NOVEMBER 21-DECEMBER 2 • 12 DAYS!  CAROLE LOMBARD

Lombard

A megawatt star, bright enough to  cheer America during the Great Depression.  Film Forum's tribute is the perfect antidote  to a gray winter and financial anxiety!”  – New York Magazine

“IF YOU ONLY DO I THING THIS WEEK… Sexy and funny is a deadly combo, and nobody did it better than this fabulous comedian. A much deserved tribute!”  – Time Out New York  “With immaculate timing, Film Forum has scheduled the perfect response to recessions, depression, and other ills, whether of the economy or the soul.” – ANTHONY LANE, THE NEW YORKER Click here to read entire review  “Few stars have ever been as special as Carole Lombard. From her chiseled, white-blonde goddess-y beauty to her perfect body and superb sartorial flair, she was visually breathtaking, but oh so much more… Monroe is the blond movie icon who refuses to be forgotten, but I wish newer generations would be made aware of a woman who died even younger and was infinitely more talented, beautiful, and fascinating.” – David Noh, The Gay City News  “Recapturing the zeitgeist of 1930s screwball comedy, Film Forum’s retrospective comprises old favorites and overlooked jewels, and serves as a reminder of just how modern and ahead of her time Lombard really was.” – Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine http://thelmagazine.com/6/33/Film/film1.cfm?ctype=2  “ONE OF THE FUNNIEST GENIUSES IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA…To witness Tina Fey’s foremother in making humor sexy and smart, there’s no better place to start than Film Forum.” – Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York http://www.timeout.com/film/newyork/features/show-feature/6260/the-divine-comedy.html  “Carole Lombard seemed to play with the properties of celluloid as if they were fingers paints… an ideal screen comedian.” – Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, The Village Voice http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-11-19/film/film-forum-celebrates-carole-lombard/ Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review

Carole Lombard (1908-1942), born Jane Alice Peters in Fort Wayne, Indiana, first gained notice for her madcap appearances in Mack Sennett silent comedy shorts. After nearly two dozen featured roles in Paramount “programmers,” she vaulted to stardom playing tempestuous actress Lily Garland, opposite John Barrymore’s equally tempestuous producer Oscar Jaffe, in Howard Hawks’ Twentieth Century – the first of her trademark “screwball” roles (Barrymore would later call her "perhaps the greatest actress I ever worked with.”). Lombard’s perfect timing, quicksilver verbal facility, and goddess-like beauty – and an acting range that allowed her to move comfortably from melodrama to knockabout comedy -- made her one of the greatest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Lombard's career was cut tragically short when, returning to Hollywood from a war bond tour, she was killed in a plane crash, age 34. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wired husband Clark Gable, “She brought joy to all who knew her, and to millions who knew her only as a great artist… She is and always will be a star, one we shall never forget, nor cease to be grateful to."

 “ONE OF THE FUNNIEST GENIUSES IN THE HISTORY OF CINEMA… To witness Tina Fey’s foremother in making humor sexy and smart, there’s no better place to start than Film Forum.”  – Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York Click here to read entire article  “Carole Lombard, blond, beautiful and fearless, was the pre-eminent screwball of her mad, desperate time.” – Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times Click here to read entire article  “Lombard’s alternately heavy-lidded or saucer-wide eyes and wind-tunnel perfect figure looked great from any angle. Her equal ease with physical comedy and rapid-fire dialogue, and almost supernatural ability to mug with comic accuracy and emotional sincerity have never been equaled.”  – Bruce Bennett, Stop Smiling Click here to read entire article Click here to read entire review Click here to read entire review “Lombard’s alternately heavy-lidded or saucer-wide eyes and wind-tunnel perfect figure looked great from any angle. Her equal ease with physical comedy and rapid-fire dialogue, and almost supernatural ability to mug with comic accuracy and emotional sincerity have never been equaled.”  – Bruce Bennett, Stop Smiling Click here to read entire article

