Review: Nothing Sacred (1937)

3 min readJul 21, 2020

Nothing Sacred (1937) is an underrated screwball classic for the “fake news” era.

Hoping to generate publicity for his newspaper, Wally, a disgraced NYC reporter (Fredric March) offers Hazel, a small-town girl with a rare disease (Carole Lombard) a trip to the city before she dies. Except, she’s not actually sick.

Hazel becomes a celebrity overnight. However, she’s the type of celebrity that she can’t go anywhere without children singing to her or adults weeping at the sight of her. Wally exploits her predicament for the headlines he’s always wanted. Hazel exploits his headline-chasing for the lavish lifestyle she’s always wanted. All while they fall in love with each other.

Frederic March was mostly known for dramas. He starred in the original A Star is Born (1937) the same year that Nothing Sacred was released. His innate seriousness is actually tailor made for the screwball genre, a stern brick wall perfect for our eccentric heroine to bounce her off-beat schemes and observations off of. He also excels in this “straight man” trope in the similarly underrated I Married A Witch (1942) opposite Veronica Lake.

Still, this movie is all about my girl Carole. Hailed as the “Queen of Screwball Comedy” by film history buffs and her own contemporaries alike, Lombard’s comedic timing and natural effervescence are both on full display here. Nothing Sacred roughly represents the halfway point in her reign, post- Twentieth Century (1934) and My Man Godfrey (1936) but pre- Mr. And Mrs. Smith (1941) and To Be Or Not To Be (1942). The rapid-fire dialogue and deconstructed gender norms of the genre gave a number of female stars the opportunity to shine but none did so with quite so much commitment and sparkle as Lombard. The scenes in which Hazel has to keep up the charade that she’s dying are often the funniest in a movie whose humor already holds up remarkably well.

Well, the humor holds up remarkably well for the most part. Bear in mind that, for all the progressiveness of its themes, Nothing Sacred still has its fair share of moments that are decidedly un-PC. The movie is 83 years old after all.

I’m not going to say this movie is “rELeVAnT nOW mOrE tHaN eVEr”, but let’s just say that its commentary on journalistic sensationalism, viral fame and public gullibility feels…appropriate…for 2020.

Nothing Sacred is a movie that both typifies its genre and elevates it. Beneath its charming stars and early Technicolor hues, it’s a hilarious and fast-paced satire of the public at its most gullible. Actually, make that “second-most.”

Watch it here on Amazon Prime Video.

Or check out the trailer below.

Directed by William A. Wellman

Produced by David O. Selznick

Written by Ben Hecht (screenplay)

with uncredited contributions from: