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Blessed Event More at IMDbPro »
| Index | 10 reviews in total |
22 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
Just About Perfect, 25 August 2000
Author:
fowler1 from nyc
This isn't the first time I've raved about Roy del Ruth's Warners work prior to the emergence of the Hays Office, but it needs to be restated: few directors had as sure a hand with fast-paced, cynical comedy as Del Ruth. And, when teamed with the equally forgotten (and equally inspired) comedian Lee Tracy, what results is one of the best comedies of the 30s, as funny and audacious today as then. Tracy (who came West to Hollywood after originating the Hildy Johnson role in THE FRONT PAGE on Broadway) was the wisecrack-slinger all others are measured against; here he's so good, so inspired at mixing verbal and physical comedy, you'll be wondering how it's possible his career didn't soar for 25 years. (Besides his heavy drinking, which couldn't have helped him, he earned the wrath of Louis B Mayer during the shooting of VIVA VILLA by urinating on the Mexican army from his hotel balcony, effectively ending his career as a leading man. Or so the legend has it.) This is probably his best film, playing a Winchell-like columnist named Alvin Roberts, and Tracy plays him with such cheerful unscrupulousness you might almost forgot what a rat the real Winchell was. But this is pre-Code Warners, where even an unprincipled cur could be a hero so long as he scraped bottom with zest and pluck; don't be surprised at the many one-liners and situations that would become taboo in three years time: abortions, adultery, homosexuality and ethnicity are all fair game for BLESSED EVENT's satirical arrows, and only an insufferable prude would stifle his laughter. Not until Preston Sturges played chicken with the Hays Office in the early 40s would such darkly funny farce be allowed on the screen again. Keep an eye out for this one and prepare to become a Lee Tracy fan for life. As usual, Del Ruth's direction is dead on the money, while never calling attention to itself.
21 out of 21 people found the following review useful:
If you want to know what "chutzpah" is, watch Lee Tracy in action, 3 May 2007
Author:
imogensara_smith from New York City
Lee Tracy is one of the lost joys of the pre-Code era. He mostly played
newspapermen (he was Hildy Johnson in the original Broadway production
of The Front Page) with a sideline in press agents, and whatever his
racket he epitomized the brash, fast-talking, crafty, stop-at-nothing
operator. He makes Cagney look bashful, skating around in perpetual,
delirious overdrive, gesticulating and spitting out his lines like an
articulate machine-gun, wheedling and needling and swearing on his
mother's life as he lies through his teeth. He was homely and scrawny,
with a raspy nasal voice, and he always played cocky, devious
scoundrels, yet you find yourself rooting for him and reveling in his
sheer energy and shameless moxie. Audiences of the early thirties loved
his snappy style and irrepressible irreverence; they loved him because
he was nobody's fool. He's a rare example of a character actor—that guy
who always plays reporters—who through force of personality, and the
luck of embodying the zeitgeist, had a brief reign as a star.
In BLESSED EVENT he plays Alvin Roberts, a character based so closely
on Walter Winchell that Winchell could have sued--but he probably loved
it. When we first meet Alvin, he's a lowly kid from the ad department
who has been given a chance to sub for a gossip columnist and gotten in
trouble for filling the column with dirt—primarily announcements of who
is "anticipating a blessed event" without the proper matrimonial
surroundings. Soon he's become an all-powerful celebrity and made
scores of enemies, including a gangster willing to bump him off to shut
him up. There's a subplot about Alvin's ongoing feud with a smarmy
crooner, Bunny Harmon, played by Dick Powell. Anyone who finds Powell
in his crooning days repellent will appreciate Tracy's merciless
vendetta. Actually, I think Powell is being deliberately irritating
here—even in Busby Berkeley films he's not so egregiously perky and
fey. He does sing one good song, "Too Many Tears" (a theme throughout
the film), and a wonderfully witless radio jingle for "Shapiro's
Shoes."
Alvin's standard greeting is, "What do you know that I don't?" The
answer is nothing—at least not for long. But he's surrounded by worthy
foils. Ruth Donnelly is both tart and peppery as Alvin's harried
secretary ("You want to see Mr. Roberts? Oh, you want to sue Mr.
