Libeled Lady (1936)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply Perfect

Overrated

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

This film was originally devised as a starring vehicle for Marion Davies and William Powell. Powell had co-starred in Davies' 1922 mega-hit WHEN KNIGHTHOOD WAS IN FLOWER. The roles of Gladys and Warren were originally supporting roles. After Davies left MGM in 1934, the script was altered to beef up the roles of Gladys and Warren to take advantage of Jean Harlow's rise to stardom. Rosalind Russell was then seen as Connie, but the role eventually went to Myrna Loy to take advantage of the success of THE THIN MAN.Story has a not-so-ditzy heiress (Loy) threatening a lawsuit against a newspaper that printed false stories about her. The editor (Spencer Tracy) realizes the lawsuit will ruin the paper and so devises a plan to trap Loy with a fake suitor (Powell) and expose her for real. Part of the plot is to have Powell "married" to Harlow so the paper can play up Loy as a homewrecker.Of course Loy turns out to be a thoughtful and decent lady and Powell (as the cad out to trap her) falls for her. In the meantime, Harlow sets out to make Tracy jealous by pretending to fall for Powell, but then she does for real.As the film nears its finale, all sorts of complications and truths come out as the four stars confront each other. Marvelous comedy would have been a showcase for Marion Davies, but Loy, Powell, Tracy, and Harlow are all just fine. Walter Connolly co-stars as the dithering father. Others include Cora Witherspoon, Billy Benedict, Hal K. Dawson, George Chandler, Charley Grapewin, Bunny Beatty, and Spencer Charters.

Jack Conway directed this high society comedy that stars Spencer Tracy as Warren Haggerty, a big city newspaper editor who has been hit by a multi-million dollar libel suit by Connie Allenbury(played by Myrna Loy) when she is accused of being a marriage breaker. Haggerty then gets the idea to counter this by recruiting noted heel Bill Chandler(played by William Powell) and his frustrated fiancée Gladys(played by Jean Harlow) to pose as a married couple so that Connie can be enticed to fall for Bill, thus proving she is what the paper claimed. Naturally things don't go as planned... OK comedy has four big stars to put over an unlikely premise. Reasonably funny, though that's all.

Maybe I'm too practical. I love comedies, especially the ones that don't try so hard to be funny. It's when they defy (unwritten) laws of logic that they start to lose me. The high website rating for this picture sucked me in, and I liked it. It was amusing in spots and, folks, let me tell you, it doesn't get much better than this as far as casting goes; Powell, Loy, Tracy and Harlow - are you kidding me?The stars tried their best, but the plot was against them. For my taste there was too much contrivance and over-the-top plot devices. I know, I know, everyone liked it, awarded high ratings and, truth be told, there were some laughs, but it was just too cute by half. And the whole concept of screwball comedy eludes me, so I rated it a 6 because I thought the cast was great.

"Libeled Lady" is a screwball spree for its four superbly cast stars. Spencer Tracy as a newspaper editor so devoted to his scandal sheet that he's a no-show at his own wedding...for the 20th time. Jean Harlow as his brash, brassy would-be bride. William Powell as a lady's man hired to con an heiress into dropping a libel suit that could put Tracy's paper out of business. And Myrna Loy as the cool deb who'd like just once to be loved for herself, not her father's fortune. As the story zips along from a trans-Atlantic voyage to an "arranged" marriage to a lunatic lesson in fly-fishing, the laughs and surprises are non-stop.