My Favorite Carole Lombard Movies

Since Carole is my classic movie goddess of the month, I wanted to list my favorite films of hers. She is my all time favorite actress who I think was the queen of screwball comedies. But also a great dramatic actress as well. Here are my favorite films of hers:

MR. AND MRS. SMITH (1941) This delightful battle of the sexes that was surprisingly directed by master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock. It cast Carole and Robert Montgomery as a bickering couple who learn they are not really married. So now thinking they have to do it all over again, they wonder if it's worth it. This is my favorite film of Carole that she did for no other reason than it's a simple and fun little comedy. Lombard and Montgomery mesh well too. Great directing job by Hitch.

MY MAN GODFREY (1936) Carole is perfect as the dizzy socialite Irene Bullock who hires a vagrant played by William Powell) to be her family's butler. One of the best screwball comedies ever made. Lombard showed that her and Powell still had a great chemistry, considering they had just divorced a few years earlier.

TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942) The last film Carole made before her tragic death is one of her best. She plays actress Maria Tura, who is part of acting troupe in Poland contending with Nazis. Jack Benny plays her husband and they make for an entertaining pair.

IN NAME ONLY (1939) Star power in the form of Carole, Cary Grant and Kay Francis as a love triangle in which Cary is in an unhappy marriage to Kay, and falls in love with Carole. I was glad my two favorite stars got together for their only film and it's a great one. Carole gets to flex her dramatic muscles and shows she can do something other than comedy.

TWENTIETH CENTURY (1934) WOW! Lombard and John Barrymore go at it as a Broadway producer and a Hollywood diva who get back together for a new play. Hilarious hi jinks ensue.

HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE (1935) Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray team up for this delightful comedy about a manicurist and a no gooder who team up to find each their golden goose. Trouble is, they end up falling for each other. Another great comedy from Carole.

NOTHING SACRED (1937) As doomed Hazel Flagg, who thinks she is dying from radium poisoning, Carole is excellent. Fredric March is on hand as the reporter covering her story who begins to like her. Who knew that the subject of death would make such a great comedy. Well it does.

NO MAN OF HER OWN (1932) Future husband and wife Carole and Clark Gable are perfect together as a librarian and a card cheat who find out they are attracted to one another. Carole is a gas as the wild but lonely librarian while Gable is well Gable, the best there is, just oozing charm with effortless ease.

MADE FOR EACH OTHER (1939) Sentimental film that paired Lombard with Jimmy Stewart as a young couple who deal with adversity. There is some comedy mixed in with the drama and once again Carole shows she has range.

VIGIL IN THE NIGHT (1940) Straight drama that has Carole playing a nurse who has to deal with all kinds of difficulties. A different kind of film for Carole that she manages to pull off. Not an easy role for her to have played.

So there you have, ten of my favorite Carole Lombard films. I could have kept going and going but needed a cut off point. But I also love The Princess Comes Across, Supernatural, White Woman, and We're Not Dressing. Plus there are a few of her films that I have not seen like No One Man and I Take This Woman. I gotta get started on those.