LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Carole Lombard: William Powell
built 230 days ago
Synopsis: In one of her first talking pictures, Carole Lombard played a girl crook falling in love with a handsome lineman (William Boyd) while marooned during a snow storm. Crossing the High Sierras in a bus, a group of travelers find themselves stranded in a small village and at the mercy of BillRead More
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When Carole Lombard died at the age of 34 in a plane crash following a World War II war bond drive, the American film industry lost one of its most talented and intelligent actresses. Starting out in silent films as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty, she later epitomized screwball comedy in Twentieth Century (1934); My Man Godfrey (1936), for which she was Oscar nominated as Irene Bullock, with ex-husband William Powell as Godfrey; and Nothing Sacred (1937), playing the not-so-doomed Hazel Flagg.
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In "Man of the World" (1931), Carole Lombard is an American girl in Paris who's romanced by a sophisticated writer (William Powell) who turns out to be an extortionist out to get her uncle's fortune. "We're Not Dressing" (1934) stars Bing Crosby as a deckhand on a ship full of high-society types who gets to give the orders when the vessel shipwrecks on a South Seas island. Lombard, George Burns and Gracie Allen co-star; songs include "May I?" and "It's a Lie." "Hands Across the Table" (1935) features Lombard as a manicurist about to wed wealthy Ralph Bellamy when penniless playboy Fred MacMurray walks into her life. A Park Avenue gal (Lombard) must choose between two suitors (Preston Foster and Cesar Romero), in "Love Before Breakfast" (1936).
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Carole made several films for Pathe while under contract with them in the late '20's. In 1930 her star was on the rise and she managed to double her salary from $150 to $300 per week by signing with Paramount. It was a great career move. Paramount began grooming her to become one of their top stars. In October, 1930 she was paired with William Powell to do "Man of the World". The pair hit it off off-camera and eight months after they met they were married.
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After the accident, Carole received good comedy training as one of Mack Sennett's Bathing Beauties, a slap-stick comedy troupe. Later she mostly received ordinary leading lady roles. It was the film Twentieth Century (1934) that gave Carole Lombard a whole new lease on her movie career. Critic William Fleming wrote: "Lombard is like no other Lombard you've ever seen. When you see her, you'll forget the rather stilted Lombard of old. You'll see a star blaze out of this scene, high spots Carole never dreamed of hitting."
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This fairly early Paramount talkie comes before Lombard's celebrated comedies, although she'd already been in pictures for eight or nine years. It's known mostly for its writer, Herman J. Mankiewicz of Citizen Kane fame, and for the fact that Lombard and William Powell were married in the same year. Powell is the focus of the story. His complicated, refined outlaw is provided with excellent Mankiewicz dialogue. Michael Trevor had a different name as a reporter back in America but made "a young fool's mistake," the nature of which is only hinted at. Disillusioned by his years of petty crime, he's a sad character indeed -- charming and urbane yet lost to the world.
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