O Inimigo da Light

Seeing The Nuisance for the first time cured me of at least one illusion I had. That Walter Matthau in his Oscar winning performance as Whiplash Willie Gingrich had created something original. Billy Wilder when he did The Fortune Cookie must have seen this undeservedly forgotten MGM film with Lee Tracy in the title role.

In fact I'll bet Matthau probably clerked in Tracy's office before taking the bar and learned everything well. Tracy is the shyster lawyer that shyster lawyers make jokes about. But he's cleaning out the insurance companies and in those Depression years they've decided to do something about it.

What they've done is hire Madge Evans, a female PI to fake an accident and become a Tracy client. But as things go in these films of course she falls for the guy.

Some other familiar faces populate the cast. Most familiar are Frank Morgan as an alcoholic doctor who treats Tracy like a son and helps Tracy with his fraudulent injury cases. And also there's the ever droll Charles Butterworth who makes a living faking being hit by automobiles for insurance settlements. He's running out of big cities to pull that racket.

Still if you watch The Nuisance you'll know what inspired Billy Wilder in The Fortune Cookie.

Fast-talking ambulance chasing lawyer Lee Tracy and his drunk doctor friend Frank Morgan have a pretty good set-up going. They get to accident scenes first and immediately convince the people involved they are hurt and need to sue. But the insurance company is onto their tactics, so they set Tracy up with investigator Madge Evans. Tracy is immediately attracted to lovely Ms. Evans and before long has fallen in love with her. Largely unknown little gem with a crackling script. Tracy is great in a part tailor-made for him. I continue to be impressed by Evans. She's one of those actresses with lots of talent and good looks that, for whatever reason, never made it big. Frank Morgan is terrific in a sympathetic role. Nice support by Charles Butterworth as a man named Floppy who throws himself in front of cars so he can sue. Also David Landau and John Miljan make good villains. This is an underrated and very enjoyable film.

Joe Stevens (Lee Tracy) is a sleazy ambulance-chasing lawyer among many others. He arrives at an accident site and tries to sign up beautiful Dorothy Mason (Madge Evans). She's actually an investigator working for the other side while pretending to be his client.

Lee Tracy is fun as the fast talking sleazy lawyer. The two leads have a fun meet-cute at the accident. This is a fine rom-com although they get separated in the second half. This should concentrate solely on being a rom-com and keep these two together as much as possible. I also don't believe him going straight. It would be more fun if they both go crooked and that can only work if it's her idea.

I'd seen this before but was still knocked out by it. This holds true for "The Half-Naked Truth" too. To my great surprise it does not, for me, with "Blessed Event." The first time I saw that, I couldn't believe its brilliance. The second time, several years later, it still looked good but packed no real punch. (Tracy is also excellent in "Bombshell" with the sensational Jean Harlow and, decades later, in "The Best Man.") This movie is funny, starting, and touching. It moves with ease from one of these to another. Frank Morgan, another extremely versatile performer, is very touching as the alcoholic doctor who works with ambulance-chasing lawyer Tracy on his schemes.

All the supporting cast is good, with special mention given to Charles Butterworth as floppy, the con many who was faking being hit by cars before Tracy meets up with him again and will probably be doing it till he finally really does get run over.

PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD 1930 -1934, WHEN MOVIES WERE SEXY, SMART, COMPLEX AND A HELL OF A LOT OF FUN.

An ambulance-chasing lawyer gets tangled up with a female investigator out to end his shyster ways.

Director: Jack Conway Writers: Chandler Sprague (story), Howard Emmett Rogers (story) Stars: Lee Tracy, Madge Evans, Frank Morgan

The fast-talking Stevens plays every trick he can against the "soulless corporations" on behalf of the downtrodden whether it is ethical or not until he is ensnared by a beautiful woman. Now can he become honest or will he lose her?

The great Lee Tracy stars in one of his best roles in The Nuisance - a fast-paced, cynical comedy (with doses of drama) about a shrewd (and none-too-honest) ambulance-chasing lawyer who has refined the business of obtaining large settlements for accident claims into a science. The fast-talking Tracy is, of course, the lawyer in question, and he's brilliant in the part. But don't overlook the presence of Frank Morgan (in the days before he became completely mired in being the Wizard of Oz) as his drunken doctor cohort or the great Charles Butterworth as a professional victim. It's all bright, funny and hard as nails.

Lee Tracy was unique. No one talked as fast as he did, and certainly no one ever backed that talk up with such eloquent and fascinating hand gestures. The experience of watching a Lee Tracy performance is like witnessing a strangely graceful machine gun going off. The film ,I suspect because of its lackluster title , isn't one of Tracy's better-known movies, but it's still one of his best.

There are some very good supporting turns in the film. Frank Morgan's perpetually pickled doctor manages to be both funny and tragic , and his fate is actually disturbing. The great Charles Butterworth has a nice role as a man who specializes in faking accidents. The underrated Madge Evans , stands out here where she's given something worthwhile to do.

The Nuisance is a solid comedy, a triumphant story of using American cunning to repudiate corporate greed with wits and verve- and very pre-Code in just how far it goes to show such an anti-hero succeed so admirably. It's very funny and brash, and if any of this sounds like fun, you're in for a treat.