Blessed Event (1932) User Reviews (19)

If you want to know what "chutzpah" is, watch Lee Tracy in action

[imogensara_smith · 8/10 · 3 May 2007]

Lee Tracy is one of the lost joys of the pre-Code era. He mostly played newspapermen (he was Hildy Johnson in the original Broadway production of The Front Page) with a sideline in press agents, and whatever his racket he epitomized the brash, fast-talking, crafty, stop-at-nothing operator. He makes Cagney look bashful, skating around in perpetual, delirious overdrive, gesticulating and spitting out his lines like an articulate machine-gun, wheedling and needling and swearing on his mother's life as he lies through his teeth. He was homely and scrawny, with a raspy nasal voice, and he always played cocky, devious scoundrels, yet you find yourself rooting for him and reveling in his sheer energy and shameless moxie. Audiences of the early thirties loved his snappy style and irrepressible irreverence; they loved him because he was nobody's fool. He's a rare example of a character actor—that guy who always plays reporters—who through force of personality, and the luck of embodying the zeitgeist, had a brief reign as a star.

In BLESSED EVENT he plays Alvin Roberts, a character based so closely on Walter Winchell that Winchell could have sued--but he probably loved it. When we first meet Alvin, he's a lowly kid from the ad department who has been given a chance to sub for a gossip columnist and gotten in trouble for filling the column with dirt—primarily announcements of who is "anticipating a blessed event" without the proper matrimonial surroundings. Soon he's become an all-powerful celebrity and made scores of enemies, including a gangster willing to bump him off to shut him up. There's a subplot about Alvin's ongoing feud with a smarmy crooner, Bunny Harmon, played by Dick Powell. Anyone who finds Powell in his crooning days repellent will appreciate Tracy's merciless vendetta. Actually, I think Powell is being deliberately irritating here—even in Busby Berkeley films he's not so egregiously perky and fey. He does sing one good song, "Too Many Tears" (a theme throughout the film), and a wonderfully witless radio jingle for "Shapiro's Shoes."

Alvin's standard greeting is, "What do you know that I don't?" The answer is nothing—at least not for long. But he's surrounded by worthy foils. Ruth Donnelly is both tart and peppery as Alvin's harried secretary ("You want to see Mr. Roberts? Oh, you want to sue Mr. Roberts. The line forms on the left.") Allen Jenkins, who keeps saying he's from Chicago even though his Brooklyn accent could be cut with a steak knife, plays a mug sent by his gangster boss to threaten Roberts. In a mind-blowing scene, Alvin terrifies the tough guy with a graphic, horrifying description of death in the electric chair. Tracy plays this monologue with unholy gusto; if you're not opposed to the death penalty, you will be after this. There's a funny scene in which Jenkins has to pass time with Alvin's sweet, clueless mother, who is continually thwarted in her desire to listen to the Bunny Harmon Hour on the radio. The usual suspects fill out the cast, those character actors whose very predictability is their glory: Ned Sparks the perennial gloomy pickle-puss; Frank McHugh the perennial hapless nebbish; Jack La Rue the perennial menacing hoodlum. Director Roy Del Ruth (who also helmed the wildly entertaining BLONDE CRAZY) keeps BLESSED EVENT going like a popcorn-maker; the sly, outrageous zingers just keep coming.

Lee Tracy's career never recovered after he was fired from MGM for a drunken indiscretion committed in Mexico. But I doubt he could have lasted long as a star after the Code anyway, since his films are gleefully amoral, frequently demonstrating that crime—or at least lying, cheating and riding roughshod over other people's feelings—pays. Every Lee Tracy vehicle contains a moment when he realizes he's gone too far, usually when the girl he fancies bursts into tears and tells him off. (Here he crosses the line in a big way when he betrays a desperate young woman who begs him not to reveal her pregnancy.) He looks suddenly abashed, protesting, "Gee, if I'd known you felt that way…I'd give anything not to have done that…Baby, sugar, listen…!" But two second later he's back to his old scheming ways. A reformed Lee Tracy would be like Fred Astaire with arthritis. Not that he isn't a good guy deep down…well, maybe. He has charm, anyway: an impish grin and twinkly eyes and boyish blond hair, like Tom Sawyer crossed with a Tammany Hall fixer. His reactions to sentimentality—to Dick Powell's cloying tenor or Franchot Tone in BOMBSHELL telling Jean Harlow he'd like to run barefoot through her hair—are delicious. He's salt and vinegar, no sweetening. In BLESSED EVENT Alvin has a fit when an editorial calls him the "nadir" of American journalism. Lee Tracy, on the other hand, represents is the zenith of the American newspaper movie.

