Directed by: William A. Wellman

Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig Ruman, Frank Fay, Troy Brown Sr., Maxie Rosenbloom, Margaret Hamilton

STORY

New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook, played by Fredric March, needs a miracle. After falling for a humiliating publicity hoax, Wally has been banished to writing obituaries by his furious editor, Oliver Stone. Then he discovers the story that might rescue his career: Hazel Flagg, a young Vermont woman supposedly dying from radium poisoning.

Hazel, played by Carole Lombard, appears to be the perfect tragic heroine. Wally travels to the tiny town of Warsaw, Vermont, intending to bring the doomed young woman to New York and give her one glorious final adventure — all courtesy of his newspaper.

There is only one little problem.

Hazel isn't dying.

Her doctor, Enoch Downer, has discovered that the original diagnosis was wrong. Hazel should be celebrating, but instead she realizes that being healthy means losing the free trip to New York she has been dreaming about. So Hazel neglects to mention her miraculous recovery, accepts Wally's invitation and heads for Manhattan as America's newest national sweetheart.

New York goes completely mad for her.

Hazel is showered with flowers, honors, banquets, speeches, nightclub appearances and public adoration. Everyone wants to participate in the tragedy of the courageous young woman facing death with a smile — especially Wally's newspaper, which transforms Hazel's supposed final days into a circulation bonanza.

But somewhere amid the lies, publicity stunts and manufactured sentiment, something genuine happens: Wally and Hazel fall in love.

Now Hazel's harmless little deception threatens to become a spectacular public disaster. The newspaper needs its dying heroine. The public wants its inspirational tragedy. Wally wants the truth. And Hazel would very much like to escape before everyone discovers that America's favorite dying woman stubbornly refuses to die.

Nothing Sacred is one of the great screwball comedies of the 1930s — fast, romantic, outrageous and astonishingly sharp. Carole Lombard is magnificent as Hazel, combining physical comedy, impeccable timing and vulnerability, while Fredric March proves himself every bit her comic equal.

But underneath all the laughs is a wicked satire about sensational journalism, celebrity culture and the public's appetite for emotional spectacle. Newspapers manufacture heroes, audiences embrace stories before checking whether they're true, and tragedy becomes entertainment when enough publicity is attached to it.

Sound familiar?

Made in 1937, Nothing Sacred somehow feels as though it has been waiting for the age of viral fame, clickbait and instant celebrity to catch up with it.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS
CAROLE LOMBARD IN TECHNICOLOR

Nothing Sacred gave audiences the rare opportunity to see Carole Lombard in glorious three-strip Technicolor. It was Lombard's only feature film photographed entirely in three-strip Technicolor, making the movie especially valuable today as a surviving color record of one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars.

THE GREAT WILLIAM A. WELLMAN

Director William A. Wellman was hardly limited to comedy. His extraordinary career included the silent aviation epic Wings, which won the first Academy Award for Best Picture, along with The Public Enemy, A Star Is Born, Beau Geste and The Ox-Bow Incident. With Nothing Sacred, he demonstrated that his talents extended beautifully into sophisticated screwball comedy.

BEN HECHT TAKES AIM AT THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS

The screenplay was written by legendary screenwriter and former newspaperman Ben Hecht, based on James H. Street's short story "Letter to the Editor."

Hecht knew the newspaper world firsthand, and Nothing Sacred gives him plenty of opportunities to attack it. Reporters, editors and publicity machines are portrayed as perfectly willing to exploit a human tragedy if it sells enough newspapers.

THE STORY FIRST APPEARED IN COSMOPOLITAN

James H. Street's original story, "Letter to the Editor," appeared in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1937. The basic idea of a supposedly dying young woman becoming a media sensation was transformed by Hecht and the filmmakers into one of Hollywood's sharpest satires.

DAVID O. SELZNICK PRODUCED IT

The film was produced by David O. Selznick through Selznick International Pictures, only a few years before he would produce Gone with the Wind and Rebecca. Selznick wanted a sophisticated comedy that could also take advantage of the growing possibilities of Technicolor.

A SCREENPLAY WITH MANY HANDS

Although Ben Hecht received the screenplay credit, several major Hollywood writers contributed to the project during its development. Dorothy Parker, George S. Kaufman, Moss Hart and Robert Carson were among the writers associated with additional or uncredited work on the screenplay.

That's an extraordinary collection of writing talent surrounding one movie.

LOMBARD WASN'T THE FIRST CHOICE

Carole Lombard wasn't originally Selznick's first choice for Hazel Flagg. Janet Gaynor, who had worked with Selznick on A Star Is Born, was considered for the role before Lombard ultimately became Hazel.

Today it is difficult to imagine anyone else attacking the part with quite the same fearless comic energy.

LOMBARD WAS A FEARLESS COMEDIENNE

Carole Lombard wasn't interested in looking glamorous every second she was on screen. She was willing to fall, fight, stagger, scream and make herself ridiculous if it made the scene funnier.

Nothing Sacred takes full advantage of that fearlessness — especially when Hazel and Wally's romance turns into one of the most unusual physical confrontations in romantic-comedy history.

YES, THEY ACTUALLY PUNCH EACH OTHER

One of the movie's most famous sequences has Wally trying to make Hazel appear sick and exhausted — resulting in the two characters literally trading punches.

Former heavyweight boxer Maxie Rosenbloom, who also appears in the film, reportedly helped prepare Lombard and March for the comic boxing sequence.

Forget candlelight and violins. Nothing says screwball romance quite like knocking your sweetheart across the room.

MARGARET HAMILTON BEFORE OZ

Look closely and you'll spot Margaret Hamilton among the supporting cast.

Just two years later, Hamilton would become immortal as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Nothing Sacred offers another wonderful opportunity to spot one of Hollywood's most recognizable character actresses before the role that made her unforgettable.

AINTOID: A COMEDY ABOUT SOMETHING VERY MODERN

Hazel Flagg becomes famous not because she has accomplished something extraordinary, but because the media creates a compelling story around her.

The public becomes emotionally invested. Businesses and politicians join the celebration. Everyone wants to be associated with Hazel. And almost nobody bothers to investigate whether the story they're celebrating is actually true.

In other words, Nothing Sacred understood manufactured celebrity more than eight decades before social media arrived.

AINTOID: NOTHING REALLY IS SACRED

The title couldn't be more appropriate. The movie gleefully attacks newspapers, politicians, doctors, public relations, celebrity worship, sentimental philanthropy and even the supposedly sophisticated citizens of New York.

Almost everyone is selling something.

And nearly everyone is willing to believe the story as long as it's entertaining.

AINTOID: LOMBARD AT HER COMIC PEAK

By 1937, Carole Lombard was firmly established as one of Hollywood's reigning queens of screwball comedy. My Man Godfrey had earned her an Academy Award nomination the previous year, and Nothing Sacred arrived during an extraordinary period that helped cement her reputation as one of the screen's greatest comic performers.