The Nuisance

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scenes like a courtroom battle involving the fare to ride a streetcar -- five cents -- "The Nuisance" doesn't seem as outdated as the laws it satirizes