A Comic View of Walter Winchell

[theowinthrop · 8/10 · 4 October 2005]

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.

Quite enjoyable...

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 15 November 2011]

I was a bit torn on this one--I wasn't sure whether to give it a 7 or an 8. Either way, it's a very good little film. Apparently, James Cagney was supposed to originally star in the movie but Lee Tracy eventually got the role. This film is a very good fit for Tracy, as he was the only guy at Warner Brothers who could talk as fast as Cagney---or even faster! Tracy plays a Walter Winchell-like muckraking journalist. His scruples are minimal and he seems very willing to stretch the truth in order to tell a good story---even if it means hurting a few people in the process. Because of this, his fiancé isn't sure whether she should marry him and she begs Tracy to find another line of work. But, it's obvious Tracy LOVES the work--he lives, eats and breathes this sort of scandal. Along the way, there are a few juicy stories you see in the film--including a funny one with Allen Jenkins as a mobster and a distraught pregnant lady who is at her wits end.

The film works well because of its style and fast-paced script. A few very choice scenes also spice things up. The best is Tracy as he's giving a VERY vivid account of what it's like to be electrocuted--as Jenkins recoils in horror. My favorite was the cop at the end after he caught a shooter--seeing him slap the guy around was very funny (even if it does violate the crook's Constitutional rights). Plus, I saw one scene where Ned Sparks actually looked like he was about to smile! All in all, an incredibly breezy and enjoyable little film.

By the way, although the ending and overall message is very different, another great film about muckraking journalism is "Five Star Final" (1931) and it sure appears as if Warner Brothers was strongly inspired by this previous film to make "Blessed Event".

Just About Perfect

[fowler1 · 25 August 2000]

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.

A parody of personalities and the times

[SimonJack · 7/10 · 12 July 2015]

"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.

A term still in use today

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 21 August 2014]

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.

In the Beginnings of the Tabloids

[ricardojorgeramalho · 7/10 · 11 December 2022]

A foray into the early days of tabloid and sensationalist journalism in Hoover's America.

Lee Tracy delivers a convincing performance as Alvin Roberts, the self-proclaimed inventor of pink journalism, which promotes and feeds on the scandal and reputations of the rich and famous. His rise is meteoric as newspapers realize that rumor and controversy sell.

Less happy is the intersection of this interesting exposition of the intricacies of journalistic populism with romantic and musical comedy, which imposes an improbable happy ending, accompanied by the voice and orchestra of Dick Powell.

If Alvin's use of the radio and its communicative power to broaden his influence is a plausible consequence of the success of his polemical style, the attempt to turn that connection into a musical seems to me to be misplaced and reduces the relevance of the theme.

Not The Nadir

[Ron Oliver · 10/10 · 5 April 2002]

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.

so many fun hollywood names...

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 7 December 2018]

Dick Powell is wearing waaaaaay too much make-up in this one, but it IS a pretty early talkie, so they were just getting used to things. Powell is Bunny Harmon, the very FIRST film role for Powell! Some fun character actors in here as well... Alan Jenkins, Ned Sparks, and Edwin Maxwell.. they would all go on to be HUGE players in hollywood films. Lee Tracy is the gossip columnist, who knows something (many things! ) that people don't want published, but might print it anyway, no matter what the consequences for those involved. The story of someone's personal troubles, put into print, for everyone to see. Mary Brian is the girlfriend Gladys, who clearly has a conscience, and knows right from wrong. and the mob is involved. it doesn't pay to publish too much information. An early version of Sweet Smell of Success. (Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis...) Directed by Roy DelRuth. Had started in the silents and moved into the talkies. A couple songs by Powell, who could belt out a good song when necessary. was so good in Postman Always Rings Twice.

Comedic Tour-de-Force

[broadway_melody_girl · 10/10 · 16 March 2008]

The main reason people I know won't watch classic movies is because they "move too slow". Everyone I know this all old films are super-long, slow moving affairs with no action. I can't wait to show them Blessed Event.

Blessed Event (1932) is a terrifically fast, hilarious pre-code comedy with it's main character based on 30's tabloid writer Walter Winchell. Lee Tracy plays Alvin Roberts, the main character, who runs the "dirtiest" gossip column in New York, but events ensue that may have to cause him to give up his column.

