6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Hazel Flagg of Warsaw, Vermont receives the news that her terminal case of radium poisoning from a workplace incident was a complete misdiagnosis with mixed emotions. She is happy not to be dying, but she, who has never traveled the world, was going to use the money paid to her by her factory to go to New York in style. She believes her dreams can still be realized when Wally Cook arrives in town. He is a New York reporter with the Morning Star newspaper. He believes that Hazel's valiant struggle concerning her impending death is just the type of story he needs to resurrect his name within reporting circles after a recent story he wrote led to scandal and a major demotion at the newspaper.
Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger, Walter Connolly, Sig RumanRomance | 100% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM 2.0
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In the late 1920s, newspapers shocked the public with horrific stories about "The Radium Girls," female employees of defense contractor US Radium
who were unknowingly exposed to absurd levels of radiation while painting watch-faces with a highly toxic glow-in-the-dark paint called
"Undark." Because the women were licking their brushes to keep the bristles sharpened--and even painting their nails and teeth with the substance for
fun--the radium-laced paint caused their jaw bones to practically dissolve over time. An untold number were sickened, and the five women who finally
banded together to sue the company barely lived long enough to collect any of the settlement money.
It's a sad story, and not one that you'd think would inspire one of the great screwball comedies of the 1930s, but that's exactly what happened. Famed
screenwriter Ben Hecht, best known at the time for Underworld and Scarface--although he would go on to have a hand in
many classics, including Some Like It Hot and Spellbound--took inspiration from the relatively recent scandal and, adapting a
short story by James H. Street, wrote Nothing Sacred, a dark and wonderfully funny satire about journalistic sensationalism and the public's
love of a particularly juicy tragedy. Hecht left the project after a falling out with producer David O. Selznick, but his screenplay was finished and polished
by a whole host of comic masterminds, from Dorothy Parker and Budd Schulberg to Moss Hart and Ring Lardner Jr.
Like other films in the public domain, Nothing Sacred has been subjected to many sub-par home video releases over the years, none of which have come close to accurately capturing the movie's Technicolor splendor. Until now. Sourced from the best materials available at the George Eastman House's film preservation division--a print that once belonged to David Selznick himself--Kino's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a visual pleasure. We should get one thing straight first, though: unlike some of the larger studios releasing older films--Fox, Paramount, Criterion, etc.--Kino simply doesn't have the resources to remove damage and debris with frame-by-frame digital restorations. Instead, they find the cleanest prints they can, leaving scratches and specks "as is" but taking care to fix color and tonality issues, which are much easier to deal with. So yes, you can expect some mild, age- related print issues, but nothing terribly distracting--no heavy warpage, brightness fluctuations, tears, etc. Grain looks healthy and natural, and there are no signs of edge enhancement or other forms of digital boosting. Clarity is much improved over prior standard definition releases, but what's even more impressive is the careful reproduction of the film's creamy, smooth-toned color palette. There are sometime hue shifts between shots-- especially in skintones, which can vary between pale and very ruddy--but overall I was really impressed by the consistency and stability of this transfer.
Kino's Blu-ray release also noticeably improves the film's audio with a Linear PCM 2.0 track that sounds a good deal cleaner and less crackle-prone than previous versions. You'll still hear some clicks and pops and splices on occasion, but the overall level of hissy noise has been diminished, leaving dialogue consistently clear and actor/composer Oscar Levant's lush, romantic score sounding richer and fuller than ever. Like most films from this era, of course, the EQ is a bit top-heavy, but the mix is far from brash or tinny. The only oversight I can see here is that Kino hasn't included any subtitle options whatsoever, which is unfortunate for those who might need or want them.
I would've loved a retrospective on Lombard or a commentary by a film historian or preservationist, but the only bonus features on the disc are trailers for Nothing Sacred, A Star is Born, and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.
Nothing Sacred is a darkly funny farce, a whip-smart satire on journalistic sensationalism and the faux-sentimentality of a tragedy-loving public. It's one of the great screwball comedies of the '30s, one of Carole Lombard's best roles--it was supposedly her own personal favorite--and it was shot in beautiful, understated Technicolor, a real rarity in its time for a film in this genre. After years of unsatisfying releases with poor transfers and sound, the film finally gets the treatment it deserves with Kino's fine-looking Blu-ray. A few bonus features would've been nice, but I'm just glad to see more films from the 1930s getting released in high definition. Highly recommended!
80th Anniversary Edition
1936
1937
2011
Director's Cut | Special Edition
2006
2016
Warner Archive Collection
1977
1994
10th Anniversary Edition
2006
1937
Warner Archive Collection
1936
1940
1961
1947
2000
2010
2008
Limited Edition to 3000
1959
1934
1936
2011