Nothing Sacred (1937)

An eccentric woman learns she is not dying of radium poisoning as earlier assumed, but when she meets a reporter looking for a story, she feigns sickness again for her own profit.

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Ben Hecht (screen play), James Street (suggested by a story by) (as James H. Street)

Stars:

Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger

Cast

Complete credited 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 Sr.	...	Ernest Walker (as Troy Brown)
Maxie Rosenbloom	...	Max Levinsky
Margaret Hamilton	...	Vermont Drugstore Lady
Olin Howland	...	Vermont Baggage Man
Raymond Scott and His Quintet	...	Novelty Swing Orchestra (as Raymond Scott and his Quintette)

Storyline

Hazel Flagg of Warsaw, Vermont receives the news that her terminal case of radium poisoning from a workplace incident was a complete misdiagnosis with mixed emotions. She is happy not to be dying, but she, who has never traveled the world, was going to use the money paid to her by her factory to go to New York in style. She believes her dreams can still be realized when Wally Cook arrives in town. He is a New York reporter with the Morning Star newspaper. He believes that Hazel's valiant struggle concerning her impending death is just the type of story he needs to resurrect his name within reporting circles after a recent story he wrote led to scandal and a major demotion at the newspaper. He proposes to take Hazel to New York both to report on her story but also to provide her with a grand farewell to life. She accepts. Wally's story results in Hazel becoming the toast of New York. In spending time together, Wally and Hazel fall in love. Hazel not only has to figure out what to do ...

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Plot Keywords:

newspaper reporter | small town girl | newspaper editor | vermont | screwball comedy | 

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Taglines:

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

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 November 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

La joyeuse suicidée

Filming Locations:

Agoura Hills, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,831,927 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,765

Company Credits

Production Co:

Selznick International Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Top-billed Carole Lombard doesn't appear until 16 minutes into the picture.

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Goofs

In the final scenes aboard ship, the sun is setting over the waves in the background. The waves are breaking, however, indicating the background was filmed from a beach rather than from a ship out at sea.

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Quotes

Oliver Stone: Well, my fine Oriental Potentate, I'm not going to have you arrested. I'm going to put you on the payroll as a janitor!
Ernest Walker: Thank you, sir.
Oliver Stone: And I always want you present in the local room where my reporters and Mr. Wallace Cook can drink you in constantly as a warning against fakes!
Ernest Walker: Yessir. May I ask, a Mr. Cook report any more? I wouldn't like for him to lose his job. He was very nice to me.
Oliver Stone: Mr. Cook is not going to be discharged, your majesty. For his own good and the good of the "Morning Star", ...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

Each of the stars' names are shown on a title card set beside a plaster caricature. The rest of the cast have caricatures alongside their names in the credits.

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Alternate Versions

Also available in a Cinecolor version "In Color". The credit for Natalie Kalmus as Technicolor Consultant is missing from this version.

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Connections

Featured in One Rogue Reporter (2014)

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Soundtracks

Massa's in de Cold, Cold Ground
(1852) (uncredited)
Written by Stephen Foster
Sung a cappella by Charles Winninger

User Reviews

Still Great

William Wellman was really a helluva director. Anyone that can do a movie like this, and make "The Ox-Bow Incident" too, must have been born to direct.

Coming in at a breezy 75 minutes, "Nothing Sacred" is still very funny on several levels, for several different reasons. Plot does not matter as much as execution, and how you deliver a line matters more than the line itself.

Frederic March and Carole Lombard are perfect, and the supporting cast is just as good, especially the actor who played 'Oliver Stone', March's frustrated boss.

Wellman does unconventional things like make the actors faces be hidden by a tree branch, practically unheard of in that day and age. But the fact of the matter is, that sometimes people are not perfectly framed in life, so maybe they shouldn't be in the movies - at least not as a rule. The first time you get a good look at Lombard, she has shaving cream on her face from kissing a man who is shaving - also not the normal star-moment you might expect.

Just terrific. 9/10.