Synopsis
When a small-town girl is incorrectly diagnosed with a rare, deadly disease, an unknowing newspaper columnist turns her into a national heroine.
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Cast
- Carole LombardHazel Flagg
- Fredric MarchWallace "Wally" Cook
- Charles WinningerDr. Enoch Downer
- Walter ConnollyOliver Stone
- Sig RumanDr. Emil Eggelhoffer (as Sig Rumann)
- Frank FayMaster of Ceremonies
- Troy Brown Sr.Ernest Walker (as Troy Brown)
- Maxie RosenbloomMax Levinsky
- Margaret HamiltonWarsaw, Vermont Drugstore Lady
- Olin HowlandBaggage Man
Recommendations
- 100
TV Guide Magazine
A marvelous black comedy full of wit and journalistic wisdom in the grand and capricious style of Hecht (he and Charles MacArthur co-wrote The Front Page), this film is all the more stunning thanks to the outrageous and hilarious performance of super comedienne Lombard. - 100
CineVue
For prickly cynicism and choppy one-liners, Nothing Sacred is simply unbeatable. - 83
Entertainment Weekly
Ben Hecht supplied the cynically amusing script, but the brilliant Lombard makes it fly — wringing laughs from an arsenal of loopy gestures and cacophonous outbursts. - 80
Village Voice
A delirious send-up of bandwagon piety, the film was scripted by that snappiest of Hollywood crank cases, Ben Hecht, and he never got a better, more committed distaff embodiment of his flair for highlighting hooey than Lombard, who throws herself into the role with daffy, tongue-tripping abandon. - 80
The New Yorker
William Wellman's direction is more leisurely than usual; he has such good material here that he takes his time. - 75
Boston Globe
One of the great newspaper comedies. [24 Nov 1989, p.112p] - 70
Variety
Hecht handles the material breezily and pungently, poking fun in typical manner of half-scorn at the newspaper publisher, his reporter, doctors, the newspaper business, phonies, suckers, and whatnot. - 70
Chicago Reader
The definitive Ben Hecht screenplay.
