Richard Burin Blessed Event (Roy Del Ruth, 1932) is arguably the greatest comedy film of all time, with "that kid from advertising" Alvin Roberts (Lee Tracy) commandeering his newspaper's society section, and turning it into the filthiest gossip column in America. But his take-no-prisoners journalism – and brilliantly abrasive persona – makes him a couple of powerful enemies: crooner Bunny Harmon (a hilariously peppy Dick Powell in his screen debut) and gangster Sam Gobel (Edwin Maxwell). Tracy was the crystallisation of everything great about Pre-Code movies – those fast- paced, scurrilous, say-anything films made before the censorship crackdown of 1934 – and this is his definitive vehicle. He's just hysterically funny, spewing a constant stream of wisecracks and epithets, before a second half that demands every ounce of talent he had: Roberts throbbing with ebullience, self-loathing and finally righteous anger, as he tries to atone for the one time he took it too far. The script does everything right, circumventing a potential slip into melodrama with dismissive ease, and the supporting cast is truly spectacular, with each and every character – from Ruth Donnelly's acerbic secretary to Ned Sparks' pet correspondent and Frank McHugh's ineffective press agent – given something memorable to do. Really it's just one great scene after another, but there are several that are simply sensational.The centrepiece is the terrifying, perilously dark set-piece in which Tracy talks mobster Allen Jenkins through a trip to the chair. He shoves a picture of Ruth Snyder in Jenkins' face, before navigating the henchman through a florid, impossibly graphic description of state- sanctioned death, every part of his body seeming to contort as he dominates the screen. You would die with one finger twitching upwards, Tracy concludes with a shaking voice, "to where you're… not… going". It doesn't sound like much fun, but somehow it's exhilarating, because I've never seen anyone act like that before: it's neither conventional, nor stagy, nor necessarily naturalistic, it's just dynamic. There's also Tracy being called a "nadir" – a shoo-in for any "top ten funniest scenes" list – his conversation with his mum about Bunny Harmon (she's a big fan), a blistering showdown with Gobel in a café, and a bit in a hospital where a policeman keeps slapping a gunman in the face. Director Del Ruth has a cult following nowadays, on the strength of these breakneck early pictures he specialised in at Warner, and his handling couldn't be better. But it's Tracy's show all the way, this 78-minute jolt of comic genius spotlighting his superb timing and singular style of acting – his high-pitched delivery, gesticulating fingers, monstrous self-confidence and gaggle of outrageous vocal trills combining to exalting effect. He's astonishing, and so is Blessed Event.

kidboots Movies don't come much better than this. Photoplay called it a "pippin" and "what talkie movies do best". Reporter George Moxley (Ned Sparks - "I feel like a stranded dogfish on the Barnegat shore" and no, he doesn't say that in this movie) comes back from holidays to find his column replacement Alvin Roberts (Tracy at his smart alecky best) is putting the newspaper back in circulation due to his muck raking column which predicts "blessed events" before they even happen!!! Almost one step ahead of him is his secretary (I just love Ruth Donnelly) whose job is largely taken up with diverting callers who are out for his blood and smoothing over libel suits ("we had two this week")!!! Roberts keeps his column and Moxley is given "Pets" - "if your pooch ever needs a midwife - call on me"!!!Mary Brian, who had the title of the "sweetest girl in pictures" proved that she was as she portrayed Alvin's long suffering girl, Gladys. In real life she was romantically linked with Dick Powell, who made his debut in this movie as the ego driven crooner, Bunny Harmon - similar to his real personality as Brian commented "he liked the ladies"!!Alvin comes unstuck (as Gladys always predicted) when a high profile singer, Dorothy Lane (Isabel Jewel from the original Broadway play) comes to plead with him not to print the story of her upcoming "blessed event" - she is not married but the man is. Alvin promises not to but speedily forgets as his inflated ego dreams of nationwide syndication. Jewel has a couple of big scenes and she plays them for all she is emotionally worth - you won't forget her pleadings. Of course Gladys is disgusted at his callous behaviour and calls their romance off.Allen Jenkins also plays one of the callers with murder on his mind but is persuaded to put his gun away in a stunning scene where Alvin holds centre stage in describing exactly what it is like to go to the electric chair. It sounds off putting but Tracy just dazzles!! Jenkins is a hired goon of sleazy Sam Gobell (Edwin Maxwell) who, as the movie comes to an end, just happens to be revealed as Dorothy's lover. Add to the mix Emma Dunn as Alvin's sweet mother, who loves nothing better than listening to the Bunny Harmon radio hour. Alvin, on the other hand, hates crooners and is over the moon when he can finally expose him as Herman Bunn!!!I can't understand why Isabel Jewel (who in real life was desperately in love with Lee Tracy) never became a star. Maybe she was just too versatile. "Blessed Event" was one of her first films and you just knew, when she entered the newsroom with a gun, there was going to be an intensely dramatic scene. Another memorable part she had was as the frightened "B" girl in "Marked Woman" and again as the almost inarticulate little seamstress riding to the guillotine in "A Tale of Two Cities".