“She was the greatest star in the world… the greatest actress… she could do anything.” – William Wellman  “There’s a strong case to be made for the divinity of Carole Lombard. One is certain that at Olympian banquets, she’s right up there next to Zeus.” – David Shipman  “The grandest, most skilled, most uninhibited American comic actress of her day, and of any day since… Lombard was — is — a phenomenon.... with a sensuousness that is often seriously, uproariously compromised by full-bodied, unladylike laughter.  Lombard is simultaneously of this earth and divine.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times   “She is so alive, modern, frank, and natural that she stands out like a beacon on a lightship in this odd place called Hollywood.” – Barbara Stanwyck  “The sexiest of the comediennes... She threw herself into her scenes in a much more physical sense than the other women did, and her all-outedness seemed spontaneously giddy. It was easy to believe that a woman who moved like that and screamed and hollered with such abandon was a natural, uninhibited cutup—naturally high-spirited.” – Pauline Kael  “Still as enchanting and witty as any Hollywood actress. That brusque blonde superiority, the offhand hints of sexuality, and the exposure of feelings beneath screwball made Lombard something of a legend in her own time… We live now, with blunt, indolent actresses who would be shamed by a retrospective of Carole Lombard movies.” – David Thomson

NOVEMBER 21/22 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

“AN ESSENTIAL DOUBLE FEATURE!” – Dave Kehr, The New York Times

“Lombard is bedbug crazy and marvelous in both of these famous pictures.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

MY MAN GODFREYMY MAN GODFREY

(1936, Gregory La Cava) Dizzy heiress Lombard wins the scavenger hunt by producing bum William Powell as a “forgotten man”—then hires him as her butler, joining air-headed mom Alice Brady’s menagerie of acidulous relatives and bizarre hangers-on (including ape imitator Mischa Auer), with Eugene Palette as the long-suffering paterfamilias.
2:45, 6:15, 9:45

LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE RADIO ADAPTATION OF MY MAN GODFREY, STARRING CAROLE LOMBARD & WILLIAM POWELL (originally broadcast May 9, 1938).

“One of Lombard's most glittering works. Has worn as well as any screwball because of the ferocious streak that courses through its revelry—not unlike the filthy laugh and the dirty looks with which Lombard punctuated her breathless chatter. Clad in silk, fluff, and loose pajamas, she bounces beautifully off Powell, who is suavity itself.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“CRITIC’S PICK! If you miss this Lombard classic, you must have a screw loose.”
– Time Out New York

“One of the treasures of screwball comedy. God, but this film is beautiful. The cinematography is a shimmering argument
for everything I've ever tried to say in praise of black and white. Lombard has a dreamy, ditzy breathlessness.”
– Roger Ebert

“One of the best of the thirties crazy sophisticated comedies.” – Leslie Halliwell

“One of the richest films in the screwball tradition so closely associated with life in Depression America. It shows Lombard to be the equal of Irene Dunne and Claudette Colbert as the much-beloved, madcap screwball heroine.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“A durably clever and harmonious romantic farce whose blend of topicality, absurdity and geniality remains unrivaled.” The Washington Post

“Lombard creates a ditz so rare, a creature so otherworldly in her oblivion to what others call reality, that she comes off less as a thing of flesh and blood than as a shimmering cloud of butterflies flying in perfect, girl-shaped formation. A screwball masterpiece.”
– Hazel-Dawn Dumpert, The Village Voice

TWENTIETH CENTURYTWENTIETH CENTURY

(1934, Howard Hawks) Theatrical svengali John Barrymore and rebellious protégée Lombard (in the picture that made her the “Duse of daffy comedy”) slug it out aboard the Chicago-New York run of the Twentieth Century Ltd. — machine gun dialogue courtesy Hecht & MacArthur. Years later, Barrymore commented “Carole Lombard is perhaps the greatest actress I have ever worked with.”
1:00, 4:30, 8:00

“The most delectable American film farce ever made… As Lily bellows the surprised fury of an impaled mother elephant, Carole Lombard roars into the collective consciousness as the grandest, most skilled, most uninhibited American comic actress of her day, and of any day since.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“One of the comic masterpieces of the American cinema and the first of Hawk’s double-edged sexual battles. Lombard really proves herself grappling with Barrymore.”
– David Thomson

“One of Lombard’s wildest, most assertive performances.” – Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

“Hawks’ hilarious, trend-setting show business comedy. A breakneck screwball farce… right up there with Barrymore in comic genius—and a knockout in her own right—is the wondrous and unique Ms. Lombard. This is the exhilaratingly funny filmed moment at the birth of a great comedienne.”
– Peter Bogdanovich

“Lombard rolls her eyes, stomps, delivers a series of tiny kicks to Barrymore,
and makes ‘phooey’ sound like it's the funniest word in the English language.”

