Nothing Sacred

Is Ben Hecht a damn fine writer? Yep. Does Fredrich March have comedic chops? Yep. Can Carole Lombard run in high heels? Yep. Do I want to visit Warsaw, Vermont? Nope. Is Belle Gibson a modern day version of Hazel Flagg? Nope. Is the newspaper media any different today? Nope.

Morbidly funny plot idea and the hilarious Carole Lombard has unmistaken funny bones. But the film overall is lacking comedic timing and feels tired and stale compared to the best fire-cracker screwballs of Capra, Hawks, Sturges and Wilder.

A screwball comedy in color!!! And it's the only chance to see Carole Lombard Technicolor, starring with Fredric March. Regardless of the technical aspect of this comedy.... it's flat. Hardly a laugh in sight. And I'm not sure if it's the dry colors or not, but something about the atmosphere in the screwball that feels dead. Which is a shame with two such excellent actors that they can make a turkey like this under the guidance of super producer David O. Selznick and director William A. Wellman.

Lombard and March make this watchable and occasionally amusing, but a lot of the humour just falls flat, and the few ridiculous stereotypes don't help. I was pretty surprised this was in colour, too bad it's unrestored.

Thera are so many weird things about this movie: -Why is it in color? Don’t get me wrong, it is cool to see 1930's NY in that way, but it’s just a pretty run of the mill affair, I wonder why they chose this to marvel the audience, all of that brown and gray... -The tone is pretty damn inconsistent, from some good comedy to genuine heartfelt moments, I wish it had a better balance of thing, and not so many stupid jokes with the doctor This is not weird, but I wanted it to mention: racism, uck

I was excited to watch a Carole Lombard screwball but, much like the colors on my 2012 unremastered BD, it fell flat. Maybe it was a big deal back then to see March and Lombard fight (multiple times he pushed her onto the bed by the boobs). Maybe newspapers had a better reputation. I just thought they could have added more laughs per minute. Fav scene: when they were attending a show featuring famous women in history and then called for Lombard to come up, I'd have died of embarrassment.

Viewed November 24, 2018.

Star Rating: ★★★1/2

A couple of unfortunate racial stereotypes aside, this is a decent screwball flick with a surprisingly risque and sometimes morbid sense of humor. The title sequence is cute, Lombard and March work well enough, and its packing some pretty cynical and forward ideas about media exploitation.

Somewhat corny and outdated.

With a script by Ben Hecht and featuring "novelty swing by Raymond Scott" on the soundtrack, this seems like it should be great, but unfortunately it falls pretty short. The sheer unabashed cynicism of it is almost weirdly impressive, but also one-dimensional and basically mean-spirited. Also there's some pretty problematic racial humor.

I don't really know what to make of this one, but Frederic March has a pretty good right cross.

Wears thin after a while.

Well-done comedy