Nothing Sacred (1937)

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

James H. Street (story)
Ben Hecht (screenplay)

Release Date:

25 November 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

See the big fight! LOMBARD vs MARCH. Selznick International's sensational Technicolor comedy

Plot:

To redeem himself after a hoax, reporter Wallace Cook proposes a series of stories on doomed Hazel Flagg...

Plot Keywords:

Horse | Small Town | Airplane | Punch | Nightclub

Cast

Carole Lombard	...	Hazel Flagg
Fredric March	...	Wally Cook
Charles Winninger	...	Dr. Enoch Downer
Walter Connolly	...	Oliver Stone
Sig Ruman	...	Dr. Emil Eggelhoffer (as Sig Rumann)
Frank Fay	...	Master of Ceremonies
Troy Brown Jr.	...	Ernest Walker (as Troy Brown)
Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom	...	Max Levinsky (as Maxie Rosenbloom)
Margaret Hamilton	...	Warsaw, Vermont Drugstore Lady
Olin Howland	...	Warsaw Vermont Baggage Man
Raymond Scott	...	Musical Leader (as Raymond Scott and His Quintet)

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Ontario) | Portugal:M/12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Agoura Hills, California, USA

Company:

Selznick International Pictures

Trivia:

Boxer 'Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom' , who also acted in this film, gave boxing lessons to Carole Lombard before her discussion with Fredric March in this film.

Quotes:

Wally Cook: Listen, my dying swan, this is no time to stop faking! You're gonna have pneumonia and you're gonna have it good!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Singles (1992)

Luminous Lombard Glides Over Screwball Classic on Tabloid Journalism

The incandescent Carole Lombard was simply the most beautiful comedienne during Hollywood's golden era of the 1930's. In fact, the one conceit of the film is how her stunning glamour, especially in the newspaper photos, seems at odds with the innocent small-town girl she portrays in this 1937 screwball comedy classic directed in lickety-split fashion by the two-fisted William "Wild Bill" Wellman. Lombard never let her beauty get in the way of being funny, and her effervescent manner makes her seem dotty enough to make the crazy situations she gets into believable. Moreover, the film's constant tweaking at the public obsession over a young woman's impending death predates the concept of reality programming by nearly 70 years.

For a movie that clocks in at just 75 minutes, the far-fetched story is fairly dense but clips by without a wasted moment. In brief, Wally Cook is a New York tabloid reporter relegated to the obituaries after his most recent story is exposed as fake. Seeking to rehabilitate his career, he uncovers a story on Hazel Flagg, a woman in rural Vermont dying of radium poisoning. When he arrives in her town, she suddenly learns that her diagnosis was a mistake and that she is not dying at all. However, feeling constrained by her small town existence, Hazel pretends to be terminally ill in order to accept Wally's offer to take her to New York City. In true 1930's fashion, New York pours its heart out to her making her an instant media celebrity. Hazel starts to feel guilty over the misdirected attention, and of course, Wally and Hazel find themselves falling in love amid all the deception and inevitable chaos.

Just coming off his classic dramatic turn in the most cohesive version of "A Star Is Born", stalwart leading actor Fredric March gamely plays the initially cynical Wally with the right everyman demeanor, though I kept thinking how much more at home William Powell or Cary Grant would have been in the role. The lovable Lombard makes Hazel a sublime comic creation even though the character is basically a selfish charlatan. They have a classic sparring scene near the end where each lands a punch on the jaw of the other. Familiar character actors complete the cast with Walter Connolly in constipated frustration as Wally's constantly boiling editor-in-chief (aptly named Oliver Stone), Charles Winninger properly pixilated as Hazel's fraud of a doctor, and familiar faces like Sig Ruman, Margaret Hamilton, Hattie McDaniel and Hedda Hopper in little more than walk-on parts.

Wellman displays an idiosyncratic way with the camera, for instance, focusing on Lombard's ankles as she flirts with March in an open crate or having a tree branch cover their faces during a key dialogue scene. Unsurprisingly, the director of "Wings" and "Lafayette Escadrille" inserted a scene aboard a plane to show off the Manhattan skyline. One of the first movies filmed in Technicolor, it still looks pretty good though there is subtle graininess and typical for a film of this age, a constant popping noise exists in the background. Not as good as "My Man Godfrey" nor as funny as "Bringing Up Baby", "Nothing Sacred" is still great entertainment and a rare opportunity to see the luminous Lombard at full star wattage.