Roberts. The line forms on the left.") Allen Jenkins, who keeps saying
he's from Chicago even though his Brooklyn accent could be cut with a
steak knife, plays a mug sent by his gangster boss to threaten Roberts.
In a mind-blowing scene, Alvin terrifies the tough guy with a graphic,
horrifying description of death in the electric chair. Tracy plays this
monologue with unholy gusto; if you're not opposed to the death
penalty, you will be after this. There's a funny scene in which Jenkins
has to pass time with Alvin's sweet, clueless mother, who is
continually thwarted in her desire to listen to the Bunny Harmon Hour
on the radio. The usual suspects fill out the cast, those character
actors whose very predictability is their glory: Ned Sparks the
perennial gloomy pickle-puss; Frank McHugh the perennial hapless
nebbish; Jack La Rue the perennial menacing hoodlum. Director Roy Del
Ruth (who also helmed the wildly entertaining BLONDE CRAZY) keeps
BLESSED EVENT going like a popcorn-maker; the sly, outrageous zingers
just keep coming.
Lee Tracy's career never recovered after he was fired from MGM for a
drunken indiscretion committed in Mexico. But I doubt he could have
lasted long as a star after the Code anyway, since his films are
gleefully amoral, frequently demonstrating that crime—or at least
lying, cheating and riding roughshod over other people's feelings—pays.
Every Lee Tracy vehicle contains a moment when he realizes he's gone
too far, usually when the girl he fancies bursts into tears and tells
him off. (Here he crosses the line in a big way when he betrays a
desperate young woman who begs him not to reveal her pregnancy.) He
looks suddenly abashed, protesting, "Gee, if I'd known you felt that
way…I'd give anything not to have done that…Baby, sugar, listen…!" But
two second later he's back to his old scheming ways. A reformed Lee
Tracy would be like Fred Astaire with arthritis. Not that he isn't a
good guy deep down…well, maybe. He has charm, anyway: an impish grin
and twinkly eyes and boyish blond hair, like Tom Sawyer crossed with a
Tammany Hall fixer. His reactions to sentimentality—to Dick Powell's
cloying tenor or Franchot Tone in BOMBSHELL telling Jean Harlow he'd
like to run barefoot through her hair—are delicious. He's salt and
vinegar, no sweetening. In BLESSED EVENT Alvin has a fit when an
editorial calls him the "nadir" of American journalism. Lee Tracy, on
the other hand, represents is the zenith of the American newspaper
movie.
14 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
Not The Nadir, 5 April 2002
Author:
Ron Oliver (revilorest@juno.com) from Forest Ranch, CA
A brash tabloid columnist turns his BLESSED EVENT style
of
gossip mongering into a sensation, but creates many enemies
along the way.
This is the film that made Lee Tracy an authentic movie star
-
the role and the actor were perfect for each other. For the
next
couple of years Tracy would specialize in fast talking
shyster lawyers, agents, reporters & flimflam men. In
the
process, he became one of the most enjoyable performers
of
the era, always fresh & entertaining. However, after
misbehaving in Mexico while under contract to MGM, he would
be banished to the Poverty Row studios to continue acting
in
minor films. Today, regrettably, he is almost forgotten.
But in pre-Code BLESSED EVENT Tracy is at the top of his
form:
exasperating, maddeningly irritating & wonderfully funny.
Warner Brothers gives him an excellent supporting cast
to
bounce off of - acerbic Ned Sparks as a disgruntled tabloid
reporter; peppy Frank McHugh as an overeager publicity
agent;
porcine Edwin Maxwell as a nasty gangster; and Allen Jenkins
as a softhearted criminal (his ‘electric chair' scene with Tracy
is
a classic).
Boyish Dick Powell, in his film debut, seems an odd choice
to
play Tracy's nemesis, but there's no doubt about his charm
&
fine singing style, both of which would soon make him a
major
movie star.
Mary Brian is lovely as Tracy's girlfriend & Emma Dunn is
sweet
as his mother, but each tends to be a bit smothered by
Tracy's
oversized personality. His true co-star is tart-tongued
Ruth
Donnelly as his secretary. No slacker in slinging the dialogue
around, she's able to match Tracy line for line.
Movie mavens will recognize Charles Lane as a reporter;
Isabel
Jewell, terrific as a much-abused showgirl; and hilarious
Herman Bing as a chef - all of them uncredited.
11 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Typical Lee Tracy so typically terrific., 28 June 2000
Author:
(houndspirit@netscape.net) from Evanston, Illinois
Fast paced and very clever Lee Tracy vehicle playing a Walter W. type gossip columnist with a grudge against "crooners"generally and one in particular played by Dick Powell. Definitely precode with dialogue and subject matter that would have been totally rejected just a few years later. One scene culminates in a phrase spoken by Tracy's"mother" containg a word that rocked the film world at the end of Gone With the Wind. Among other wonderful sequences watch for Tracy's evocation of a trip to the "hot seat", and Dick Powell's rendition of a singing commercial extolling the qualities of"Shapiro's Shoes". With Shapiro himeself beaming at his side. Do catch this film also a similar effort also with Tracey "The Half Naked Truth".
8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Tell your friends about this one, 18 October 2000
Author:
jaykay-10
Obscure and almost forgotten, this is a gem of the type of picture Warner Brothers did best in the 30s. Earthy, moving at a breakneck pace, packed with dialogue that snaps, crackles and pops, it is super entertainment. The Warners look and feel are everywhere, along with several key members of the studio's stock company. The humor (and there is lots of it) has a sardonic edge, much in keeping with the overall tone of the story. Lee Tracy's vivid description of life and death in the electric chair is a grisly, repulsive comedy turn. In an excellent cast, special attention to poor uncredited Isabel Jewell - perhaps just a bit more strident than the role required, but delivering an on-edge performance you will not soon forget.
7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
A Comic View of Walter Winchell, 4 October 2005
Author:
theowinthrop from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
At the start of BLESSED EVENT, Ned Sparks is returning from a vacation.
He is the columnist who writes the society/gossip column at the
newspaper. He left the column in the hands of his assistant, figuring
that there was nothing outlandish that could happen. Sparks is soon
sputtering, as he is asked by the newspaper editor to accept a new
assignment writing obituaries. It seems that the assistant, Lee Tracy,
has redesigned the column. Instead of the staid, boring columns giving
the comings and goings of polite society (what boats they took to
Europe, who is vacationing in Florida or the West Coast), he is telling
of all the naughty things these people are up to. In particular, if he
hears of a rumor that some prominent people are having a little baby
out of wedlock, he prints the rumor (carefully mentioning it as a rumor
- to avoid libel suits) as a "Blessed Event". Hence the film's title.
Tracy keeps Ruth Donelly, Sparks secretary, as his own. He makes the
column a really successful one, just as Walter Winchell did in real
life in the 1920s. Winchell, who was one of the top gossip columnists
of the 1920s - 1950s (his leading rivals were probably Hedda Hopper,
Louella Parsons, and Sheila Graham - but they were basically connected
with Hollywood personalities only, while Winchell included politicians,
writers, artists, Broadway figures, socialites, and gangsters).
Winchell knew many people - he even got involved in criminal history,
when he was instrumental in the surrender of Louis Lepke Buchalter
(head of "Murder, Inc.") to the authorities in 1939. Winchell's
reputation is not very clean these days - he could be vicious if he did
not like the politics or personality of one of his subjects. He would
be ferociously anti-Communist in the 1940s and 1950s, although he also
was anti-Nazi in the war years as well. The character of the
unscrupulous Hunsekker in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (the Burt Lancaster
role) is based on Winchell.
This film was made in his early years as a columnist, so Tracy plays
him for laughs, and even makes him a bit of a crusader. He does pursue
Dick Powell, a popular radio crooner, rather extremely. This is because
he knows Powell is a phony, and Tracy does not like crooners. Later,
though, it turns out that Tracy's mother does like Powell, and one
wonders if that is the key to Tracy's feelings. On the other hand, he
is leading a public spirited crusade against a crooked mobster and
construction company head, Edwin Maxwell. That does raise our
estimation of Tracy a bit.
But his methods are always questionable. Maxwell tries to frighten
Tracy into silence, sending his henchman Allan Jenkins to threaten him.
