22 May 2020

Nothing Sacred (1937)

This Technicolor(TM) movie really lives up to its name, even going so far as to show a man slugging a woman in the jaw. She does the same to him some minutes later ... But still! Except for that scene near the end, I mostly enjoyed this screwball comedy about fraudsters and how "Life is short" (so grab it by the balls!). The headliner Carole Lombard also starred in one of my favorite movies of all time: My Man Godfrey (1936) with William Powell. In this pre-war flick, she gets to go toe to toe, literally, with Fredric March. I wasn't planning to write much about these movies in these blog posts, mainly keeping a record of the ones I watch during this year, but I have to share a few priceless lines of dialogue:

"And besides there's the ethics!"

"Tootsies of all nations" on the dinner theater marquee (casual racism abounds!)

"Keep on sucking that egg and your conscience will go away!" [raw egg hangover cure]

"We gave 'em a chance to pretend that their phoney hearts were dripping with the milk of human kindness." [City dwellers are not painted with a kind brush in many 1930s films.]

Because of the racism and violence against women I can't recommend this one. Watch My Man Godfrey (1936) instead!

Addendum: Most of the movie is set in New York City where, according to the screenwriter, "the Slickers and Know-It-Alls peddle gold bricks to each other."

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