| Nothing Sacred | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | William A. Wellman |
| Written by |
|
| Based on | "Letter to the Editor" 1937 short story Cosmopolitan byJames 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 |
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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 AmericanTechnicolorscrewball comedy film directed byWilliam A. Wellman, produced byDavid O. Selznick, and starringCarole Lombard andFredric March with a supporting cast featuringCharles Winninger andWalter Connolly.Ben Hecht was credited with the screenplay based on the 1937 story "Letter to the Editor" byJames H. Street, and an array of additional writers, includingRing Lardner Jr.,Budd Schulberg,Dorothy Parker,Sidney Howard,Moss Hart,George S. Kaufman andRobert Carson made uncredited contributions.
The lush,Gershwinesque music score was byOscar Levant, with additional music byAlfred Newman andMax Steiner and a swing number byRaymond Scott's Quintette. The film was shot in Technicolor byW. Howard Greene and edited byJames E. Newcom, and was aSelznick International Pictures production distributed byUnited Artists. The film's opening credits feature distinctive caricatures of the leading actors, as 3d-figurines, and creative artists, as 2d-cartoons, bySam Berman.[3]
This was Lombard's only feature-length Technicolor film. She stated that this film was one of her personal favorites.
New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook is blamed for reporting theHarlembootblack Ernest Walker as anobleman "of theOrient" 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 ofradium 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 isnot 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 theMorning Star newspaper.
The newspaper uses her story to increase its circulation. She receives aticker-tape parade and thekey to the city, and becomes an inspiration to many. She and Wally fall in love, and he asks her to marry him even though he still thinks she's dying. After a medical exam by three independent doctors, it is finally discovered that Hazel is not really dying, and city officials and Stone decide that it would be better to avoid embarrassment by having it seem that she went off to die, "like an elephant". Hazel and Wally get married and quietly set sail for the tropics.
According to William Wellman Jr.,Janet Gaynor had originally been cast as Hazel Flagg to follow on the success ofA Star is Born (1937). However, after William Wellman Sr. met Carole Lombard, he convinced Selznick to cast her.
A boxing world champion,Maxie Rosenbloom, gave Lombard boxing lessons to prepare her for her fight scene with Fredric March.
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 inHearst's International-Cosmopolitan.[5] Hecht wrote a role for his friendJohn Barrymore in the film, but David Selznick refused to use him as Barrymore had become an alcoholic. This caused a rift between Hecht and Selznick, and Hecht walked off the picture.[4]Budd Schulberg andDorothy Parker were called in to write the final scenes and several others also made contributions to the screenplay, including:David O. Selznick,William Wellman,Sidney Howard,Moss Hart,George S. Kaufman andRobert Carson.
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'sThe Front Page (1931) and its 1940 remakeHis Girl Friday withCary Grant, caricatures the chicanery to which some newspapers resorted in order to get a "hot" story.
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 the75th Venice International Film Festival.[7]
In 1965, the film entered thepublic domain in the United States because the copyright owners did not renew itscopyright 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,Kino Lorber issued the film on DVD and Blu-ray, mastered from a 2K scan of Selznick's personal nitrate print, preserved by theGeorge Eastman House Motion Picture Department. In 2018, Kino reissued their Blu-ray, this time mastered from a 2K scan of Disney's 1999 restoration, carried out on behalf ofABC, holder of most of the Selznick library.[9]
Ben Hecht's screenplay was also the basis of aBroadway musicalHazel Flagg (1953), withHelen Gallagher, as well asLiving It Up (1954), a comedy film starringDean Martin in the Winninger role,Jerry Lewis in the Lombard role (as Homer Flagg), andJanet Leigh in the March role.