– Melissa Anderson, Time Out New York

“Lombard and Barrymore are comedic ecstasy, and their fiery delivery of Ben Hecht
and Charles MacArthur’s banter set the standard for zany eloquence that defined the era.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“Hawk’s sharp, shining farce. If there ever was a comedy that summed up a hundred years of fracas, fame-seeking, and furious postures, this it. One of the great railroad pictures, up there with The Palm Beach Story.”
– Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

“I find this knockdown screwball farce, directed by 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. The show here belongs almost entirely to the fast-talking stars, at their hyperbolic best, and the movie is a veritable concerto for their remarkable talents, put across by Hawks with maximal energy and voltage.”
– Jonathan Rosenbaum

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NOVEMBER 23 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

TRUE CONFESSIONTRUE CONFESSION

(1937, Wesley Ruggles) “You’ll fry!” taunts courtroom hangeron John Barrrymore, as compulsive liar Carole finds her best bet to beat a murder rap is to mendaciously plead guilty, even as lawyer/hubby Fred MacMurray plans her defense.
2:55, 6:30, 10:15

LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE RADIO ADAPTATION OF TRUE CONFESSION, STARRING LORETTA YOUNG (IN THE LOMBARD ROLE), FRED MACMURRAY, AND RUTH DONNELLY (originally broadcast May 13, 1940) - 13 meg mp3 file

“Hilarious!” – Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

“Lombard shines in this speedy comedy!” – Time Out New York

“This is that rare thing, cinema, and the best comedy of the year. Constructed firmly and satisfactorily on human nature. The trial scene is a magnificent parody of all American trial scenes, and the picture succeeds in being funny from beginning to end. If it appears crazy it is only because we are not accustomed to seeing people behaving naturally and logically on screen.” – Graham Greene (1937)

“An underappreciated gem filled with Lombard’s charming subterfuge.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“A minor gem… unimaginable without Lombard’s exquisite, intelligent, exuberant presence.” The Guardian

“A new comic high for Carole Lombard. Skillfully played and paced, keyed up to the pitch of the dizziest haywire skit.”TIME

“Rarely turns up, though one of the most affable of Lombard’s screwballs. Genteel giddiness keeps the picture going.” – Pauline Kael

“Lombard gets at something essential in the screwball spirit. She’s the woman who saves the man—
from the purgatory of honest hard work and its paltry reward: no fun. No wonder audiences went wild for her.”
The New York Observer

HANDS ACROSS THE TABLEHANDS ACROSS THE TABLE
plus THE CAMPUS VAMP (silent short featuring live piano accompaniment)

(1935, Mitchell Leisen) On the prowl for a wealthy mate, manicurist Lombard gets stuck with formerly rich Fred MacMurray as a roommate, awaiting his own lucrative marriage with the “pineapple king” heiress—then things get complicated. Ernst Lubitsch oversaw production, in an effort to deliver Lombard (whom he adored) a suitable vehicle for her talents. With perpetual “Other Guy” Ralph Bellamy—in a wheelchair. Plus Mack Sennett short The Campus Vamp (1928), with live piano accompaniment by Peter Mintun.
1:00, 4:35, 8:20

“Lombard, in the first part tailor-made for her, proves herself as the only Hollywood person ever to be a great beauty, a great comedienne and a great actress all at once.”
– Geoff Brown, Time Out (London)

“Lombard is the rare performer whose enjoyment of her own jokes adds to the audience’s pleasure.” – Pauline Kael

“A happy mixture of brainwork and horseplay and a reminder that when intelligence goes for a walk even among the oldest props,
the props may come to life.”

– Otis Ferguson, The New Republic

“An uproariously romantic comedy. Of all the numerous efforts to recapture the mood of It Happened One Night, this is easily the most successful. In the shrewd perfection of its timing and the whip-like crackle of his humor, the work constantly suggests the Lubitsch touch. Miss Lombard has a tart humor that is perfectly suited to her role.”
The New York Times

THE CAMPUS VAMP: “Lombard seems totally at home in Mack Sennett’s anarchic nuttiness.” – Dan Callahan, The House Next Door

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NOVEMBER 24 MON (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

“Newly struck prints of rarities! Lurid pre-Code melodramas!” – Lou Lumenick, The New York Post