If you have an opportunity to watch this amazing movie, do so. If you are already a fan of classics you will love it, and even if you've never watched an old movie, this is a great movie for anyone, if you thought all old movies were squeaky clean, slow, boring, and innocent, you're in for a surprise.

blessed event

[mossgrymk · 7/10 · 18 April 2023]

Pretty good cynical newspaper movie (a staple of 30s Hollywood). Not as gloriously dark as "His Girl Friday", the best of the genre, or as flat out funny as "Libeled Lady", the second best, (and as a portrait of Walter Winchell it's considerably beneath "Sweet Smell of Success"), but director Roy Del Ruth provides a good balance between the two moods while keeping the pace properly zippy. Lee Tracy, of course, is deep in his comfort zone playing a wisecracking heel. Also good are Ruth Donelly as his equally mordant assistant, Alan Jenkins as a gangster terrified by Tracy's description of the electric chair (the film's best scene), Emma Dunn as Tracy's sweet, dim mom and Dick Powell nicely satirizing the syrupy songs of his mercifully short lived crooner period. Would have liked more of Ned Sparks and his sharp, curdled jabs, though, and the ending is way too sappy/happy for this most curmudgeonly of genres, especially one made pre code. B minus.

Lee Tracy writes things that are vile while Dick Powell is mute but for a song and a smile

[AlsExGal · 9/10 · 17 July 2016]

This is Lee Tracy in a definitive role for him in a definitive Warner's precode. Tracy had been a hit in quite a few films over at Warner's but if I was going to recommend just one film that he did that best displayed his fast talking talent, it would probably be this one.

Tracy plays Alvin Roberts, a guy who worked in the ad department at a newspaper until someone with a regular column goes on vacation (Ned Sparks as George Moxley). Roberts is given a chance to do the column for a couple of weeks and turns it into a mud slinging piece. He is constantly writing bits about how Mr and Mrs. X are anticipating a "blessed event", even if the event is in October and the wedding was in July. Believe it or not, just the discussion of pregnancy in the 1930's was taboo, even though, as Alvin says, the Blessed Events eventually turn into babies, and who doesn't like babies? Circulation soars, and when Moxley returns he finds that he is now the "pet editor" and Alvin keeps the column.

Ruth Donnely plays Alvin's fast talking secretary who answers phones ringing off the hook threatening lawsuits. As she says, "the line forms on the left". Alvin gets in trouble with a local gangster he is always writing about, and when one of his muscle men (Allen Jenkins as Frankie Wells) comes up to threaten him, Alvin turns the tables and scares him by getting Frankie to threaten him with the Dictaphone turned on, then Alvin describes the electric chair to Wells in hilarious detail - who else but Lee Tracy could make the electric chair funny? - and even charms Wells when he shows up at Alvin's apartment and meets his mom. At any rate, Wells ends up becoming a source of information for Alvin.

Soon Alvin has radio spots and with his column and appearances is pulling down 90K a year in 1932!. Still in spite of this hardened front Alvin lives at home with mom and drinks milk. Now all through this Alvin has a running feud going in his column with crooner Bunny Harmon (Dick Powell). This is Powell's first credited role, and apparently Harmon got Alvin fired from another paper years ago, so now Alvin goes around talking about what a bad singer Harmon is and showing up in "Alvin free zones" that Harmon has set up. But here's the thing - Dick Powell has no dialogue until the very end, and then it is very generic. Perhaps WB was just trying out Powell as a songbird to see if he went over with audiences.

So we have several stories here that begin to collide - Alvin's love for a female reporter (Mary Brian) who does not like how he is making his living, the gangster who can't figure out how Alvin knows his every move, Alvin's feud with Bunny Harmon, and one piece of dirt that Alvin dished out that he wishes that he could take back because it ruined a girl's life. How will all of this work out? Watch and find out. Highly recommended.

Tell your friends about this one

[jaykay-10 · 18 October 2000]

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.

A Showdown Between Lee Tracy and Ned Sparks - Pre-Code Heaven!!!

[kidboots · 10/10 · 16 February 2012]

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".

You must have been a beautiful headline....

[mark.waltz · 9/10 · 17 April 2014]

Having a baby? With or without the benefit of marriage? Is the proud papa somebody not listed on the marriage certificate? If reporter Lee Tracy had actually interviewed perspective mothers, those are the type of questions that he'd ask in this brittle pre-code comedy about the lack of journalistic integrity that has fast-talker Tracy spoofing the position of scandal reporter.

It is obvious that many people want to help contribute to the column, but nobody wants to be mentioned in it. Gossip columns and scandal sheets have been involved in the field of journalism ever since the first newspaper was created because as everybody knows, the public demands dirt, and they don't even care if it's true.

