Rated: NR

Ben Hecht wrote the adaptation for Sacred from the William Street magazine story detailing the experiences of a village beauty who becomes the center of a fantastic newspaper circulation stunt which justifies itself in the belief, unfounded, that the girl has only a short time to live. Hecht handles the material breezily and pungently, poking fun in typical manner of half-scorn at the newspaper publisher, his reporter, doctors, the newspaper business, phonies, suckers, and whatnot.

For added value there is tinting by Technicolor which greatly enhances its pictorial charm. The running time is only 75 minutes, making this a meaty and well-edited piece of entertainment from start to finish. There are no lagging moments.

Fredric March does the reporter behind the dizzy ride given Carole Lombard by a sucker-victimized New York which thinks she already has one foot in the grave. Walter Connolly bristles with importance from a comedy viewpoint as March's publisher-boss. Charles Winninger does the rural medico who hates newspapers but not booze.

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