VIRTUEVIRTUE

New 35mm restoration!
(1932, Edward Buzzell) That’s what Carole, on the run from a 90-day solicitation rap, is looking for with cabbie Pat O’Brien, but slimeball Jack LaRue suckers her into a con game topped with a murder charge.
2:25, 6:35, 10:45

“It’s remarkable to watch Lombard impersonating a prostitute attempting to go straight: her face is touchingly open when she’s with the man she loves, hard and opaque when she’s with anybody else, and her voice changes timbre too, from delicate to tough and back again.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

“To the part of brave, misunderstood little Mae, Carole Lombard brings her alabaster beauty
and her talent for looking cruel and tender at the same time.”

The New York Times

WHITE WOMANWHITE WOMAN

New 35mm Print! (1933, Stuart Walker) “Alone among outcasts who hadn’t seen a white woman in ten years!” … and she turns out to be Carole Lombard! — but Charles Laughton steals scenes wholesale as cockney “King of the River. ”Carole’s onscreen singing debut!
3:45, 7:55

“A steamy melodrama.” – David Shipman

“Must be seen to be believed.”Alternative Film Guide

“A gruesome, starkly melodramatic jungle terror yarn.
Premised on a sadist motif, a definite note of cruel realism prevailing.”

Motion Picture Herald

SINNERS IN THE SUNSINNERS IN THE SUN

(1932, Alexander Hall) Model Lombard and mechanic Chester Morris split up, then decide to go for it, Carole finding a wealthy married man and Chester servicing both a limo and its rich owner. With a pre-stardom Cary Grant as a heartless playboy driving his lover to suicide.
1:00, 5:10, 9:20

“Evidentially designed to give the female players a swell chance to wear gorgeous gowns, and they certainly have succeeded. Carole in a bathing suit ought to take care of the men folk.”
Motion Picture Herald

“Feminine fashions, fast automobiles and fine wines come to the fore in this lavish production.”
The New York Times

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NOVEMBER 25 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

NO MAN OF HER OWNNO MAN OF HER OWN

(1932, Wesley Ruggles) On-the-lam gambler Clark Gable hides out in sleepy Glendale, marrying local librarian Carole on a coin flip. Gable & Lombard’s only screen pairing: love and marriage came 7 years later. 1:20, 4:35, 7:50

“Gable and Lombard make a dazzling on-screen couple… some fine comic moments together, and the intimate pre-code encounters are pretty sexy.”
– J.R. Jones, Chicago Reader

“Lombard demonstrates a radiantly appealing Every Girl quality.”
– David Noh, The Gay City News

“Racy but very mature… the battle of seduction hasn't been better played since.”
Bright Lights Film Journal

“Gable and Lombard’s sass-and-sex match-up is palpably magnetic.” –The Village Voice

“Carole Lombard, cool, sincere, and intelligent, makes the perfect heroine.”
London Film Weekly

NOW AND FOREVERNOW AND FOREVER

New 35mm Print!
(1934, Henry Hathaway) International jewel thieves Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard mull going straight, but there’s a complication — Cooper’s daughter Shirley Temple. Winning pre-stardom supporting role for the tot, in surprisingly serious and affecting drama.
3:00, 6:15, 9:30

“Expertly contrived to furnish first-rate entertainment.”
The New York Post

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NOVEMBER 26 WED (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

BOLEROBOLERO

(1934, Wesley Ruggles) Ex-coal miner George Raft moves from Jersey beer garden to swank Paris boîte, as he and dance partner Lombard heat up the screen tangoing to Ravel’s insistent melody. Following her death, Raft praised his alleged lover as “the greatest girl that ever lived.”
2:45, 6:00, 9:15

“The studio poured every sultry effect shameless people could dream up into this movie,
and, incredibly, got by with it.”
– Pauline Kael

“A rather elegant studio pot-boiler.” – Vincent Canby

WE’RE NOT DRESSINGWE’RE NOT DRESSING

(1934, Norman Taurog) When spoiled heiress Lombard’s yacht is wrecked on a desert island, previously-fired singing sailor Bing Crosby takes charge, with Lombard shrugging off being caught in Burns and Allen’s lion trap, and jack of all trades Crosby building a house in a single day. With Ethel Merman, too.
1:10, 4:25, 7:40

“A lost treasure of 1930s burlesque!” – Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“It was more than ever clear that here was a witty, sinewy, leading lady.” – David Shipman

