The Nuisance (1933)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Whether leading a jury to find in favor of his client, getting the big scoop or telling John Barrymore that he sagged like an old woman, Lee Tracy was always someone to keep your eye on, whether you are the D.A. trying his case, the victim of his tell all journalism or even just as a member of the audience. You don't want to miss a minute of anything he says, because it seems so fresh like it wasn't written, plain spoken as only a big city smart Aleck like Tracy could say. Here, he calls boozy doctor Frank Morgan a "drunken bat", and it seems to roll off his lips as if he was the one who thought of it. If Tracy didn't ad-lib, then he must have had writers clamoring to write to him, because his delivery is superb.Tracy's character here is an attorney commonly referred to as an "ambulance chaser", and along with Morgan, his racket includes veteran trickster Charles Butterworth who gets settlements for accidents he sets up. He meets his match in the wise to his ways Madge Evans who sets him up to bring him down, getting the way information from a drunk Morgan. This leads to a confrontation where Tracy blames him for the leaks, leading to tragic consequences and tearing Evans up for her part in it. It only briefly sinks to melodrama, finding its best moments when it is comic. One of Tracy's clients is the newly widowed Greta Meyer who upsets his plans by planning to get married days afterward. "He was an old miser", Meyer says matter of factly as fiancée Herman Bing comes in. This script is right on target, even getting a dig in at Hitler, showing that the Hollywood propaganda machine was ready even just as Nazi Germany was rising. Sometimes a great film doesn't have to be excellent. It just has to have the spark to immediately gain and keep your interest.

Lee Tracy is perfect as an ambulance chaser who plagues a streetcar company with phony lawsuits that prove so successful, the business strikes back with an undercover beauty (Madge Evans).This sharply written comedy/drama takes a tragic turn at one point, and the Tracy-Evans relationship gets convincingly intense toward the end when one of the characters runs afoul of the law."The Nuisance" boasts strong performances from Tracy and Evans, with standout support from Frank Morgan as an alcoholic doctor who's Tracy's partner in unethical behavior and from Charles Butterworth as a con man.Strongly recommended to all Tracy fans.

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.

J. Phineas Stevens is THE NUISANCE, an ambulance-chasing, authority-defying, woman-ogling lawyer. Pushy & loud, he's the first at the scene of any accident, handing out his cards & demanding his clients' rights. Both charming & crooked, Stevens usually wins his court cases with street smarts & trickery. But now his powerful legal adversaries have baited a trap, using a very pretty young woman as a spy, to catch Stevens while up to his old tricks.Lee Tracy was perfectly cast in the title role of this fun, forgotten film. With his energetic, go-get-'em, in-your-face acting style, always mixed with a hint of the shady character, Tracy was ideal as talent agents, reporters or shyster lawyers. With his new stardom cemented at Warners, Tracy arrived at MGM in 1933 and immediately appeared in 5 films. He was well on his way to becoming a major star, MGM's answer to Cagney, when he had a spectacular fall from grace in 1934. He spent most of the rest of his career at minor studios, never reaching his full potential. Today he is all but forgotten, but those fortunate enough to see his films find him to be one of the most refreshing & enjoyable movie actors of the early 1930's.Here, Tracy receives good support from his co-stars: beautiful love interest Madge Evans, a girl with a secret; Charles Butterworth, funny as an accident faker; Samuel S. Hinds, John Miljan & David Landau as Tracy's enemies; Greta Meyer & Herman Bing, hilarious as an amorous Teutonic twosome. Virginia Cherrill has a tiny part as one of Tracy's alluring clients. Movie mavens will spot Nat Pendleton as a street car guard. And Frank Morgan is nothing short of wonderful as the pathetic old alcoholic doctor who loves Tracy like a son and helps him with his schemes.