This is a surprisingly excellent study of one man's immorality in his attempts to rise to the top, and he doesn't seem to care who gets hurt. Of course, he gets too big for his britches, and when he reveals the truth about a single radio singer's impending motherhood in the newspaper (after promising not to), he creates more enemies amongst the criminal element who are involved in the paternal side of the story.

Tracy was one of the oddest leading men in the early 30's, but he was excellent for pre-code, remaining a star into the 1940's with fast- talking con-men and scoundrels in a series of low budget programmers. Ruth Donnelly is a riot as the newspaper's secretary, with Ned Sparks delightfully cranky as a fellow reporter. In his film debut, Dick Powell adds a realistic backdrop as a nightclub singer whose songs surround the scandalous atmosphere with period authenticity. To utilize recent events that attracted public attention, Tracy even mentions the Ruth Snyder electrocution, going into details of the last hours of the victim. Sparks makes an observation about a new medium called television which he is convinced will never take off.

Among some of the witty dialog in this brisk screenplay is a conversation between Tracy and Donnelly, commenting on a poor Jewish woman who just called to report her pregnancy. He asks her, "Do you know how many Jews there are in New York?" Without batting an eyelash (but raising her eyebrows in mock disgust), she replies, "Oh, there must be dozens." Sparks, in a nightclub scene, notices a drunk and sarcastically snorts, "He must be doing it for the wife and kidneys." Emma Dunn, as Tracy's doting mother without an ounce of gossip in her, tells perennial dumbbell Allen Jenkins that her husband passed away ten years ago. "Bumped off?", Jenkins asks, and with absolute innocence, Dunn replies, "Yes. Off a ladder."

Broadway Thru a Keyhole

[lugonian · 9/10 · 30 December 2018]

BLESSED EVENT (Warner Brothers, 1932), directed by Roy Del Ruth, isn't a motion picture set at a maternity ward. Yet, Warner Brothers did produce a maternity ward/hospital melodrama titled LIFE BEGINS (1932) starring Loretta Young, both films that could easily stir up confusion among classic movie lovers. Based on the play by Manuel Seff and Forrest Wilson, this dramatic story with comedic pre-code overtones takes place in a newspaper office where one lone gossip columnist obtains enough news unfit to print. Though known mostly to film historians as the movie debut of future singing star, Dick Powell (1904-1963), BLESSED EVENT virtually belongs to Lee Tracy from start to finish. Following the success of Warners' own FIVE STAR FINAL (1931) starring Edward G. Robinson, where story dealt with tabloid story ruining the lives of a family, BLESSED EVENT goes even further with less dramatics placing tabloids and scandal on Broadway fixtures to help boost up circulation.

Set at New York City's Daily Express newspaper, Alvin Roberts (Lee Tracy) rises from the advertising department to gossip columnist on well-known personalities while George Moxley (Ned Sparks), is on vacation. Upon his return, Moxley finds circulation at an all time high due to Alvin's tell-all columns. Regardless of libel suits involved, Louis Miller (Walter Walker), its publisher, allows Alvin to continue what he is doing. Alvin, who lives at home with his mother (Emma Dunn), is loved by Gladys Price (Mary Brian), a fellow reporter, who disapproves of his newfound popularity ranging to his "Spilling the Dirt" articles to radio broadcasts where he and Bunny Harmon (Dick Powell), a crooner Alvin dislikes, carry on their feuds over the air. Alvin's "Blessed Event" tabloids go too far when he finds himself threatened by Frankie Wells (Allen Jenkins), a Chicago gangster hired by his mobster boss, Sam Gobel (Edwin Maxwell) to get him to stop writing articles about the well known "Broadway Public Enemy." Guilt sets in when Alvin's promise not to expose Dorothy Lane (Isabel Jewell), a Broadway singer of the Midnight Revue, about her "blessed event without benefit of clergy," goes to print, causing Dorothy to lose both her job and respect from her mother in Texas. As Alvin resumes destroying personal lives of others, Gladys fears for Alvin after discovering his life might be destroyed by gangsters.

The supporting players, consisting mostly Warner Brothers stock players, consist of Ruth Donnelly (Miss Stevens, Alvin's wisecracking secretary); Robert Emmett O'Connor (Detective Jim); and Frank McHugh (coming late into the story) as Reilly, a press agent from the Gazette. Look for familiar faces of Charles Lane, Harold Waldridge, Jack LaRue and George Chandler in smaller roles.