“A tiptop audience appeal musical.” Variety

“A very limber film, like a series of epic-long non sequiturs connected by the cartilage of funny little asides (the shipwrecked people's landing on the island inhabited only by the very funny George Burns and Gracie Allen is a highlight) and really cool musical numbers I think I fell in love with Lombard after her great slapping-kissing scene with Crosby…”
– Ed Gonzalez, SLANT Magazine

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NOVEMBER 27 THU (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

FROM HELL TO HEAVENFROM HELL TO HEAVEN

New 35mm Print!(1933, Erle C. Kenton) Grand Hotel at the races, as vamp Lombard and other down-on-their-luck gamblers place long-shots. With Jack Oakie.
3:50, 8:00

“Seldom-shown! Entertaining… noteworthy for the number of zoom shots uncommon for the period.”
– Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“An exciting drama, cleverly developed suspense, and all the old-fashioned entertainment standbys— romance, drama, comedy, suspense, excitement, thrill, spectacles, and action.”
Motion Picture Herald

“A diverting drama! Carole Lombard serves the film well.” The New York Times

LADIES’ MANLADIES’ MAN

(1931, Lothar Mendes) Gigolo William Powell crosses one husband too many, as he both squires socialite Ka Francis and seduces her daughter Lombard, in screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz’s harshly unsentimental look at Gotham high life.
1:00, 5:10, 9:20

“Contains the first sign of Lombard’s special talent for extremes.” – Dan Callahan, The House Next Door

“A vivid, hard melodrama showing the blacker side of early thirties high society living.”
– Leslie Halliwell

“Seems constantly about to veer into the Lubtischean wit of Design for Living. A decidedly Pre Code work.”
– William K. Everson

MAN OF THE WORLD

(1931, Richard Wallace) Parisian scandal sheet operator William Powell likes to think of himself as a gentleman racketeer—he doesn’t blackmail women. But when he hits up visiting soft coal baron Guy Kibbee for hush money, his niece turns out to be Carole Lombard (the soon-to-be real-life Mrs. Powell).
2:25, 6:35

“A romantic melodrama. Lombard enters with a nervous giggle and but then the plot obliges her to slap Mr. Powell's guilt-stricken face. Later, she was always game for combative interplay.”
The Washington Post

“Remarkable… a sharp modern sensibility and storytelling clarity. It's a Lost Generation novel come to life in which none of the details that help establish the mise-en-scène—the Paris newsreel footage, that hulking printing press, the extras, all the talk about onion soup and foo young—feel arbitrary or tossed-off. It's a film that cares about environment and how people fit into it.”
– Ed Gonzalez, SLANT Magazine

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NOVEMBER 28/29 FRI/SAT (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

TO BE OR NOT TO BETO BE OR NOT TO BE

(1942, Ernst Lubitsch) “I’d like to present the Polish case in a more suitable dress.” With Lombard (in her last film role) as his Ophelia, Jack Benny — as Joseph Tura, “that great, great Polish actor” — must suffer Gestapo man Sig Rumann’s dramatic criticism.
2:55, 6:20, 9:50

“Lombard at her apex, Lubitsch at his most inspired. Lombard is at her most seductive… this should have been the beginning of a new image for her as stylishly worldly comedienne. Instead, it was the final curtain.”
– Andrew Sarris

“Could be Lubitsch’s finest achievement, and it's certainly one of the most profound, emotionally complex comedies ever made, covering a range of tones from satire to slapstick to shocking black humor. Lombard is kittenish, slinky, and witty as the unfaithful wife.”
– Dave Kehr

“About as close to heaven as movie farces ever get.” – Vincent Canby

“Lombard crowned her career with To Be or Not to Be, she gave the greatest light comedy performance ever recorded on film.”
– David Noh, The Gay City News

“Lombard’s last and arguably best. The audacity of the film owes a lot to her nerve, just as its sense of real danger, feeling, and romance grows out of her personality: Wit, glamour, and emotion come together.’”
– David Thomson

“Lombard’s greatest film, so far ahead of its time that we still may not have quite caught up with it.”
The Guardian

“Terrific backstage comedy with Lombard at her most appealing.” – J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

