This is How Movies Should Be Made

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

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.

This movie features Hollywood royalty in 1936: Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, William Powell, and Spencer Tracy – that's quite a cast. And it's an interesting premise: Loy is the daughter of a rich businessman who is suing Spencer Tracy's newspaper for libel. Tracy is about to get married to Harlow, but puts off the wedding in order to deal with that, and turns to Powell to 'make it go away'. Their plan is to have Powell get on a ship crossing the ocean that he knows Loy and her father will be on, seduce her into getting into a compromising position, and then have someone burst in on them so that they can threaten her with a suit of their own. To make that work, Powell first gets married to Harlow, so that Loy would be subject to an "alienation of affection" lawsuit (a law that has since been abolished in most but not all states). Harlow isn't happy, but goes along with that because of Tracy's predicament, and because she knows she can later get a divorce.Not surprisingly, things don't go as planned. I loved the banter between Loy and Powell, as she dislikes him at the outset, and suspects he's scheming at something, she's just not sure what. The fishing trip she and her father take him on has some priceless slapstick comedy from Powell, and it's fun to see Loy out there fishing. Things get complicated as Harlow begins falling for Powell, and the movie finishes strong, with a nice twist in what is a great final scene. The movie was worthy of its nomination for Best Picture, but it was in a year when another Powell/Loy vehicle would win it ("The Great Ziegfeld"). It's a bit odd to me that it's considered a "screwball comedy"; I don't think that's the right designation at all, but it's fun, will make you smile, and is definitely worth watching.

We all have our biases concerning favorite actors and actresses. The more of I see of Myrna Loy and William Powell, the more they impress me, and Libeled Lady doesn't disappoint. However, I feel Spencer Tracy was miscast; I didn't find him very funny in this movie. And as for Jean Harlow, she was at times amusing, but after awhile her overacting got under my skin. I agree with one reviewer that at times she was behaving like a gangster's moll. However, her evolving relationship with Powell was a nice twist. The middle section where William Powell goes fishing was a refreshing change of pace, especially with the outdoor setting, though his ineptness was a bit over the top. I wonder if they derived some inspiration for the fishing sequences from Buster Keaton's 1923 short, The Balloonatic. For me, the scenes with Loy and Powell were by far the most satisfying. I doubt he has an equal in delivering witty lines oozing with biting sarcasm. I strongly disagree with many of the reviews rating this one of the greatest romantic comedies ever, even comparing it to My Man Godfrey. While that movie had one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen (with Powell delivering a surprising, brutally honest, assessment of the family he's been working for), the ending to Libeled Lady is a dreadful contrived mess that attempts to dismiss rather difficult complications in noisy, albeit trivial, fashion (as if they had no idea how to end it). Nevertheless, it's well worth the watch to see William Powell in top form.

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.