table. The Princess Comes Across combined elements of screwball comedy with a murder mystery,  popularized by films like The Thin Man, starring Lombard's ex-husband William Powell and Myrna Loy.

I want to be alone
The Princess Comes Across is a romp for Lombard. She gets to imitate Greta Garbo in her characterization of princess Olga, the personality she creates to get a movie contract. The cast headlined by Lombard is ably supported by MacMurray, Alison Skipworth, Porter Hall, Sig Rumann, William Frawley, and Mischa Auer.

You can take that to the bank
Lombard was fast becoming one of Paramount Pictures's biggest and most bankable stars. During this period, she was a bigger box office draw than Bette Davis, Katherine Hepburn, Jean Harlow, Janet Gaynor, and Marlene Dietrich. In 1935, Lombard was making $3000 a week, but her fortunes would change in 1937 when she would earn $150,000 per picture, making her one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood.

What a difference a year makes: Lombard and "Hands Across the Table."

If 1934 was a breakthrough year for Carole Lombard with her star-making role in Twentieth Century, then her work in 1935 proved the previous year's performance was no fluke.

Shall we dance...again?

The year started with a sequel of sorts: Rumba, reunited Lombard with George Raft, her costar in Bolero. Although not well remembered today, Rumba was a commercial success and this time, Lombard received equal billing with Raft. If 1935 started well, it would end even better.

The Lubitsch touch
Ernst Lubitsch, recently installed as production manager at Paramount, found himself working with Lombard on a property called Hands Across the Table. The story about a cynical manicurist, was based on "Bracelets," a story by Vina Delmar, who would go on to win an Oscar nomination, two years later, for writing the screenplay for The Awful Truth.

A shaky start
The production didn't start off smoothly, however. Lubitsch was unsure of director Mitchell Leisen's ability to handle comedy material. Additionally, Lubitsch and Leisen were concerned with their inexperienced leading man, Fred MacMurray. Signed to a standard seven-year contract in 1934, MacMurray had already appeared in five films in 1935 before production on Hands Across the Table had begun. The last film he made was Alice Adams, a star vehicle for Katherine Hepburn, directed by George Stevens. MacMurray's performance in that film received good notices, but there was some concern that he did not have the depth needed for his performance opposite Lombard. In Leisen's retelling, Lombard pitched in as almost the codirector. According to MacMurray's account, "I owe so much of that performance and my subsequent career to her [Lombard] .... She worked with me on every scene."

A new film team is born
The work paid off and the chemistry between Lombard and MacMurray was strong enough that they eventually starred in three additional films, all of which were critical and commercial successes at the time. In 1937, they starred in two films together, The Princess Comes Across, and Swing High, Swing Low, which was Paramounts biggest grossing film that year. It is interesting to note that the pairings of Hepburn and Cary Grant which are much more heralded today, were not nearly as commercially successful as the pairings of Lombard and MacMurray.

Natural beauty

When Hands Across the Table was released, the critics loved it. Many compared it to It Happened One Night released the year before. Some critics commented that Lombard, by eliminating the heavy makeup that she typically used, revealed a natural beauty that previously had not been seen by the movie-going public. Apparently, Lombard took note of these critiques and her future films reflect a more natural look.

With the success of Hands Across the Table, Lombard proved she was no one-hit wonder and that she could carry a film on her own. Her career would be in high gear from hereon in.

"Some Like it Hot" is the next "Meet Me at the Movies" event

The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) invites you to "Meet Me at the Movies," Friday March 26, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School, Columbia College recital hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave.

Considered one of the greatest movie comedies of all time, director Billy Wilder's Some Like it Hot, is as funny today as when it premiered on March 29, 1959.

Marilyn Monroe and her "bosom" companions
The action starts in Chicago, when musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon) unwittingly become witnesses to the St. Valentine’s Day massacre of 1929. To escape “Spats” Columbo and his gang, Joe and Jerry disguise themselves as women and join an all-girl band traveling by train to Florida. Masquerading as Josephine and Daphne, Curtis and Lemmon somehow fool bandleader Sweet Sue and band-manager Beinstock, who are desperate to round out their jazz band.

Underneath the sheltering palms
On the train ride to Florida, Josephine and Daphne meet Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe). Things get complicated when Joe-Josephine starts to fall in love with her. With amazing energy and dexterity, Joe-Josephine manages to assume the identity of Junior, heir to the Shell Oil fortune, in order to woo Sugar and then switches back to play with Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopaters, to hide out from the Columbo gang. All this switching back and forth makes Daphne’s (Lemmon’s ) head spin. But Daphne has her own problems. The rich, much-married Osgood Fielding III finds Daphne irresistible and proposes. What’s a nice “girl” like Daphne to do?

With more twists and turns than a roller coaster, Some Like it Hot boasts memorable performance from the three leads and was voted the number one comedy film of all time by the American Film Institute (AFI).

Admission to the movie is $5 and dinner afterward (optional) is $15.