KL\u2019s new collection is by no means comprehensive, though the \u201cI\u201d in its title is a hopeful indicator that there will be more. It includes three Pre-Code comedy\/dramas from her early days as a contract player for Paramount \u2013 not yet billed above the title, but stealing each handily from their ostensible stars with her sheer magnetism and charisma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fast & Loose<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong>is a sophisticated 1930 comedy from director Fred C. Newmeyer (one of Harold Lloyd\u2019s go-to guys), adapted by an up-and-coming Preston Sturges from the play The Best People<\/em>. The plot is pure hokum, in which the patriarch (Frank Morgan) of an upper-crust family is horrified that his young adult children may marry normies and blow the family\u2019s blue chip stock. As the (gasp) chorus girl<\/em> his wealthy young son wants to marry, Lombard is stuck in what\u2019s decidedly a supporting role, only appearing in a handful of scenes; the female lead is Miriam Hopkins, then a stage star making her film debut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hopkins is a more than serviceable leading lady – she would later star in Trouble in Paradise, Design for Living, <\/em>and Rouben Mamoulian\u2019s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em>, among others \u2013 but here she comes off like a drip. Or maybe she just seems like one next to Lombard, who is such a light, right off the bat. You just can\u2019t take your eyes off her. The suits at Paramount apparently agreed, keeping Lombard crazy busy; they\u2019d put her in five pictures the following year. One of them was the short, snappy romantic comedy Man of the World<\/em><\/strong>, starring William Powell as a newspaperman and con artist (the screenplay, unsurprisingly, is by newspaperman turned screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz); Lombard is the niece of a mark whom Powell falls for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s hard to blame him. In this larger role, she\u2019s able to unleash her specific, playful energy; she\u2019ll put a kick into a line sometimes that\u2019ll just sock you in the jaw. And her chemistry with Powell is bonkers. In their first scene, they lock eyes like a starving man looking at a steak, and after one day, she\u2019s drafting Dear John letters to her fianc\u00e9. You don\u2019t second-guess her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The energy between Powell and Lombard was genuine. The actors married three months after the picture\u2019s release (and only a month after their second film, Ladies\u2019 Man<\/em>, hit theaters), and while the union was brief, they remained close after their divorce, co-starring in the magnificent My Man Godfrey<\/em> in 1936. Though a Pre-Code picture, Man of the World<\/em> isn\u2019t terribly naughty \u2013 but it does indulge in the kind of bummer ending that would become increasingly rare in major productions. The pair is so good together that the outcome is genuinely shocking, though it does allow them the opportunity to go out on a bittersweet note, and the things they\u2019re both doing, in their eyes and faces, in their final scenes are genuinely remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No Man of Her Own<\/em><\/strong>, <\/em>released the year after, is definitely <\/em>the naughtiest of the bunch, in both subject matter and her jaw-dropping costumes. Gable stars as a cardsharp and ladies\u2019 man: \u201cI\u2019m a hit and run guy,\u201d he brags to the latest dame he\u2019s leaving behind. \u201cI\u2019m free, see! And ankle chains gimme the jitters!\u201d It\u2019s the kind of set-up where you know he\u2019s going to meet his match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Potent as it was, the chemistry Lombard generates with Powell pales next to what she\u2019s doing with Gable here – you can power a small city with the electricity they\u2019re throwing at each other. She\u2019s resistant at first to the advances of this New York slickster: \u201cSorry, I\u2019m very busy,\u201d she insists, and he immediately replies, \u201cI\u2019m very sorry too!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But soon enough, they\u2019re exchanging a scorching first kiss in the stacks, and when he asks, \u201cWhat do you do with all the hearts you break,\u201d he means it. But point Gable; when she hurries away with a dismissive, tossed off, \u201cSee you in church,\u201d he shows up at her church. <\/em>And while No Man of Her Own <\/em>may not be one of the all-time great Lombard comedies, her panicked, labored breathing after he slides into the pew next to her is a great comic moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lombard was still married to Powell when she made this, her only film with Gable, though they reportedly not only kept the romance onscreen, but didn\u2019t even spark much off; they would reunite and eventually marry years later. So it\u2019s perhaps too easy to chalk up the sparks of these movies to her partners. That was all Lombard, in the spin she\u2019d put on a line like \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t ruin a lady\u2019s reputation, would you,\u201d where she could manage to sound both careful and hopeful. Would you? <\/em>\u201cCarole Lombard Collection I\u201d isn\u2019t filled with the kind of classics you\u2019d expect from a box with that title (Twentieth Century, Hands Across The Table, Godfrey, To Be or Not To Be<\/em>). But it offers up something more valuable: a chance to watch a promising actor finding their footing, exploring their style, and turning into a movie star before your very eyes. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/fast-and-loose-1024x752.jpg\")
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