theowinthrop At the start of BLESSED EVENT, Ned Sparks is returning from a vacation. He is the columnist who writes the society/gossip column at the newspaper. He left the column in the hands of his assistant, figuring that there was nothing outlandish that could happen. Sparks is soon sputtering, as he is asked by the newspaper editor to accept a new assignment writing obituaries. It seems that the assistant, Lee Tracy, has redesigned the column. Instead of the staid, boring columns giving the comings and goings of polite society (what boats they took to Europe, who is vacationing in Florida or the West Coast), he is telling of all the naughty things these people are up to. In particular, if he hears of a rumor that some prominent people are having a little baby out of wedlock, he prints the rumor (carefully mentioning it as a rumor - to avoid libel suits) as a "Blessed Event". Hence the film's title.Tracy keeps Ruth Donelly, Sparks secretary, as his own. He makes the column a really successful one, just as Walter Winchell did in real life in the 1920s. Winchell, who was one of the top gossip columnists of the 1920s - 1950s (his leading rivals were probably Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons, and Sheila Graham - but they were basically connected with Hollywood personalities only, while Winchell included politicians, writers, artists, Broadway figures, socialites, and gangsters). Winchell knew many people - he even got involved in criminal history, when he was instrumental in the surrender of Louis Lepke Buchalter (head of "Murder, Inc.") to the authorities in 1939. Winchell's reputation is not very clean these days - he could be vicious if he did not like the politics or personality of one of his subjects. He would be ferociously anti-Communist in the 1940s and 1950s, although he also was anti-Nazi in the war years as well. The character of the unscrupulous Hunsekker in SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (the Burt Lancaster role) is based on Winchell.This film was made in his early years as a columnist, so Tracy plays him for laughs, and even makes him a bit of a crusader. He does pursue Dick Powell, a popular radio crooner, rather extremely. This is because he knows Powell is a phony, and Tracy does not like crooners. Later, though, it turns out that Tracy's mother does like Powell, and one wonders if that is the key to Tracy's feelings. On the other hand, he is leading a public spirited crusade against a crooked mobster and construction company head, Edwin Maxwell. That does raise our estimation of Tracy a bit.But his methods are always questionable. Maxwell tries to frighten Tracy into silence, sending his henchman Allan Jenkins to threaten him. Tracy makes a cylinder copy of a confession by Jenkins to a murder, and after making sure the cylinder has been taken away to safety, frightens Jenkins by telling him what he has on him, and reminding him of the death of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair in 1928. His morality is also tested, when Isobel Elsom comes to him with some personally shameful information, and Tracy has to decide if he should keep quiet or use it in his column.The speed of the film, the pungency of the dialog and its humor make it worth an "8" out of a possible "10". Tracy's performance reminds us of how wonderful an actor he was, and makes his odd career misfortune all the sadder to think about for what could have been a great career rather than a fine one.

fowler1 This isn't the first time I've raved about Roy del Ruth's Warners work prior to the emergence of the Hays Office, but it needs to be restated: few directors had as sure a hand with fast-paced, cynical comedy as Del Ruth. And, when teamed with the equally forgotten (and equally inspired) comedian Lee Tracy, what results is one of the best comedies of the 30s, as funny and audacious today as then. Tracy (who came West to Hollywood after originating the Hildy Johnson role in THE FRONT PAGE on Broadway) was the wisecrack-slinger all others are measured against; here he's so good, so inspired at mixing verbal and physical comedy, you'll be wondering how it's possible his career didn't soar for 25 years. (Besides his heavy drinking, which couldn't have helped him, he earned the wrath of Louis B Mayer during the shooting of VIVA VILLA by urinating on the Mexican army from his hotel balcony, effectively ending his career as a leading man. Or so the legend has it.) This is probably his best film, playing a Winchell-like columnist named Alvin Roberts, and Tracy plays him with such cheerful unscrupulousness you might almost forgot what a rat the real Winchell was. But this is pre-Code Warners, where even an unprincipled cur could be a hero so long as he scraped bottom with zest and pluck; don't be surprised at the many one-liners and situations that would become taboo in three years time: abortions, adultery, homosexuality and ethnicity are all fair game for BLESSED EVENT's satirical arrows, and only an insufferable prude would stifle his laughter. Not until Preston Sturges played chicken with the Hays Office in the early 40s would such darkly funny farce be allowed on the screen again. Keep an eye out for this one and prepare to become a Lee Tracy fan for life. As usual, Del Ruth's direction is dead on the money, while never calling attention to itself.