Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Girl From Indiana, May 8, 2006
Whereas most Hollywood biographers give you only a photograph of the star in question, Larry Swindell's "Screwball: The Life of Carole Lombard" is more of a gallery painting, its rich and soft hues leaving you with a true impression of its subject that lingers. You really feel like you know Carole Lombard after reading this most extraordinary look at the life of one of Hollywood's most fondly remembered stars of the 30's and 40's. Though some stars are remembered mostly for their untimely death, Carole Lombard is not one of them. Yes, the story of her plane crash as she was returning from a war bond drive in Indiana is always mentioned when the subject comes up, but it is her life and the effect she had on other people which Swindell shows to be her true legacy.
Swindell has written a classy biography which not only gives us a real sense of the person, Carole Lombard, but the period itself in Hollywood. Perhaps the most startling thing here is just how much Carole Lombard meant to Hollywood itself. If any one person truly stood out as both representing and helping make such a disparate group into a true community, it was Carole Lombard. Her death was felt most on a personal level by the Hollywood community who knew her, and it is no wonder that many point to her passing as the beginning of the end for that Hollywood we film buffs regard with such nostalgia.
Swindell traces the life of Jane Alice Peters from her time as a tomboy in Fort Wayne Indiana to the sudden and tragic end. Those unfamiliar with Lombard will discover a wealth of information both surprising and sometimes poignant. Swindell does not gloss over the rocky marriage to Clark Gable, but gives us a very real look at a one-sided affair of which Mitchell Leisen commented: "was all give and no receive." Ernest Lubitsch later said: "The romance ended, but the marriage lingered on." Swindell is fair, however, and shows that a guilt-ridden Gable would become the man to fit his charm after Carole's death that she had always hoped he'd become.
This is late in the biography, however, and it is a very fun ride getting there. Lombard's silent days as a young girl wanting to be like Noma Talmadge and Mary Miles Minter are covered in detail. Silent cowboy star Buck Jones would say she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen or kissed. It was that beauty, however, which would get her a near miss as one of the girls in Mary Pickford's "Little Annie Roonie." Just as she was on the verge of films with Borzage and Barrymore, a serious car accident would scar her face and she would be dumped by Fox. She would be dumped by Pathe also but found Paramount when it was King.
Yet the trouble was hardly over. She would be shaken by the sudden and unexpected death of her friend Diane Ellis. Swindell reveals that Lombard's effervescent personality often hid a weak constitution which often kept her in poor health. She seemed susceptible to disease and would get toxic poisining on her honeymoon with first husband William Powell in Honolulu and then contract malaria. Though Powell and Lombard were not a good match, they would remain friends after the divorce. She would help Bill's friend Richard Barthlemess when he was down on his luck in pictures later on.
Lombard was influenced greatly by silent stars she met or heard about. Her legendary outbursts of profanity were actually fashioned after Mae Murray. Having heard how Murray's potty mouth often put men off, Lombard, trying to avoid being accosted and forever on the casting couch, would go home and literally have her brothers teach her the words and how to use them. They would later simply become part of her vocabulary. The influence of silent stars would not end there, however.
Irene Rich's custom of giving small gifts to the cast and crew of her pictures was not lost on Carole. This was done in genuine by Lombard, however, and she would always surround herself with people she liked. Lombard was by far the most popular of Paramount's stars. She would rollerskate around the lot and remained loyal to her pal from the silent days, Madalynne Fields. When Carole's career took off, she would use her influence for others. She would not forget Walter Connolly taking her under his wing. She would do the same for a young Ray Milland. She helped Robert Stack and Evelyn Keyes get good press. She made Bill Haines the most popular decorater in Hollywood and postponed John Gilbert's decent, at least for a time. Swindell shows what an uncanny knack she had for the other side of the camera, her instincts for scripts and films respected by other actors and prominent directors.
Those picking up this terrific biography will already know the great catalog of films Lombard made, and Swindell deals with them with considerable insight. He also deals in a larger sense with the movie business itself. Few remember the many changes studios went through in the transition to sound, and fewer still are aware that radio nearly killed the movies in the early 1930's as people staggered by the depression saw no need to go out and waste money when they could sit around the comfort of their own home and be entertained.
But this is about a real person, not just a big name from Hollywood's past and Swindell never forgets that. Some will be shocked to learn that she considered George Raft to be the greatest lover in Hollywood. He was, according to many, everything Valentino of the silent era was only perceived to be. Even more will be shocked to discover that Gable was not, according to Carole herself, the great love of her life. It was crooner Russ Columbo, a popular rival, in a friendly fasion, of Bing Crosby. The life of the party, Carole Lombard, would once again be touched by tragedy. There have been many rumours in the decades since Russ Columbo's death about the tragedy and its origins, but Swindell chooses the high road here and refrains from speculation. It was simply enough to reveal how much he meant to Carole Lombard. This is a biography after all, about Carole Lombard, and not Russ Columbo.