NOTHING SACREDNOTHING SACRED

(1937, William Wellman) Carole’s Hazel Flagg learns she isn’t dying of radium exposure, but why give up that all-expenses-paid trip to Gotham courtesy Human Interest-mongering reporter Fredric March? Ben Hecht poisonly penned this satire of cheap sensationalism, big city phoniness, and small town smallmindedness. Produced by David O. Selznick, this is Carole’s only appearance in Techniclor—and one of her personal favorite roles.
1:15, 4:45, 8:15

“Nothing sums up the screwball ethos better and Lombard’s pitch-perfect performance shows why she is the queen of the genre.”
– Cullen Gallagher, L Magazine

“A Technicolor treasure. A delirious send-up of bandwagon piety… Lombard throws herself into the role with daffy, tongue-tripping abandon.”

– The Village Voice

“A consistent laugh riot and once of Lombard’s best movies.” – Time Out New York

“Probably the best role Lombard ever had… And she slips into this role like a model into a clingy haute couture evening gown, wears it as if she’d been born in it. Hazel fools everybody — even, at times, herself — and Lombard lets you see every tiny flicker of the character’s wavering belief in her own performance, and makes it all blissfully funny.”
– Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times

“Hollywood’s most bitter and hilarious satire, with crazy comedy elements and superb wisecracks; a historical monument of screen comedy.”
– Leslie Halliwell

“An irresistible performance from Lombard.” – Tom Milne, Time Out (London)

“The definitive Ben Hecht screenplay.” – Dave Kehr

“The acting is superb… Lombard has a touch of comic genius.” – William Whitebait

“Lombard’s most gloriously cynical picture.” – David Thomson

NOTHING SACRED

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NOVEMBER 30 SUN (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

MR. & MRS. SMITHMR. & MRS. SMITH

(1941, Alfred Hitchcock) Even after Carole discovers she likes the idea that her long-battling marriage turns out to be void, ex-spouse Robert Montgomery still keeps running into her. The Master’s sole romantic comedy was a favor to Lombard.
1:00, 4:20, 7:40

“Hitchcock’s sight gags were inventive and incisive. His sexual metaphors suggest that Lombard could have added a new dimension to Hitchcock’s propensity for blonde-bashing actresses, from Madeline Carroll to Grace Kelly.”
– Andrew Sarris

“Curiously overlooked... Breezily modern, immensely entertaining.”
– Bruce Bennett, Stop Smiling

“Underrated…a hint of how well Lombard and Hitch might have worked together.” – David Thomson

“One of the most underrated comedies of its time, largely ignored by the critics and the public because Hitchcock was not expected to make a screwball comedy. Yet it’s one of Lombard’s best and she has a leading man who is her psychic match.”
– Vincent Canby

“Just as Hitchcock brings humor to his nightmare scenarios, his sole screwball comedy features an aspect of horror... this comedy foreshadows the sexual gamesmanship of Vertigo as well as the metaphysical terror of The Wrong Man and North by Northwest, in which a person is expelled from his life by a hiccup of fate.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker

THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS

THE PRINCESS COMES ACROSS(1936, William K. Howard) Cruising from France to New York, Lombard’s ‘Princess Olga of Sweden’ (actually Brooklyn’s own Wanda Nash) encounters famous accordion player Fred MacMurray—he sings, too… but then the bodies start dropping amidst a sleuths’-convention-bound gaggle of detectives.
2:50, 6:10, 9:30

“Engagingly daffy. Carole Lombard provides a delightfully haughty ice princess who’s as entertaining as her brassy alter ego.”
All Movie Guide

“Lombard performs a fine imitation of the accent, mannerisms and to some extent the appearance of Greta Garbo.”
TIME

“Lombard's performance and her chemistry with MacMurray enliven this cruise ship murder comedy.”
– Ed Gonzalez, SLANT Magazine

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DECEMBER 1 MON (3 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

UP POPS THE DEVILUP POPS THE DEVIL

(1931, A. Edward Sutherland) It’s a one-year trial marriage for Carole Lombard and writer wannabe Norman Foster (she loves him for ‘all the wrong reasons’), but there are problems on their anniversary: the attentions of local vamp Lilyan Tashman and Foster’s jealousy of Lombard’s friendship with his potential publisher—but who gets the apartment?
1:00, 5:15, 9:30

“A plenty satisfying strip of celluloid!”Variety

“The shining light of this film is Miss Lombard, whose sincerity in her portrayal is surpassed only by her physical beauty.”
The New York Times

