IMDb RATING
6.8/10
7.3K
YOUR RATING
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.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.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.
Sig Ruman
- Dr. Emil Eggelhoffer
- (as Sig Rumann)
Troy Brown Sr.
- Ernest Walker
- (as Troy Brown)
Raymond Scott and His Quintet
- Novelty Swing Orchestra
- (as Raymond Scott and his Quintette)
Monica Bannister
- 'Pocahontas'
- (uncredited)
Bobby Barber
- Nightclub Patron
- (uncredited)
Billy Barty
- Boy Biting Wally's Ankle
- (uncredited)
Tommy E. Baughner
- Minor Role
- (uncredited)
Everett Brown
- Policeman
- (uncredited)
Helen Brown
- Secretary
- (uncredited)
Allan Cavan
- Guest at Banquet
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaBen Hecht wrote a role for his friend John Barrymore, but David O. Selznick refused to hire Barrymore due to his alcohol abuse. Hecht refused to work on any more drafts and quit the film.
- GoofsThey are inconsistent with the volume numbers on issues of The Morning Star. When Hazel first arrives in New York, the front page says it's issue is in Volume 27. Several days later, when Hazel blacks out from drinking too much, it's listed as being in Volume 22 (which would be roughly five years earlier in most real world publications).
- Quotes
Wally Cook: For good clean fun, there's nothing like a wake.
Hazel Flagg: Oh please, let's not talk shop.
- Crazy creditsEach of the stars' names is shown on a title card set beside a plaster caricature. The rest of the cast have caricatures alongside their names in the credits.
- Alternate versionsAlso available in a Cinecolor version "In Color". The credit for Natalie Kalmus as Technicolor Consultant is missing from this version.
- ConnectionsEdited into Your Afternoon Movie: Nothing Sacred (2022)
- SoundtracksGive My Regards to Broadway
(1904) (uncredited)
Music by George M. Cohan
Arranged by Raymond Scott
Performed by Raymond Scott and His Quintet
Played for Frank Fay's entrance
Featured review
Lombard Central
I really enjoyed this great 30's screwball comedy which like so many of them hangs on a bizarre plot idea pitting smart man (so he thinks) against smarter woman - guess who always wins in the end. Here we get to see the actress with perhaps the best comedic timing of the whole era, Carole Lombard, in absolutely fizzing form throughout. For these battle of the sexes romps, there has to be a tough-minded, if dim-witted male for the female to run up against and in this occasion the patsy role falls to Fredric March, not an actor I'd much associated with comedic parts before but he's great here.
Previously the sap for the hilarious first scene hoax, March's previously high-ranking features writer finds himself demoted to almost literally the broom cupboard under the stairs with another great hyper-kinetic scene as everybody on the paper almost literally walks all over him while he's trying to write his copy.
To redeem himself in his testy editor's eye, he espies a potential feel-good story of a small-town girl's supposedly terminal illness and whisks her off to New York for a heart-tugging human interest tale of the innocent abroad seeing the sights and sounds of New York before she expires. The only problem is, her country bumpkin doctor has got his diagnosis wrong and there's nothing at all wrong with her. So what do you want the girl to do? Well, dragging along her usually inebriated doc for the ride, she more than happily takes up March on his offer, becoming a household celebrity in the Big Apple long before the accursed words "reality star" ever entered the language.
Of course it all ends in tears of sadness, rage and joy, pretty much in that order, with lots of laughs along the way. The most famous scene I guess, is when Lombard's Hazel Flagg character is presented to the great and good in New York society at a posh dinner and when asked for a few words, can only burp a reply before falling down dead drunk. I laughed at that but I also laughed at a great little sight gag when big bad city news-man March gets bitten on the leg by a rabid infant when he arrives in the backwater looking for his quarry. I also loved writer Ben Hecht's topical jokes about the presidents of the day - wouldn't he have a field day right now!
There are a couple of jarring moments however which at least remind us how society has progressed in the years ahead, like when the drunken doctor casually sings the racially offensive "D" word or when March actually socks Lombard on the jaw, but at least she gives it straight back to him.
On the whole, this is a great, breakneck comedy, undoubtedly one of the best of its kind and as a bonus it's in an early colour print process with some great shots of 30's New York in its pomp.
Previously the sap for the hilarious first scene hoax, March's previously high-ranking features writer finds himself demoted to almost literally the broom cupboard under the stairs with another great hyper-kinetic scene as everybody on the paper almost literally walks all over him while he's trying to write his copy.
To redeem himself in his testy editor's eye, he espies a potential feel-good story of a small-town girl's supposedly terminal illness and whisks her off to New York for a heart-tugging human interest tale of the innocent abroad seeing the sights and sounds of New York before she expires. The only problem is, her country bumpkin doctor has got his diagnosis wrong and there's nothing at all wrong with her. So what do you want the girl to do? Well, dragging along her usually inebriated doc for the ride, she more than happily takes up March on his offer, becoming a household celebrity in the Big Apple long before the accursed words "reality star" ever entered the language.
Of course it all ends in tears of sadness, rage and joy, pretty much in that order, with lots of laughs along the way. The most famous scene I guess, is when Lombard's Hazel Flagg character is presented to the great and good in New York society at a posh dinner and when asked for a few words, can only burp a reply before falling down dead drunk. I laughed at that but I also laughed at a great little sight gag when big bad city news-man March gets bitten on the leg by a rabid infant when he arrives in the backwater looking for his quarry. I also loved writer Ben Hecht's topical jokes about the presidents of the day - wouldn't he have a field day right now!
There are a couple of jarring moments however which at least remind us how society has progressed in the years ahead, like when the drunken doctor casually sings the racially offensive "D" word or when March actually socks Lombard on the jaw, but at least she gives it straight back to him.
On the whole, this is a great, breakneck comedy, undoubtedly one of the best of its kind and as a bonus it's in an early colour print process with some great shots of 30's New York in its pomp.
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- Lejink
- Jun 12, 2017
- How long is Nothing Sacred?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,831,927 (estimated)
- Gross worldwide
- $3,765
- Runtime1 hour 17 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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