Tracy makes a cylinder copy of a confession by Jenkins to a murder, and
after making sure the cylinder has been taken away to safety, frightens
Jenkins by telling him what he has on him, and reminding him of the
death of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair in 1928. His morality is
also tested, when Isobel Elsom comes to him with some personally
shameful information, and Tracy has to decide if he should keep quiet
or use it in his column.
The speed of the film, the pungency of the dialog and its humor make it
worth an "8" out of a possible "10". Tracy's performance reminds us of
how wonderful an actor he was, and makes his odd career misfortune all
the sadder to think about for what could have been a great career
rather than a fine one.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Comedic Tour-de-Force, 16 March 2008
Author:
broadway_melody_girl from United States
The main reason people I know won't watch classic movies is because
they "move too slow". Everyone I know this all old films are
super-long, slow moving affairs with no action. I can't wait to show
them Blessed Event.
Blessed Event (1932) is a terrifically fast, hilarious pre-code comedy
with it's main character based on 30's tabloid writer Walter Winchell.
Lee Tracy plays Alvin Roberts, the main character, who runs the
"dirtiest" gossip column in New York, but events ensue that may have to
cause him to give up his column.
If you have an opportunity to watch this amazing movie, do so. If you
are already a fan of classics you will love it, and even if you've
never watched an old movie, this is a great movie for anyone, if you
thought all old movies were squeaky clean, slow, boring, and innocent,
you're in for a surprise.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
A Showdown Between Lee Tracy and Ned Sparks - Pre-Code Heaven!!!, 16 February 2012
Author:
kidboots from Australia
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Movies don't come much better than this. Photoplay called it a "pippin"
and "what talkie movies do best". Reporter George Moxley (Ned Sparks -
"I feel like a stranded dogfish on the Barnegat shore" and no, he
doesn't say that in this movie) comes back from holidays to find his
column replacement Alvin Roberts (Tracy at his smart alecky best) is
putting the newspaper back in circulation due to his muck raking column
which predicts "blessed events" before they even happen!!! Almost one
step ahead of him is his secretary (I just love Ruth Donnelly) whose
job is largely taken up with diverting callers who are out for his
blood and smoothing over libel suits ("we had two this week")!!!
Roberts keeps his column and Moxley is given "Pets" - "if your pooch
ever needs a midwife - call on me"!!!
Mary Brian, who had the title of the "sweetest girl in pictures" proved
that she was as she portrayed Alvin's long suffering girl, Gladys. In
real life she was romantically linked with Dick Powell, who made his
debut in this movie as the ego driven crooner, Bunny Harmon - similar
to his real personality as Brian commented "he liked the ladies"!!
Alvin comes unstuck (as Gladys always predicted) when a high profile
singer, Dorothy Lane (Isabel Jewel from the original Broadway play)
comes to plead with him not to print the story of her upcoming "blessed
event" - she is not married but the man is. Alvin promises not to but
speedily forgets as his inflated ego dreams of nationwide syndication.
Jewel has a couple of big scenes and she plays them for all she is
emotionally worth - you won't forget her pleadings. Of course Gladys is
disgusted at his callous behaviour and calls their romance off.
Allen Jenkins also plays one of the callers with murder on his mind but
is persuaded to put his gun away in a stunning scene where Alvin holds
centre stage in describing exactly what it is like to go to the
electric chair. It sounds off putting but Tracy just dazzles!! Jenkins
is a hired goon of sleazy Sam Gobell (Edwin Maxwell) who, as the movie
comes to an end, just happens to be revealed as Dorothy's lover. Add to
the mix Emma Dunn as Alvin's sweet mother, who loves nothing better
than listening to the Bunny Harmon radio hour. Alvin, on the other
hand, hates crooners and is over the moon when he can finally expose
him as Herman Bunn!!!
I can't understand why Isabel Jewel (who in real life was desperately
in love with Lee Tracy) never became a star. Maybe she was just too
versatile. "Blessed Event" was one of her first films and you just
knew, when she entered the newsroom with a gun, there was going to be
an intensely dramatic scene. Another memorable part she had was as the
frightened "B" girl in "Marked Woman" and again as the almost
inarticulate little seamstress riding to the guillotine in "A Tale of
Two Cities".
