Review of Nothing Sacred (1937) by Stephen M — 11 Jan 2009

Not only was Nothing Sacred the first Technicolor screwball comedy, it's also the only colour movie Carole Lombard ever made, so it pains me to confess that I'd probably like it better if it'd been shot in black & white! Doubtless viewed at the time as adding a touch of class, the colour photography is drab and does nothing for the picture, and the sets are equally ugly. I cannot think of this film without bringing to mind a particularly sickly shade of blue!

The tastelessness of the central conceit - country girl, misdiagnosed with terminal radium poisoning, shams illness to enjoy an all-expenses-paid trip to New York - ensures that the movie retains a freshness, despite the fact that some of the gags have not aged so well. In particular, the sequence where the nightclub emcee introduces the "Heroines of History" is fairly excruciating, and I'm usually also able to restrain my mirth when Fredric March socks Lombard on the jaw, though the rest of that scene is hilarious.

My only criticism of the excellent cast is that the usually brilliant Sig Ruman is badly wasted as Emil Eggelhoffer, the expert on radium poisoning who exposes Lombard; he is far funnier in Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie, playing practically the same part. Some of the dialogue is priceless! My favourite exchange:

- HAZEL FLAGG: You know, I'm not going to bed until I have convulsions and my teeth start falling out! That's when I begin worrying? Is it, Enoch?

- DR ENOCH DOWNER: It's as good a time as any.