Blessed Event

Unless someone had spent some time with Admiral Byrd at the South Pole there ain't no way that any American would have not recognized that Lee Tracy's main character was based on Walter Winchell. Winchell had not started his radio show as of yet, but his column was the most read in the nation. And the term Blessed Event was a contribution that Winchell made to the English language still in use today.

The play had a 115 performance run on Broadway and Allen Jenkins and IsabellJewell repeated their roles on Broadway. Tracy with a quip for all occasions takes over Ned Sparks's column and immediately makes his paper the biggest circulation in town. He takes on all, gangsters, politicians, show business personalities with an eye for the salacious. A man like that makes enemies and Winchell had plenty in his life.

They also with a bit of future forecasting had him in a staged feud with another show business personality, a crooner played by Dick Powell in his film debut. Powell because this was his debut was no one that Winchell would have bothered with in real life. Powell's character was based on a combination of Rudy Valle and Russ Columbo both who led their own orchestras as Powell's character Buddy Harmon does. In real life Winchell would be in a bogus feud with bandleader Ben Bernie and the two would trade insults on their respective radio shows like Crosby and Hope.

Blessed Event would be one of Tracy's best film roles until he got banished to the Bs for his performance in Mexico on a hotel balcony letting it all hang out and urinating on some passing Mexican soldiers while on location for Viva Villa.

For a time this was dated, but as news gradually became more about the personalities delivering them, Blessed Event got right back in style. I think a young audience would really appreciate Blessed Event today.

A brash tabloid columnist turns his BLESSED EVENT style of gossip mongering into a sensation, but creates many enemies along the way.

This is the film that made Lee Tracy an authentic movie star - the role and the actor were perfect for each other. For the next couple of years Tracy would specialize in fast talking shyster lawyers, agents, reporters & flimflam men. In the process, he became one of the most enjoyable performers of the era, always fresh & entertaining. However, after misbehaving in Mexico while under contract to MGM, he would be banished to the Poverty Row studios to continue acting in minor films. Today, regrettably, he is almost forgotten.

But in pre-Code BLESSED EVENT Tracy is at the top of his form: exasperating, maddeningly irritating & wonderfully funny. Warner Brothers gives him an excellent supporting cast to bounce off of - acerbic Ned Sparks as a disgruntled tabloid reporter; peppy Frank McHugh as an overeager publicity agent; porcine Edwin Maxwell as a nasty gangster; and Allen Jenkins as a softhearted criminal (his ‘electric chair' scene with Tracy is a classic).

Boyish Dick Powell, in his film debut, seems an odd choice to play Tracy's nemesis, but there's no doubt about his charm & fine singing style, both of which would soon make him a major movie star.

Mary Brian is lovely as Tracy's girlfriend & Emma Dunn is sweet as his mother, but each tends to be a bit smothered by Tracy's oversized personality. His true co-star is tart-tongued Ruth Donnelly as his secretary. No slacker in slinging the dialogue around, she's able to match Tracy line for line.

Movie mavens will recognize Charles Lane as a reporter; Isabel Jewell, terrific as a much-abused showgirl; and hilarious Herman Bing as a chef - all of them uncredited.

"Blessed Event" is a parody of its time and of the media and entertainment of its day including newspapers and radio. But one wonders how exaggerated it really is. The sensationalism of the press and rise of yellow journalism was a frequent part of movie plots in the 1930s. But this one treats of another aspect as well - gossip.

Lee Tracy plays Alvin Roberts, who quickly becomes a famous New York gossip columnist. The movie is billed as a drama and comedy. While there is comedy in Robets' character and some of the funny things he says, the drama of the film isn't lost on the audience. We soon feel the distastefulness of Roberts' gossip column. We soon see the inconsiderate character that he becomes. We soon see his ego and pride and relish for the power he has assumed. These are sad situations, and the film shows the tragic results of such power and behavior. Of course, amidst all of this we have occasional funny lines or clever comments.

This film could be a biopic of a real person. Other reviewers have pointed this out. Roberts is as an obvious copy of Walter Winchell who was then on the rise as the king of gossip. Winchell was the original gossip columnist of Broadway and New York. He rose to such power through the press that politicians, the rich and famous, sports celebrities, gangsters, and actors feared him or tried to get close to him. Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons would become the Walter Winchells of Hollywood.