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Quite enjoyable..., 15 November 2011
Author:
planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida
I was a bit torn on this one--I wasn't sure whether to give it a 7 or
an 8. Either way, it's a very good little film. Apparently, James
Cagney was supposed to originally star in the movie but Lee Tracy
eventually got the role. This film is a very good fit for Tracy, as he
was the only guy at Warner Brothers who could talk as fast as
Cagney---or even faster! Tracy plays a Walter Winchell-like muckraking
journalist. His scruples are minimal and he seems very willing to
stretch the truth in order to tell a good story---even if it means
hurting a few people in the process. Because of this, his fiancé isn't
sure whether she should marry him and she begs Tracy to find another
line of work. But, it's obvious Tracy LOVES the work--he lives, eats
and breathes this sort of scandal. Along the way, there are a few juicy
stories you see in the film--including a funny one with Allen Jenkins
as a mobster and a distraught pregnant lady who is at her wits end.
The film works well because of its style and fast-paced script. A few
very choice scenes also spice things up. The best is Tracy as he's
giving a VERY vivid account of what it's like to be electrocuted--as
Jenkins recoils in horror. My favorite was the cop at the end after he
caught a shooter--seeing him slap the guy around was very funny (even
if it does violate the crook's Constitutional rights). Plus, I saw one
scene where Ned Sparks actually looked like he was about to smile! All
in all, an incredibly breezy and enjoyable little film.
By the way, although the ending and overall message is very different,
another great film about muckraking journalism is "Five Star Final"
(1931) and it sure appears as if Warner Brothers was strongly inspired
by this previous film to make "Blessed Event".
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
The funniest movie ever made, 7 June 2012
Author:
Richard Burin from advicetothelovelorn.blogspot.com
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Blessed Event (Roy Del Ruth, 1932) is arguably the greatest comedy film
of all time, with "that kid from advertising" Alvin Roberts (Lee Tracy)
commandeering his newspaper's society section, and turning it into the
filthiest gossip column in America. But his take-no-prisoners
journalism – and brilliantly abrasive persona – makes him a couple of
powerful enemies: crooner Bunny Harmon (a hilariously peppy Dick Powell
in his screen debut) and gangster Sam Gobel (Edwin Maxwell). Tracy was
the crystallisation of everything great about Pre-Code movies – those
fast- paced, scurrilous, say-anything films made before the censorship
crackdown of 1934 – and this is his definitive vehicle. He's just
hysterically funny, spewing a constant stream of wisecracks and
epithets, before a second half that demands every ounce of talent he
had: Roberts throbbing with ebullience, self-loathing and finally
righteous anger, as he tries to atone for the one time he took it too
far. The script does everything right, circumventing a potential slip
into melodrama with dismissive ease, and the supporting cast is truly
spectacular, with each and every character – from Ruth Donnelly's
acerbic secretary to Ned Sparks' pet correspondent and Frank McHugh's
ineffective press agent – given something memorable to do. Really it's
just one great scene after another, but there are several that are
simply sensational.
The centrepiece is the terrifying, perilously dark set-piece in which
Tracy talks mobster Allen Jenkins through a trip to the chair. He
shoves a picture of Ruth Snyder in Jenkins' face, before navigating the
henchman through a florid, impossibly graphic description of state-
sanctioned death, every part of his body seeming to contort as he
dominates the screen. You would die with one finger twitching upwards,
Tracy concludes with a shaking voice, "to where you're… not… going". It
doesn't sound like much fun, but somehow it's exhilarating, because
I've never seen anyone act like that before: it's neither conventional,
nor stagy, nor necessarily naturalistic, it's just dynamic. There's
also Tracy being called a "nadir" – a shoo-in for any "top ten funniest
scenes" list – his conversation with his mum about Bunny Harmon (she's
a big fan), a blistering showdown with Gobel in a café, and a bit in a
hospital where a policeman keeps slapping a gunman in the face.
Director Del Ruth has a cult following nowadays, on the strength of
these breakneck early pictures he specialised in at Warner, and his
handling couldn't be better. But it's Tracy's show all the way, this
78-minute jolt of comic genius spotlighting his superb timing and
singular style of acting – his high-pitched delivery, gesticulating
fingers, monstrous self-confidence and gaggle of outrageous vocal
trills combining to exalting effect. He's astonishing, and so is
Blessed Event.
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