Marooned: Bing Crosby and Carol Lombard in We're Not Dressing

Steyn On-Line ^ | July 11, 2026 | Rick McGinnis

[Twotone]

During filming of We're Not Dressing, a 1934 musical comedy that came out a month before Carole Lombard ascended into the top rank of screwball comedy heroines with Twentieth Century, her co-star Bing Crosby discovered that the actress had a rather extreme reaction to her one notable phobia.

As recalled by Gary Giddins in Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams: The Early Years 1903-1940, Crosby had to slap Lombard in one scene. "At her request, he refrained during rehearsal, but when the scene was filmed, she responded violently. Howard Hawks liked to take credit for creating Lombard as a comic actress by encouraging her to kick John Barrymore in the balls in Twentieth Century.

"According to Bing, she required no coaching: she kicked, punched, bit, screamed, tore off his toupee, and finally 'wept hysterically'. Bing recalled that she refused to do a second take and that some of the tantrum was actually used, but it wasn't. In the film, she returns his slap with a kiss."

Crosby got top billing for We're Not Dressing, which wasn't surprising as he was the bigger star at the time. Lombard had been playing small parts since she was a child actress in the early '20s, doing time under contract to Fox and as a Mack Sennett bathing beauty before roles in films like High Voltage and The Racketeer got her enough attention to return to Fox for a western, The Arizona Kid, which was a big enough hit to get her signed again, this time to Paramount.

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TOPICS: History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: bingcrosby; carollombard; movies

[jimtorr]

Lombard responded to a movie slap with a violent tantrum? Sounds like there was some physical abuse in her past.

[Publius]

In rehearsing for a film in 1936, Lombard wore the sheer pants that were in vogue at the time. The director informed her that the outlines of her pubic hair were visible and that she had to shave them. Lombard came back with a shaving mug, a brush and a straight razor, informing the director that he was to shave them.

The director, who was flamboyantly gay, looked at the shaving equipment, looked at Lombard, screamed and ran off the set, much to the mirth of the crew.

[chajin]

The Arizona Kid

This is the 1930 version; there was a 1939 movie of the same title starring Roy Rogers, probably no connection.

[Liz]

[lee martell]

That scene you just described is absolutely hysterical.
It’s High Comedy. Carol must have known exactly what response she would get.

[PghBaldy]

I think she was on a War Bond tour in 1942, when the plane she was in crashed into a mountain. Clark Gable’s wife and best friend of Lucille Ball.

[escapefromboston]

Lombard is probably my favorite actress

[Publius]

It was right after she wrapped filming on "To Be or Not to Be," an Ernst Lubitsch film, where she played the wife of Jack Benny trying to arrange an affair with the very young Robert Stack.

Sig Ruhman walked away with that film as "Concentration Camp" Erhard.

"Schultz!!!!"

[FreedomForce]

Lombard was great in My Man Godfrey.