Almost unwatchable (in one go at least)

I read somewhere - i think it was Empire's Movie Guide - that most films that an average of 85/90 wpm (words per minute), and that this film has 240! For an hour a half we're subjected to this machine-gun style of delivery. Why, in the name of all that is holy, is this nessecary?

I don't care if the story and the characters were good (which they were, or they at least had the potential to be), the sheer pace of the dialogue meant I had to watch this film in 10 minute doses - it was wearing me out! It was a serious detriment to the film, I thought - they could have had them talk like that in a few scenes where everyone was panicking, but for the rest of the film why couldn't they talk like normal human beings?

I can see why the film (or the original play) was remade so many times - lots of pople must have thought "there's a good story here, let's try and make a version of it where our actors won't collapse from exaustion!"

I only saw this film because I'm working my way through the Top 250 - now that I've seen it, I don't think it belongs in there, so on the one hand I hope it drops out to make way for a more deserving film (like Arsenic and Old Lace - a far superior screwball comedy) but on the one hand I kind of want it to stay in there so I won't have seen it for nothing!