Twentieth Century, directed by Howard Hawks

There's a lot to say about this film: Carole Lombard is wonderful, and in more muted performance than in My Man Godfrey or Mr. and Mrs. Smith. 

The plot is a cliche: the troubled Broadway play in rehearsal is hampered by an inexperienced actress. The eccentric director/producer manipulates her in a number of ways (ahem!) to coax a fine performance from her and they become an item. It's a classic Svengali story: a star is born!

He controls her, she resents his control and egotism, and they split up.

Three years later, the director is on the skids and finds himself on the very same train as his former protegee. She's become a big star in Hollywood and has a new romantic interest. He is determined to sign her to a new contract, and his efforts create a great deal of slapstick on the lurching train.

Here, in essence, Barrymore has the Lombard part: emotional, even hysterical, loud and frantic.

In a way, it's so timely. Both Barrymore and Lombard are brilliant; the end of the film seems to drag but when the director is down and out and decides to hitch his falling wagon to the fortunes of two Jewish Oberammergau actors I suffered whiplash. 

 An essay I found described this as the first screwball comedy (https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/20th_century.pdf).