Nothing Sacred (1937)
Country: US
Technical: col 77m
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger
Synopsis:
A reporter, anxious to redeem himself from his involvement in one phoney news story, interviews a woman contaminated with uranium on the understanding that she is fatally affected. She is, in fact, out of danger but feigns the contrary to get a free trip to New York out of the newspaper!
Review:
This satire on the mass media's parasitic relationship with the emotions of its readers chimes with Frank Capra's Mr Deeds/John Doe films and looks ahead to Ninotchka and His Girl Friday. Ben Hecht's cynical screenplay is given firecracker treatment by Wellman and his cast, with Lombard on manic form, socking March on the jaw etc. More a series of sketches than a fully-fledged plot (there is never any threat of the couple not being together, for example), the film reminds us how seamlessly Hollywood could sew together a string of crazy incidents. The colour is an added bonus, and unusual for this genre at the time, but that's Selznick for you.
Country: US
Technical: col 77m
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger
Synopsis:
A reporter, anxious to redeem himself from his involvement in one phoney news story, interviews a woman contaminated with uranium on the understanding that she is fatally affected. She is, in fact, out of danger but feigns the contrary to get a free trip to New York out of the newspaper!
Review:
This satire on the mass media's parasitic relationship with the emotions of its readers chimes with Frank Capra's Mr Deeds/John Doe films and looks ahead to Ninotchka and His Girl Friday. Ben Hecht's cynical screenplay is given firecracker treatment by Wellman and his cast, with Lombard on manic form, socking March on the jaw etc. More a series of sketches than a fully-fledged plot (there is never any threat of the couple not being together, for example), the film reminds us how seamlessly Hollywood could sew together a string of crazy incidents. The colour is an added bonus, and unusual for this genre at the time, but that's Selznick for you.
Country: US
Technical: col 77m
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger
Synopsis:
A reporter, anxious to redeem himself from his involvement in one phoney news story, interviews a woman contaminated with uranium on the understanding that she is fatally affected. She is, in fact, out of danger but feigns the contrary to get a free trip to New York out of the newspaper!
Review:
This satire on the mass media's parasitic relationship with the emotions of its readers chimes with Frank Capra's Mr Deeds/John Doe films and looks ahead to Ninotchka and His Girl Friday. Ben Hecht's cynical screenplay is given firecracker treatment by Wellman and his cast, with Lombard on manic form, socking March on the jaw etc. More a series of sketches than a fully-fledged plot (there is never any threat of the couple not being together, for example), the film reminds us how seamlessly Hollywood could sew together a string of crazy incidents. The colour is an added bonus, and unusual for this genre at the time, but that's Selznick for you.