Nothing Sacred (1937) on Netflix
Passed19371h 17mComedyDramaFantasy
Blamed for calling a Harlem bootblack a nobleman, New York reporter Wally Cook is demoted to obituaries. His last chance is Hazel Flagg, a Vermont woman reportedly dying of radium poisoning.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb6.8/107,868 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Wally Cook reports for a New York newspaper, the Morning Star. His boss, Oliver Stone, blames him for a story that presented Ernest Walker, a Harlem bootblack, as a visiting nobleman from the Orient who was hosting a charity event, and moves him to the obituaries desk. Cook asks for another chance and points Stone to Hazel Flagg, a young woman in Warsaw, Vermont, said to be dying of radium poisoning. Stone sends him to interview her. Cook finds her in tears: her physician, Enoch Downer, has just told her she will not die of the illness, and she dreads spending her whole life in Vermont. Cook, who knows none of this, invites Hazel and Downer to New York as the paper's guests.
Cast
- Troy Brown Sr.as Ernest Walker
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Nothing Sacred (1937)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ben Hecht wrote a role for his friend John Barrymore, but David Selznick refused to use him because Barrymore had become an alcoholic. The dispute caused a rift, Hecht walked off the picture, and Budd Schulberg and Dorothy Parker were called in to write the final scenes.
- Janet Gaynor had originally been cast as Hazel Flagg after the success of A Star Is Born, but William Wellman met Carole Lombard and convinced David Selznick to cast her instead when Gaynor became unavailable.
- Nothing Sacred was the first screwball comedy filmed in color, and the first color film to use process effects, montage and rear screen projection. The backgrounds for the rear projection were filmed on the streets of New York.
- The boxing world champion Maxie Rosenbloom gave Carole Lombard boxing lessons to prepare her for her fight scene with Fredric March.
- In 1965 the film entered the public domain in the United States because its owners did not renew the copyright registration in the 28th year after publication, which made it a staple of bargain bin releases and collections.