For Dick Powell's first movie, he does more singing than participating in the non-musical segments. Coming 30 minutes into the start of the story, Powell introduces himself by singing the film's best song of "How Could You Say 'No" When All the World is Saying Yes" on WYNY Broadcasting Station. Other songs include "Waiting for a Call From You" (sung by Isabel Jewell); while Powell croons to "Wear Shapiro Shoes," "Too Many Tears," and "I'm Making Hay in the Moonlight" at the Chateau Harmony Night Club. While Powell's first song is impressive, the others that follow are either overdone or overripe, lacking the natural singing style and appeal found in his later musicals. Seeing how youthful Powell appears here, it's hard to imagine he's that same actor who reinvented himself as the unshaven tough guy detective Philip Marlowe in MURDER MY SWEET (RKO, 1944). Mary Brian, Tracy's co-star, is no stranger to the newspaper movies, having already appeared in the highly successful screen adaptation to the 1928 stage production of THE FRONT PAGE (United Artists, 1931) opposite Pat O'Brien, also gives a commendable performance. Isabel Jewell (also in movie debut), in a sizable role as the doomed show girl, surprisingly does not get any casting credit for her impressive performance. As usual, both Ruth Donnelly and Ned Sparks offer great humor for their puns and verbal wisecracks.

For anyone viewing BLESSED EVENT as a curiosity in watching Dick Powell making his blessed event in the motion picture industry, many may tend to forget he's in the movie at all after watching the dynamic performance given by Lee Tracy in what's often categorized as his best movie role. In typical Warner Brothers fashion, BLESSED EVENT moves swiftly during its entire 79 minute length. Seldom broadcast on commercial television in the 1960s and 70s, BLESSED EVENT later achieved rediscovery years later either on a video cassette release in the 1990s or cable television's Turner Classic Movies. Sit back and enjoy this one. (***)

Typical Lee Tracy so typically terrific.

[houndspirit · 28 June 2000]

Fast paced and very clever Lee Tracy vehicle playing a Walter W. type gossip columnist with a grudge against "crooners"generally and one in particular played by Dick Powell. Definitely precode with dialogue and subject matter that would have been totally rejected just a few years later. One scene culminates in a phrase spoken by Tracy's"mother" containg a word that rocked the film world at the end of Gone With the Wind. Among other wonderful sequences watch for Tracy's evocation of a trip to the "hot seat", and Dick Powell's rendition of a singing commercial extolling the qualities of"Shapiro's Shoes". With Shapiro himeself beaming at his side. Do catch this film also a similar effort also with Tracey "The Half Naked Truth".

The funniest movie ever made

[rick_7 · 7 June 2012]

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.

Blessed

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 15 July 2022]

Lee Tracy made a name for himself playing fast-talking newspaper men. It started on Broadway in the first version of 'The Front Page.' Although he did not bring his performance as Hildy Johnson to the big screen (the part went to Pat O'Brien), Mr. Tracy did manage to recreate Hildy in a series of other roles in motion pictures. Probably his turn as Alvin Roberts in Warner Brothers' BLESSED EVENT (1932) is his best.

The set-up is as follows...Tracy is an ad copy writer who fills in for a regular columnist (Ned Sparks) and proves himself so popular that he's assigned the job full-time. He is assisted by a sardonic secretary (Ruth Donnelly) who helps him meet his deadlines each day. Tracy's retitled column-- now called 'Spilling the Dirt'-- increases the circulation of The Express. He often includes sensational tidbits about the city's most renowned movers and shakers.

A fixture of the column is a blessed events section which informs readers of expected births. A few of the pregnancies that are reported have occurred outside wedlock, and this gives the story some of its scandalous precode elements.

There are several subplots. One involves a gangster (Edwin Maxwell) who wants Tracy out of the way because Tracy's been publishing sordid details about his personal life. Related to this is the fact that a nightclub singer (Isabel Jewell) is going to have the gangster's baby, even though he already has a wife and children.

Two other plots involve Tracy's relationship with his kind-hearted ma (Emma Dunn). As well as his ongoing relationship with a more prestigious female writer (Mary Brian), who typically objects to his brash definition of journalism.

Oh, and there's a humorous rivalry between Tracy and Dick Powell (in his motion picture debut). Powell plays a Rudy Vallee-type crooner that has a lot of adoring fans, including Tracy's mother!

The dialogue is delivered in classic rapid-fire style. And we have an increasing sense of what columnists do to get ahead during the rise of tabloid journalism. A lot of the more salient points about individual privacy versus the public's right to know are still relevant today.