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.

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.

No publicity agent could have created a more high flying life for Lee Tracy than the one he was living. An "actors" actor and born to play in those very racy pre-coders, he first found fame in the hit play that combined gangsters and showgirls - "Broadway". It ran for 603 performances. He then played Hildy Johnson in "The Front Page" and it was claimed he never missed a performance. It was only a matter of time before Hollywood, always on the lookout for new and different personalities beckoned. He could have been MGM's answer to James Cagney ( with a lot of humour thrown in) but his high living caught up with him and by 1934 the studio were washing their hands of him.Only in the early thirties could they make a comedy about "ambulance chasers" - and make it side splitting - people knew how to laugh then. "Ambulance chaser" shyster lawyer, J. Phineas Stevens wants to uphold the rights of every "forgotten man and forgotten women" - even if they want to be left forgotten!! With the help of an always intoxicated doctor, Prescott (Frank Morgan) and his pal "Floppy" Phil (Charles Butterworth) who is always willing to step in front of traffic, a bottle of Mercurochrome on hand, they stage accidents, always arrive first at real ones with a bunch of paid "eye witnesses" ready to swear that the drivers were doing the wrong thing. Stevens finds pretty Dorothy Mason (Madge Evans) sprawled at the site of a train wreck. He thinks she is just another pretty victim - in reality she has been hired by John Calhoun (John Miljan) head of a street car company, to try and find evidence to get Stevens disbarred. After the death of Prescott, she realises that Calhoun is just another mercenary corrupt official.The story line wouldn't fill a page but Tracy's lines have the rapidity of a machine gun - I found I was laughing non stop. Although Morgan is excellent, the pathos of his playing does seem a bit out of place. Madge Evans, as usual, makes a pretty but intelligent romantic diversion and Charles Butterworth is just wonderful as Steven's slippery sidekick. You may recognise Virginia Cherrill (she was the blind girl in Chaplin's "City Lights") as the flirtatious Miss Rutherford and Nat Pendleton as a dopey street car conductor brought before the court for stealing nickels and dimes.Highly, Highly Recommended.

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.