Twentieth Century

This 1934 big-screen version of a hit play stars Carole Lombard as Mildred Plotka, a chorus girl molded into a Broadway superstar by a Machiavellian director, Oscar Jaffe (John Barrymore). But Plotka chafes under the iron-fisted Jaffe's control, so she escapes to Hollywood, leaving Jaffe to flounder. Later, they meet aboard a train called the Twentieth Century, where Jaffe, hoping for one last shot at success, hopes to woo her to the stage again.