Nothing Sacred (1937)
Grade: 65
"Nothing Sacred" is one of those long-ago films that remind you just how little has really changed over the years. Pro wrestling is as fake now as it was then, some reporters are still as willing to not let the truth interfere with a great story, and sharp, sarcastic comedies can be just as funny.
"Nothing Sacred" falls into the latter category. The script was co-written by Ben Hecht, who is best known for the similar comedy "The Front Page". The story has an elderly, drunken doctor (Charles Winninger) misdiagnosing Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard) as having a terminal illness. Gullible reporter Wally Cook (Fredric March) learns of and promotes the story, unaware that the diagnosis was wrong and Hazel is actually in good health.
Hazel is taken from her small town to New York City, where she lives in luxury, feted by Wally and praised by all for her courage in facing death. Romance inevitably blooms between Hazel and Wally. But what will happen when Wally's editor boss (Walter Connolly) learns that she is healthy, and the newspaper has been conned?
The script was based upon the story "Letter to the Editor" by James Street. It was later adapted to become the Broadway musical "Hazel Flagg", and the plot was again used for the Jerry Lewis/-Dean Martin vehicle "Living It Up". To show just how little has changed, many story elements also show up in the currently playing "Runaway Bride", a comedy which also has a newspaperman trying to salvage his career by using a small-town woman for a scoop, but ending up falling in love with her.
Connolly's character is named Oliver Stone. This leads to much unintented humor, since the Stone character keeps referring to himself in the third person (e.g. "She'll know one thing, that Oliver Stone is worse than radium poisoning!"). Any similar to the Academy Award-winning director, who was born nine years later, is purely coincidental!
While Lombard was a gifted comedienne, in "Nothing Sacred" her voice does get whiny on occasion. March is best known for his dramatic roles, but displays good comic timing here. Winninger is perfectly cast as the incomepetent doctor, and Connolly does well as the blustery, despairing editor.
briankoller@usa.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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