Nothing Sacred
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Ben Hecht suggested by a story by James H. Street
1937/USA
Selznick International Pictures
Repeat viewing?
[box] Oliver Stone: Before I finish with that female Dracula, she’ll know one thing: that Oliver Stone is worse than radium poisoning four ways from the jack![/box]
This has all the elements of a very funny movie.
In New York City, reporter Wally Cook (Fredric March) is in disgrace for allowing a Harlem shoeshine man appear as a wealthy sultan for a charity campaign (and for getting found out). In Warsaw, Vermont, Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard) has been diagnosed with terminal radium poisoning. Wally sees a small item about Hazel in the paper and persuades his editor (Walter Connelly) to let him go to Warsaw to do a human interest story on Hazel. On the day Wally arrives, her doctor (Charles Winniger) tells Hazel that his diagnosis was wrong and she is perfectly healthy. Hazel is heartbroken that she will no longer get her dying wish to go to New York. So when Wally offers to take her there she doesn’t enlighten him. Hazel is feted everywhere in New York and Wally falls in love with the brave doomed victim. Hazel’s guilt is getting the better of her but a surprising number of people want to leave well enough alone.
Nothing Sacred is a combination of a screwball comedy and a cynical satire on media hype. Carole Lombard is at her most charming and the picture is filled with nice character performances. I don’t want to discourage anyone from seeing this movie.
However, for some reason it just all fell a bit flat for me. Part of the problem may have been March and another part may have been Wellman – neither of whom are associated with comedy. Also, a laundry list of uncredited writers had to work on the script after Ben Hecht walked off when Selznick refused to hire John Barrymore to play a part Hecht wrote for him.
Nothing Sacred contains the first use in a color film of process effects, montage and rear screen projection. The film fell into the public domain in 1965 and the DVD I rented was a faded unrestored print released by public domain specialist Westlake Video. A restored Blu-Ray edition has been released by Kino, although reviews of the restoration are not enthusiastic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbV83kwJZ68
Trailer
