Twentieth Century

John Barrymore throws himself against outrageous fortune with the cringing hackles and shock-eyed, whiskery countenance of Sylvester J. Pussycat — an egomaniacal and imperious impresario, a self-made baron of the stage, raggedly desperate in his shambled career and all the more ludicrous for his pride and fury. Carole Lombard does her best impersonation as his protégé, both pitching to melodrama as only coddled thespians who live for a phantom balcony audience do. Their screwball battles are twin performances, each ignored and unappreciated by the other. She turns on a dime from hysterical fits to shrewd stabbing of her poker-finger while his wild accusations of treachery fly.