Lee Tracy's high-pitched voice and rapid-fire delivery closely emulate Winchell's persona. Although carried to the extreme for this film, those also were natural characteristics of Tracy. For a time, he was a leading actor in great demand. Some of his real lifestyle was similar to Winchell's. He was arrogant and seemed to bathe in the power of his position. Tracy also lived a racy, reckless, self-centered life. His temper, rowdiness and bad manners earned him a "bad-boy" reputation. He was given the boot from MGM after a public incidence in Mexico during filming of a movie there. Tracy urinated in public off a balcony and got in fisticuffs with the police.

His later roles about hard-bitten, muck-racking, sensationalist reporters soon wore thin with the public. Tracy returned to the stage and later ended up on television in supporting roles. He had a successful marriage and apparently tamed down before his 1968 death from cancer at age 70.

Winchell's fortunes were quite different. From the mid-1930s on, his star continued to rise through the 1950s. He had his own radio show and his newspaper column was syndicated in more than 2,000 papers worldwide. Winchell was very controversial. He had powerful friends and enemies. He was the first media personality to attack Adolf Hitler and the rise of Nazism. He also hated Communism and attacked the National Maritime Union during World War II as being a communist front. He admired Franklin D. Roosevelt and was invited to the White House. He also liked J. Edgar Hoover. Winchell was one of the earliest and most outspoken supporters of civil rights for African Americans. He attacked the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups. He also supported Sen. Joseph McCarthy's efforts to ferret out communists in Hollywood.

Winchell held court at the Stork Club in New York for years. But by the late 1950s, his appeal began to wane. And, his power dropped quickly. His family life was unstable and unconventional and experienced sad deaths. He lived alone his last two years in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He died of cancer at age 74 in 1968.

In this movie, Tracy's Roberts says repeatedly, "Pride ain't power." He has a few funny lines. "I almost starved to death for two weeks," was one. The story is all about so-called "entertainment journalism." The supporting cast are fine, with Mary Brian doing an excellent job as Gladys Price, Roberts' secretary and right-hand man.

This movie is interesting in its snapshot of the time and its parodies. It has some historical value for that reason. The cast and production values are all good. And, it's somewhat entertaining.

"What do you want to interview Mr. Roberts about?" "Oh you know, how he lives, and where he goes, and what he thinks about." "My dear, you think they would print that in a high school paper?"

This is a satire of Walter Winchell, the ruthless gossip columnist who wielded great power for decades in the entertainment industry, and who by 1932 had already achieved celebrity. He's played here by slick talking Lee Tracy, a good fit for the role, but I found the character so unlikeable that when he was made out to be the good guy, it was tough to enjoy.

The character loves publishing secrets and personal details that ruffle feathers, e.g. Upcoming birth announcements ("blessed events") with due dates less than nine months after a couple got married. People sue the paper, but that just fans the flames and he goes merrily along raking in money (the $90,000 a year is over $2 million in today's money). His assistant (Ruth Donnelly) is feisty and a good supporting character, handling a deluge of phone calls and cracking jokes like "You want to see Mr. Roberts? Oh, you want to SUE Mr. Roberts? The line forms on the left." Unfortunately, the scenes of him frenetically operating in the newsroom got a little monotonous despite their energy level, with the exception of his rather gruesome description of electrocution to intimidate a gangster (Allen Jenkins).

Things go especially sour when the gossip columnist reports about a desperate young woman (Isabel Jewell) who's pregnant and literally just told him she's suicidal over the idea of people finding out. Instead of making this a point of reckoning for the character, the script pays lip service to a little guilt, then has him be the hero in standing up to gangsters as well as his rival (a crooner played by Dick Powell, in his very first film). By the end I had really tired of the character and how it was playing out, hence the middling review score.

Interesting quote about TV, pretty early for 1932: "Ask him about sex appeal by television." "By television? I'll tell you right now it'll never prove a popular method."

Obscure and almost forgotten, this is a gem of the type of picture Warner Brothers did best in the 30s. Earthy, moving at a breakneck pace, packed with dialogue that snaps, crackles and pops, it is super entertainment. The Warners look and feel are everywhere, along with several key members of the studio's stock company. The humor (and there is lots of it) has a sardonic edge, much in keeping with the overall tone of the story. Lee Tracy's vivid description of life and death in the electric chair is a grisly, repulsive comedy turn. In an excellent cast, special attention to poor uncredited Isabel Jewell - perhaps just a bit more strident than the role required, but delivering an on-edge performance you will not soon forget.