Nothing Sacred (film)
Nothing Sacred | |
---|---|
Directed by | William A. Wellman |
Written by |
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Based on | "Letter to the Editor" 1937 short story James H. Street |
Produced by | David O. Selznick |
Starring | |
Cinematography | W. Howard Greene |
Edited by | James E. Newcom |
Music by | Oscar Levant |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1.3 million[1] |
Box office | $2 million (U.S. and Canada rentals)[2] |
Nothing Sacred is a 1937 American
The lush,
This was Lombard's only Technicolor film. She stated that this film was one of her personal favorites.
Plot
New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook is blamed for reporting the Harlem bootblack Ernest Walker as a nobleman "of the Orient" who is hosting a charity event. Cook claims he was unaware, but he is demoted to writing obituaries. He begs his boss Oliver Stone for another chance, and points out a story about a woman, Hazel Flagg, reportedly dying of radium poisoning.
Cook is sent to the (fictional) town of Warsaw, Vermont, to interview Hazel. Cook finally locates Hazel, who is crying both because her doctor has told her that she is not dying and because she realizes she might be stuck in Vermont for her whole life. Unaware of this, Cook invites Hazel and her doctor to New York as guests of the Morning Star newspaper.
The newspaper uses her story to increase its circulation. She receives a
Cast
- Carole Lombard as Hazel Flagg
- Fredric March as Wally Cook
- Charles Winninger as Dr. Enoch Downer
- Walter Connolly as Oliver Stone
- Sig Ruman as Dr. Emil Eggelhoffer (as Sig Rumann)
- Frank Fayas master of ceremonies
- Troy Brown as Ernest Walker
- Maxie Rosenbloom as Max Levinsky
- Margaret Hamilton as Vermont drugstore lady
- Hattie McDaniel as Mrs. Walker
- Olin Howland as Will Bull
- Raymond Scott as musical leader
- John Qualen as fireman (uncredited)
- George Chandler as photographer (uncredited)
According to William Wellman Jr.,
A boxing world champion, Maxie Rosenbloom, gave Lombard boxing lessons to prepare her for her fight scene with Fredric March.
Production
The first screwball comedy filmed in color, Nothing Sacred also represents the first use in a color film of process effects, montage and rear screen projection. Backgrounds for the rear projection were filmed on the streets of New York. Paramount Pictures and other studios refined this technique in their subsequent color features.[4]
Ben Hecht is credited with writing the screenplay in two weeks on a train. He adapted the story "Letter to the Editor" by James H. Street which had been first been published in .
One reason that the film is considered among the most celebrated screwball comedies is that underneath the humor, it incorporates sharply cynical themes of corruption and dishonesty. This film, along with Hecht's The Front Page (1931) and its 1940 remake His Girl Friday with Cary Grant, caricatures the chicanery to which some newspapers resorted in order to get a "hot" story.
Reception
Despite received critical acclaim, the film recorded a loss of $350,000 at the box office.[6] In July 2018, it was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.[7]
Copyright and home media
In 1965, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the copyright owners did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.[8]
Because of its public domain status, the film is a staple of bargain bin releases and collections. Although it was generally in watchable condition, until recently the best DVD was a US region 0 disc from Lumivision, later reissued by Sling Shot. In 2011,
Remakes
Ben Hecht's screenplay was also the basis of a Broadway musical Hazel Flagg (1953), with Helen Gallagher, as well as Living It Up (1954), a comedy film starring Dean Martin in the Winninger role, Jerry Lewis in the Lombard role (as Homer Flagg), and Janet Leigh in the March role.
References
- ^ Thomson, David (1993). Showman: The Life of David O. Selznick. Abacus. p. 262.
- ISSN 0042-2738.
- ^ "Art of the Title".
- ^ a b "Nothing Sacred". Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ "Calendar - UCLA Film & Television Archive". www.cinema.ucla.edu.
- ISBN 9781477307311
- ^ "Biennale Cinema 2018, Venice Classics". labiennale.org. 13 July 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-4133-1205-8
- ^ "First Person: Restoring Film with Digital Recombination". Archived from the original on 2001-04-06. Retrieved 23 November 2018.
External links
- Nothing Sacred at IMDb
- Nothing Sacred at AllMovie
- Nothing Sacred at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Nothing Sacred at the TCM Movie Database
- Watch Rare Films from Our Vaults – the restored Nothing Sacred, amongst others, at the Dryden Theatre
- First Person: Restoring Film with Digital Recombination Digital Content Producer – article on the 1999 restoration
- Nothing Sacred is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- Nothing Sacred on Lux Radio Theater: November 11, 1940