Nothing Sacred (1937)

I really wanted to love Nothing Sacred. After all it has the lovely Carole Lombard, screenplay credit is given to Ben Hecht of His Girl Friday fame, and director duties are handled by the legendary William Wellman. But none of these people could make me love this film the way I wanted to, or even felt I should just because people rave on about it. Perhaps I missed something and eventually I might see the genius to it all, but as for right now, it's all right. The film has some funny/cuteish moments; I get that it's a criticism at journalism, that is still relevant today, but somehow it just wasn't a screwy as I thought it would be, let alone could be.

Lombard was great here in a different role than the screwball heroine of My Man Godfrey. She shows how great she is at comedy, delivering great lines, and just looking fabulous while blubbering about duping all of New York with her misdiagnosis of radium poisoning. I think part of her charm in all films and especially this one is that she's so down-to-earth. You kinda get the feeling that even though she is glamorous she's not gonna stick her nose up at the plebeians running about. And this down-to-earthness about her allows Lombard to play small-town Vermont resident Hazel Flagg so convincingly.

The hero to Lombard's heroine is played by Fredric March as Wally Cook, the New York newspaper reporter in need of a break. I've seen very, very little of March. In fact I had to do a quick check to see what I had seen him in, and it was only two other films. While I don't find anything exceptionally stand-out about him, he's not bad as Wally. He plays him well as the guy who falls for Hazel and at the same time heartbroken at the prospect of losing her to the radium poisoning. I like him more when Wally jumps into the river after Hazel. From there, he confesses his love and then there's the revelation of misdiagnosis and suddenly we start seeing a whole other side to Wally. And March pulls it off well. There's an image of March staring adoringly at Lombard after the firemen come for them. The look on his face and his smile are just amazing. I almost get the feeling that he's not given much room to stretch his acting chops throughout the film.

The fighting scene between Hazel and Wally is absolutely great. Many of the scenes throughout the film start out funny, but aren't developed enough to make them really laugh-out-loud funny. But this fighting scene is fully explored; it turns screwball completely. Hazel is at her wits' end trying to fool the new doctors from figuring out her misdiagnosis when Wally arrives and tries to help her by keeping her temperature up and having her break out in sweats. And how else to do it but by having a good ol' boxing match. The very idea is ridiculous and extreme, especially when he decks her out cold, but with such love too. She gets all worked up and feisty. When she comes to, she returns the favor. It's a great scene that I do no justice by retelling it and has to be seen instead to fully appreciate Lombard and March in their screwy glory.

When I first saw this film years ago, I didn't know why it didn't resonate with me. This time, I had read up a bit on it before viewing so going in I knew the reason why I might not fully enjoy it. Hecht was fired during production, you can read all the drama here. Then four different people were brought in to polish up the dialogue and write an "acceptable ending." This explained loads to me, and why the film seems off. In my opinion, the dialogue isn't as sharp as it should be, and in general the film isn't as ridiculous as it could be. Truth is, there are five different voices, plus the director's voice all talking at the same time.

Visually, I didn't care for the Technicolor. When I first saw this, I thought it had been originally black and white, and was colored in decades later. But no, that wasn't the case. The color palette just doesn't appeal to my eyes. I don't know how else to describe it but it almost has a sleepy look to it for me. It just doesn't compel me to watch, and that's kind of a problem, because I got distracted easily by other things. That being said, pace-wise, the film did go by quickly. It was never dragged out, but I guess overall it was just okay. There wasn't more and I wanted there to be more.

My initial impressions of Nothing Sacred are nothing spectacular, but I recognize that it is a good film overall. It does have some great acting and funny bits here and there. I wish there would have been more high antics, more sharper dialogue, but knowing a bit of the behind-the-scenes history, I think I understand why something seems missing, at least for me. Others find this film to be wonderful, and it certainly has great moments like the fighting scene between Lombard and March. I'm hoping upon closer look I'll discover the true beauty of Nothing Sacred.