Adapted by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur from their Broadway play, Howard Hawks's Twentieth Century (1934) paired John Barrymore and Carole Lombard in a prickly romance that helped usher in the heyday of 1930s screwball comedy. Poking fun at his master thespian image, Barrymore's hammy Broadway impresario Oscar alternately threatens to shut "the Iron Door" on his associates or kill himself to get his way, but ultra-spirited Lombard as shopgirl-Mildred-turned-diva-Lily proves his equal in acting chops and screen strength. With most of the action confined to the eponymous train, Oscar's machinations to get the estranged Lily to star in his next show rise in hysterical pitch as the quarters get increasingly close, culminating in another Oscar death spectacle for an audience of passengers. Swiftly paced by Hawks, the rapid-fire jokes and arguments never let up, setting the standard for the genre's speed and humor. With equally superb supporting performances from Walter Connolly and Roscoe Karns, Twentieth Century became a box office hit, turning Lombard into a star comedienne and joining It Happened One Night (1934) as the prototype for the screwball genre.