Swindell sometimes jumps back and forth between time periods, but it is always pertinent and one of the ways in which we get a real sense of who Lombard was and how she got to be that way. She was an outdoor girl and though donned "The Orchid Girl" her favorite flower was the lily. Her keen sense of people would lead her away from Frank Capra's writer, Robert Riskin. He would propose to her but only after "Hands Across the Table" assured her stardom at Paramount. Lombard said he was fonder of her frame than she herself.
Lombard always tried to bridge the gap between herself and others when they could not reach out. Her parties were the stuff of legeng and still are. They were fun and adventurous to be sure, but the mix of people, and the opportunity for big stars who could not go out in public to enjoy themselves as anyone else would, was what they were really about. A carpenter or cook could find themselves chatting with a great director or on a carousel with a big star. Lombard loved being a star in Hollywood but was always a girl from Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was she who perhaps more than anyone gave Hollywood during the period a sense of community. Those who read this biography will be astounded at a few of the names hooked up by Lombard. The amazing thing was that the people Lombard got together, stayed together.
An electrician Lombard was fond of was involved in a plane crash which left him unable to find work. Lombard had it written in her contract that he was to work in all her pictures, enabling him to earn a living. This biography is full of life and energy and filled with stories such as that one which gives a clear yet, warts and all, look at a great film star. It is no wonder that in 1942 Irene Dunne christened the Liberty ship "Carole Lombard." It would serve in the Pacific for the duration of the war and be involved in a famous rescue mission.
Lombard sort of represents the American spirit, alive and vital, even if not always right. It is no wonder that Kay Gable, Clark's later wife, had no objections to his wish to be buried next to Carole Lombard, the love of his life. If you only read one Hollywood biography, Larry Swindell's "Screwball" is not a bad choice. It succeeds where other bio's fail in giving film buffs both the nostalgia they crave while at the same time giving a flesh and bone portrait of the star. In Lombard's case, it is a lovely and human portrait of a star taken in her prime. A terrific read.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Amazing Book About An Amazing Person...., June 14, 2004
By A Customer
She had the kindest, most compassionate heart, yet her vocabulary would shock the most vulgar sailor. Throughout the 1930's she was one of Hollywood's top stars. Her name was Carole Lombard, and she was perhaps the most unique actress to ever appear on the big screen. Every person in Hollywood who came in contact with Carole loved her, and so did the American audience. She was friendly, funny and full of life, and these wonderful characteristics made people flock to her. She was also well-known at the time for her marriage to Clark Gable, the so-called "King" of Hollywood. Lombard's life was cut short, however, when she was killed in a 1942 plane crash. At first the world mourned, but with the passage of time, Lombard faded from public memory. Today she isn't as well remembered like her Hollywood peers, such as Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers. This is VERY unfortunate because Lombard was an amazing person, very different and extremely funny. I strongly recommed this book, especially if you have never heard of Lombard before. Any book on Carole Lombard is good, but this one is perhaps the most detailed. In this book, you will read about a fascinating woman who was truly one in a million!
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0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
If you like Carole Lombard, don't read this book!, July 5, 2009
It seems that the person that wrote Screwball does not even like Carole! It seems he was assigned to write this book, and had no real interest in Carole. He could not have been a big fan of hers and think she was fabulous like I do!
I say that because most of the book seems to be about the Hollywood studio system, not about Carole specifically. He goes on and on about every minute detail of all the movie studios, all through the years.
Also, as he goes through all the movies that Carole made, he says that they were not good at all, and/or they were flops. Amazingly, the only movie of Caroles he says was good was her last.
Mr. Swindell, how could an actress who only did bad movies that flopped at the box office become the highest paid star in Hollywood?? That just does not make sense, and we all know most of her movies were good, and she was wonderful in them!
Carole Lombard was a smart, funny, kind, creative, witty, beautiful, generous actress who's talent and glamour stand the test of time. Her life ended tragically way too soon. It is too bad she was never able to write her own autobiography. I'm sure it would have been fantastic!
I hope that people never forget her or her movies.
But, if you want to read a book to learn about Carole and her life, please do not read this one. Find one by an author who seems to actually love her as much as us fans of hers do!
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DVD ~ Carole Lombard
DVD ~ William Powell
by David Stenn
DVD ~ Myrna Loy