FAST AND LOOSEFAST AND LOOSE

(1930, Fred Newmeyer) With adaptation and dialogue by Preston Sturges, a society melodrama “memorable for the curious tension between Miriam Hopkins’ debut as a rowdy society girl and Lombard’s relatively subdued sass as a poor chorus girl” (Andrew Sarris).
2:30, 6:45

“A highly amusing feature, with competent direction and clever acting. Preston Sturges
is to be congratulated for thoroughly satisfactory entertainment of the higher order.”
The New York Times

“Intriguing for its prototypical Preston Sturges dialogue.” – The Village Voice

“Carole Lombard is quite charming.” – William K. Everson

“A tantalizing rarity.” – Dan Callahan, The House Next Door

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISEIT PAYS TO ADVERTISE

New 35mm Print!(1931, Frank Tuttle) When soap king Eugene Pallette kicks out son Norman Foster for planning to marry secretary Lombard, that’s the last straw—dammit, he’ll get a job! And in the soap business! Then things get sudsier amid clan conniving, business backstabbing, and romantic rhodomontade. With an appearance by silent movie siren Louise Brooks and credits listing "Carol" Lombard.
3:55, 8:10

“A surprisingly sprightly comedy, starting off with a bang
and maintaining a much slicker pace than was common in 1930 comedies.”

– William K. Everson

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DECEMBER 2 TUE (2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION)

“TWO SUPERB SOAP OPERAS.” – Lou Lumenick, The New York Post

IN NAME ONLYIN NAME ONLY

(1939, John Cromwell) Wealthy Cary Grant finds love with widowed single mother Carole Lombard — only trouble is, he’s still married to icy Kay Francis.
1:00, 4:40, 8:20

“A grade-A soaper in which Lombard turns off the bubble machine
and takes a markedly fresh and steady turn.”

– The Village Voice

“A solid, soapy picture with unusually good performances.” – Pauline Kael

“Soap opera par excellence, blessed with a peerless cast. The performances by the stars—
and knowing direction—elevate it to the level of ‘romance classic.’”

All Movie Guide

“Grant and Lombard in their most adventurous prime.” – Andrew Sarris

MADE FOR EACH OTHERMADE FOR EACH OTHER

(1939, John Cromwell) After marrying Lombard against the wishes of boss Charles Coburn and his own meddling mom Lucile Watson, James Stewart finds himself sidelined at work and browbeaten by a living-in Watson at home. "Are you a man or a mouse?" –two guesses—until it’s time for a desperate search for a baby-saving serum. Named as one of the top ten films of the year by The New York Times.
2:50, 6:30, 10:10

“Cromwell’s beautifully acted romantic comedy is honest and appealing.” – Elliott Stein, The Village Voice

“It is an indisputable fact that this mundane, domestic chronicle has more dramatic impact than all the hurricanes, sandstorms and earthquakes manufactured in Hollywood last season. What demands solution is why, when Hollywood can make pictures as sound as Made for Each Other, it practically never does. [Stewart and Lombard’s characters] become two of the most memorable personages who have ever come to life upon a strip of celluloid.”
TIME

“The sensitivity and concentration of director John Cromwell lift this sticky 1938 melodrama beyond its rightful class.”
– Dave Kehr

“Thoroughly delightful. It is a richly human picture they have created, human and therefore comic,
sentimental and poignant by turns. Stewart and Lombard play perfectly.”

The New York Times

“Few if any other performers of Lombard's generation could ride the turn away from comic towards melodramatic sharp enough to puncture that Cromwell’s Made For Each Other takes during its last few reels. Lombard,was equipped to handle the bizarre genre splice with seamless facility.”
– Bruce Bennett, Stop Smiling

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Special Thanks to Paul Ginsburg, Bob O’Neil (NBC Universal); Jared Sapolin, Grover Crisp, Helena Brissenden (Sony Pictures); Marilee Womack (Warner Bros.); Schawn Belston, Caitlin Robertson (20th Century Fox); Mary Tallungan, Scott Kelley (The Walt Disney Company); Mike Mashon, Rob Stone (Library of Congress ); Peter Langs (IPMA); Rick Scheckman; and Tom Toth.

programmed by Bruce Goldstein


A special nod to NBC Universal for helping to keep repertory cinema alive.