The Nuisance

1933
6.6| 1h23m| G| en
Details

Fast-talker extraordinaire Tracy gives one of his quintessential wiseguy performances as a conniving ambulance chaser who falls in love with Evans, unaware she's a special investigator for a streetcar company he's repeatedly victimized.

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Reviews

Megamind To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.
Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.
Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
utgard14 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.
MikeMagi Sometimes when you run into an old, obscure movie, one of the credits will suggest whether it's worth watching. Take "The Nuisance," written for the screen by Sam and Bella Spewack, a team with a flair for sparkling dialogue whose Broadway credits include "Kiss Me Kate." In "The Nuisance," they provide Lee Tracy with the verbal firepoweer for his performance as a fast-talking, charmingly corrupt, ambulance-chasing lawyer whose pet target is the local streetcar company. With the help of Frank Morgan as a boozy medico with a gift for doctoring x-rays, he turns small accidents into big paydays. When the company hires lovely Madge Evans to entrap Tracy, the fun begins, building to a hilarious lesson in the antiquated laws of the land. (Watching one scene, I was reminded of the fact that it was still supposedly illegal to shoot rabbits from a moving elevated train in Manhattan even after all the El trains were torn down.) The result is a fast, frequently funny film with a surprisingly modern feel. In fact, despite scenes like a courtroom battle involving the fare to ride a streetcar -- five cents -- "The Nuisance" doesn't seem as outdated as the laws it satirizes
David (Handlinghandel) 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.
jaykay-10 Versatility is an attribute in any performer, but so is doing one thing exceptionally well. Perhaps if Lee Tracy's screen career had not met a premature, unfortunate ending, he and his public would have felt a need for him to play something other than the kind of role which he performed with such natural ease and remarkable skill: the brash, fast-talking, wisecracking, slithery, finger-jabbing, opportunistic, less than trustworthy (to put it mildly) rascal. As a tour de force, this picture ranks with his best, even if there may be more twists and turns of the plot than the story requires. Though Frank Morgan's poignant portrayal of an alcoholic doctor is not an altogether comfortable fit here, and Tracy's explanation of his loss of youthful ideals too pat to be convincing, the movie is consistently entertaining, with fine performances by all the supporting players aiding and abetting another memorable star turn by Lee Tracy.