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Nothing Sacred
Directed by	William A. Wellman
Produced by	David O. Selznick
Written by	Ben Hecht Budd Schulberg Ring Lardner Jr. James H. Street Budd Schulberg James H. Street (story)
Starring	Carole Lombard Fredric March Walter Connolly
Music by	Oscar Levant
Cinematography	W. Howard Greene
Editing by	James E. Newcom
Distributed by	Selznick International Pictures United Artists
Release date(s)	November 25, 1937
Running time	77 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

Nothing Sacred is a 1937 screwball comedy film made by Selznick International Pictures. It was directed by William A. Wellman and produced by David O. Selznick, from a screenplay by Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner Jr. and Budd Schulberg, based on a story by James H. Street. The film stars Carole Lombard and Fredric March, with a supporting cast that includes Walter Connolly, Charles Winninger, Margaret Hamilton, Hattie McDaniel, Frank Fay and Max Rosenbloom.

The lush, Gershwinesque music score was by Oscar Levant with additional music by Alfred Newman and Max Steiner, and a swing number by Raymond Scott's Quintet. The film was shot in Technicolor by W. Howard Greene. The costume design for Carole Lombard's gowns was by Travis Banton.

New York newspaper reporter Wally Cook (Fredric March) tries to pass off an ordinary African-American (Troy Brown) as an African nobleman hosting a charity event. The original cut had some gross ridicule added to the simple comeuppance that remains when the man's wife appears to ruin his scheme, but this was removed. Wally Cook is demoted to writing obituaries. He begs his boss Oliver Stone (Walter Connolly) for another chance.

Wally is sent to Vermont to interview Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard), a woman supposedly dying of radium poisoning. When Cook finally locates Hazel, she is crying because her doctor has told her that she is not dying. Unaware of this, he invites her to New York as the guest of the Morning Sun newspaper.

The newspaper uses her story to increase its circulation. She receives a ticker tape parade and the key to the city, and becomes an inspiration to many. In addition, she and Wally fall in love.

When it is finally discovered that Hazel is not really dying, city officials decide that it would be better to avoid embarrassment by having it seem that she committed suicide. Hazel and Wally get married and quietly set sail for the tropics.

The fight scene between Lombard and March

• This was Carole Lombard's only Technicolor film.

• Max Rosenbloom, who appears briefly in the film, gave Lombard boxing lessons to prepare her for her fight scene with Fredric March.

• The first screwball comedy filmed in color, Nothing Sacred also represents the first use in a color film of process effects, montage and rear screen projection. Backgrounds for the rear projection were filmed on the streets of New York and Paramount later refined this technique in their subsequent color features.

• Ben Hecht is credited with writing the screenplay in two weeks on a train. He adapted the story Letter to the Editor by James H Street which had been first been published in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan. Hecht wrote a role for his friend John Barrymore in the film, but David Selznick refused to use him as Barrymore had become by then an incurable alcoholic. This caused a rift between Hecht and Selznick and Hecht walked off the picture. Budd Schulberg and Dorothy Parker were called in to write the final scenes and several others also made contributions to the screenplay, including: David O. Selznick, William Wellman, Sidney Howard, Moss Hart, George S. Kaufman and Robert Carson.

Ben Hecht's screenplay was also the basis of a 1950s Broadway musical called Hazel Flagg, as well as Living It Up, a 1954 movie starring Dean Martin in the Charles Winninger role, Jerry Lewis in the Carole Lombard role, and Janet Leigh in the Fredric March role.

• Nothing Sacred at the TCM Movie Database
• Watch the film in full