Nothing Sacred (1937)

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77 mins – view video trailer

Director: William A. Wellman
Starring: Carole Lombard, Fredric March, Charles Winninger

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance

IMDB 7.5 / Amazon 3.9 / 70% tomatometer

Oscars: none

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. IMDB 7.5 rating from over 3,842 users

Nothing Sacred remains one of the best comedies of the thirties or indeed of any era. Amazon 3.9 stars from over 46 users

Anxious to get back in the good graces of his editor Oliver Stone (Walter Connolly), Cook pounces on the story of New England girl Hazel Flagg (Carole Lombard), who is reportedly dying from radiation poisoning. Actually, Hazel isn’t dying at all; she’s been misdiagnosed by Moscow’s eternally drunk doctor (Charles Winninger). But when Cook offers to take her on an all-expenses-paid trip to New York in exchange for her exclusive story, it’s too good an offer to pass up. Rotten Tomatoes 70% audience rating

MRQE: over 19 reviews

Check it out for free from Madison Public Library – it also is part of the Comedy Kings 50 Movie Pack

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbV83kwJZ68]

The Awful Truth (1937)

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91 min – view video trailer

Director: Leo McCarey
Starring: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy

Genres: Comedy, Romance

IMDB 7.9 / Amazon 4.2 / Tomatometer 91%

Oscars: nominated for 6, won 1 (Best Director)

Included in the New York Times Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, 1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, and Time Magazine-All-TIME 100 Movies

Unfounded suspicions lead a married couple to begin divorce proceedings, whereupon they start undermining each other’s attempts to find new romance. IMDB 7.9 rating from over 8,982 users

One of the top five screwball comedies of the ’30s, this helped to cement a genre that waxed golden until the end of WWII. Amazon 4.2 stars from over 83 users

Grant is sharp and shrewd, manipulating the situation to get his wife back while ostensibly professing that he doesn’t deserve her, that Bellamy will do much better by her, etc., though in fact he’s out to make Bellamy look ridiculous. By the film’s end, Bellamy, disillusioned with the heroine, goes home with his mother, leaving Grant with the girl. Decent Films C+

Leo McCarey directed this classic screwball comedy in which Cary Grant and Irene Dunne play Jerry and Lucy Warriner, a couple whose marriage is starting to fall apart. Jerry informs Lucy that he’s taking a vacation alone in Florida; instead, he holes up with his buddies and plays poker for a week (while sitting under a sun lamp so he’ll have an appropriate tan).  Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer 91% Audience 86%

MRQE has over 34 reviews linked

Madison Public Library

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0-euBr_vRU]

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Disney

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83 min – rated G – view video trailer

Genres: Animation, Family, Fantasy

IMDB 7.8 / Amazon 4.5 / MRQE 90% / Decent Films A+

Oscars: nominated for 2, won 1 (Honorary Award for significant screen inovation)

Ranked #20 Greatest Movies Through 1960, a Zagat Top Movie

Snow White, pursued by a jealous queen, hides with the Dwarfs; the queen feeds her a poison apple, but Prince Charming awakens her with a kiss. IMDB 7.8 rating from over 64,432 users

Based on the Grimm fairy tale, Snow White is probably the best family film ever to deal, in mythic terms, with the psychological foundation for growing up. It’s a crowning achievement and should not be missed. Amazon 4.5 stars from over 731 users

Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is widely celebrated as a beginning, the first feature-length animated film in Hollywood history. It’s just as correct, though, and perhaps more illuminating, to hail it as a culimination — as the crowning achievement of years of experimentation, discovery, growth and achievement by Disney’s animation team. Read full Decent Films review (rated A+, Superior artistic-entertainment for Kids & Up)

MRQE 90% from over 69 reviews

Madison Public Library