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Cast
Credits
Carole
Lombard. . . . . . . .Hazel Flagg
Studio . . . . . . . .
. . . United Artists
Fredric March.
. . . . . . . . Wally Cook
Director
. . . . . . . . . .William
A. Wellman
Charles Winninger.
. . . . . .Dr. Enoch Downer
Screenplay by. . . . . .Ben
Hecht
Walter Connolly
. . . . . . . .Oliver Stone Cinematography.
. . . W. Howard
Greene
Sig Ruman. . . . . . .
. . . . . Dr. Emil Eggelhoffer Edited
by . . . . . . . . James
E. Newcom
Margaret Hamilton.
. . . . . Drug Store Lady Sound
by. . . . . . . . . Fred
Lau
Olin Howlin .
. . . . . . . . . .Baggage Man Music by.
. . . . . . . Oscar Levant
Run
Time: 75 minutes
The possible ratings are as follows:
Abysmal. Complete trash-- bad acting, writing, cinematography,
etc.
Bomb. One or two redeeming qualities, but inferior overall.
Average. Not outstanding in most respects, but worth checking
out.
I
had a ball. Solid acting, writing, cinematography, etc. Superior in many
respects.
Excellent.
A true classic. Few, if any, flaws.
Nothing Scared is a satiric look into journalism. This film points out, often very caustically, that sometimes you just can't trust the self-appointed guardians of the truth. The newpspapers people here are portrayed as self-absorbed, profit-sseking, users who will do anything it takes, perhaps even lying, to scoop the competition. Done the wrong way, this could be nothing more than a boring, bitter editorial that nobody would care to see; however, done correctly, there is great potential for big laughs to go along with the sharp-edged barbs, and Nothing Sacred pulls this off wonderfully.
The story here is rather simple. Hazel Flagg (Lombard) has made headlines as a poor, ill woman dying for the incurable radium poisoning. Wally Cook is alive and well, but his career as star writer is in critical condition after one of Wally's stories is proved a hoax. Wally, desperate to get his career back on track, talks his editor, Oliver Stone (a 1930's film showing "Oliver Stone" running a paper peddling trumped-up stories??? Truth IS stranger than fiction), into allowing him to bring Ms. Flagg to New York City to follow the slow, tragic story of her death. Stone agrees and Cook sets out for Warsaw, Vermont to find Ms. Flagg. There is a problem though--just as Cook arrives in Warsaw, Ms. Flagg learns that she is not dying of radium poisoning; Doctor Downer (Winniger), an alcoholic quack, misdiagnosed her. She so wants to get out of small town Vermont that she lets Cook believe that she is dying. Once in New York, she is exposed as a fraud, and the bulk of the last half of the film deals with the way in which these people handle the truth and how they try to spin and manipulate it for their own benefit.
The film is most interesting for its constant cynicism. Nobody can really be trusted here. everyone is out to lie to everybody else to get what is best for them. Normally, one would expect the big city folks to be the big liars trying to manipulate a small tonw bumpkin. However, in this story, even the small town bumpkin is an unabashed liar. This is a very bleak look into human nature, and this film does not blink (except for the predictable Hollywood ending where they live happily ever after). One might ask, "How can one enjoy a film filled with liars...there's no protagonist to cheer for." The answer is obvious, there is a protagonist (two actually), Ms. Flagg and Cook. Somehow we, as viewers, are willing to overlook their deceit and find them to be a charming couple caught up in a big mess. I think this is an obvious manipulation by the makers of this film. They know they can rip open society and expose us all for the lying, no good charlatans we all are and make us like it as long as we canwrap it in a nice, warm love story. Even then, the manipulation goes deeper, because once we realize we have been maipulated, we don't mind since we were manipulated by such handsome, witty characters. That is great filmmaking.
The acting in this film is superb. If you have not watched Carole lombrad in action, you MUST watch this film. She is so in command of the ditziness here that the viewer has no choice but to love her. A lesser actress may have made Hazel nothing more than an annoyance. Lombard, however, makes the viewer wish we could find a lover with that advetursome spirit and warm heart. Her Hazel combined with the older, wiser Cook have to be one of the best film couples of all time. March played the wise-cracking reporter to a T. March could have made Cook an overbearing dud, but he found just the right tone for Cook's sarcasm. Brilliant job all the way around. P.S. Winniger may be one of the best character actors of all time.
The film was shot in color, but I think it would have been better as a black and white movie. the color is really just so-so and often looks like it had been colorized rather than shot in color. Black and white would have better matched the newspaper environment in which most of the story is played out. but hey, if you feel the same way, you can turn your color down on your TV.
Despite the dark undertone, I really enjoyed this movie. It has a lot to say about culture, people, the media, and love. This film could be the subject of a much longer essay, but I try to keep these short. Therefore, I will just say that I really like this film. My rating:
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