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Thursday, July 16, 2020

THE NUISANCE (1933)

Lee Tracy, the only Hollywood actor to literally piss himself off the A-list (from a Mexico City balcony onto a passing squadron of marching National Cadets*) was riding high in ‘33. Two classics (BOMBSHELL; DINNER AT EIGHT) as part of large starry ensembles, and carrying this lesser beauty alone above the title. It’s a dilly, with Tracy in rare form as Manhattan’s top ambulance chaser, first to arrive at major accidents & fires with a cadre of paid ‘witnesses,’ including ‘flopper’ Charles Butterworth and tippling Dr. Frank Morgan, his in-house specialist in composite X-Ray techniques. But he might be due for a comeuppance from D.A./long-time rival John Miljan who’s setting a trap to stop Tracy once-and-for-all with pretty putative ‘victim’ Madge Evans as bait. Played at full-throttle, with all hands pulling together, its journeymen talent, like director Jack Conway, thriving on congenial material. Very pre-Code, with Tracy offering to spend the night with new lover Evans (her best perf), this is cracking entertainment, given dark glistening luster from lenser Gregg Toland who bucks M-G-M house style by refusing to light all the way into the corners. (M-G-M liked to show off the money they spent on furnishings.) With a script, mostly by Bella & Sam Spewack, that knows how to turn on serious emotions in the third act within going soft & sentimental.

DOUBLE-BILL: *The film was VIVA VILLA!/’34, with underwhelming Stuart Erwin rushed in to take over Tracy’s role on this fascinating, troubled, ultimately inadequate film. But try imagining how it all might have worked with the original casting. (see below)

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Working on another personal injury case, Tracy’s hefty German bride-to-be client let’s her lawyer know the bridegroom isn’t really injured, ‘There’s nothing wrong with my Willie!’ The film also has surprises with what may be Hollywood’s first mention of new German leader Herr Hitler. A fresh name in ‘33.

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