Nothing Sacred

Nothing special to my eyes, this screwball comedy is best known for Carole Lombard’s performance and Ben Hecht’s cynical script -- and both are okay, as are William Wellman’s direction and Fredric March’s co-starring role. There’s a great aerial sequence of the skyline of 1930s Manhattan, and some acerbic commentary on newspapering and public gullibility, but this is a hit that didn’t hit home with me. The “Selznick touch” comes through mostly in the unnecessary and antique-looking Technicolor. Lombard is a Vermont girl supposedly dying of radium poisoning who exploits and is exploited by reporter March to become the toast of New York, but they can’t hold a candle to Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant in Hecht’s and Hawks’ His Girl Friday. Still, it’s amusing to be reminded that newspapers were lacking in public esteem long before their current death throes. (1937, dvd, n.) *5+*