Libeled Lady (1936)

In the best movies of the thirties, the stars are glib (in the best way) and glamorous. Libeled Lady is blessed with a clever script that serves up fastballs that the cast handles adroitly. And I have to credit the amazing wardrobe by Dolly Tree, made all the more remarkable as she was responsible for the wardrobes of 23 films in 1936. Loy's wardrobe, in particular, is impeccable.

This was the 5th in the series of William Powell/Myrna Loy pairings. They were cranking them out at a rate of about 2 per year during this period, so you might think that the chemistry between them would be stale or formulaic. But in Libeled Lady, the chemistry is fresh and the relationship between their characters is not just another Thin Man performance.

Then there are Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow. Tracy is adept at the machine-gun delivery required by this (screwball) comedy, and Harlow just shines, showing more depth of character and emotion than she is sometimes given credit for. After Libeled Lady, she only acted in two films, so the screen never saw what greater depths of performance she might have achieved. (She died of uremic poisoning during the filming of Saratoga Trunk)

The plot involves a newspaperman (Powell), good at the con, who ingratiates himself to a wealthy young woman (Loy) and her father in order to set her up for a blackmail situation. She suspects his motives, but he manages to pull her in. Plenty of plot curves ensue, adding humor and more character development.

I particularly liked the fishing scene. Without much dialogue it advances the plot, provides some laughs and shows that Dolly Tree can even make Myrna Loy look sexy in fishing gear.

Fmovies: This MGM goodie has Jean Harlow and Myrna Loy, both strong characters who know exactly what they want to get from Spencer Tracy and William Powell ... all four principals in the cast are excellent, especially Harlow and Powell (any scene connected with fishing is funny, especially Powell's attempt to land the great trout). Walter Connolly is also good value as Loy's father.

'Libeled Lady' is fast-paced, with lots of good moments concerning the plot around a newspaper - a would-be marriage - an heiress - a boat - and some great over-the-top scenes. Highly recommended!

Libeled Lady is yet another screwball comedy about a ditzy heiress. But it certainly is one of the best that came out of the Thirties. All four stars are at the top of their game in this one.

The ditzy heiress is Myrna Loy. Some drunken correspondent from London filed a false story and Myrna and father Walter Connolly want to sue the paper. Owner Charley Grapewin and editor Spencer Tracy are worried. In fact Tracy has postponed his wedding to sweetheart Jean Harlow for the umpteenth time to meet this crisis.

He hires back former star reporter William Powell to get something on Loy. Tracy and Powell hatch a scheme that would involve Powell marrying Harlow temporarily and then wooing Loy to get her in a compromising position. Of course the long suffering Harlow actually agrees to this piece of insanity.

I'm convinced that Harlow's character is the model for Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Adelaide put up with almost as much before she finally landed Nathan Detroit. It's hard to believe that a year later, Jean Harlow was gone.

Myrna Loy is not stepping too much out of character as the heiress. Her role her as Connie Allenbury is only about three steps from Nora Charles. She's a rich woman in the Thin Man also, indulging hobby Nick in his hobby as a detective away from his full time profession as drinker.

The women had worked with each other before and both male leads had played with both women before. But this was the only time that MGM heavyweights Spencer Tracy and William Powell were ever in the same film together. That in itself is reason to see Libeled Lady.

The single most hilarious scene for me is Bill Powell trying to fish in order to get in with Loy and Connolly. His scene in the trout stream landing 'old wall eye' is priceless. In fact Powell's battle with the fish was the premise for one of Rock Hudson's best comedies, Man's Favorite Sport.

And Tracy proved he could play sophisticated comedy. No doubt the reason MGM cast him with Katharine Hepburn later on.

Simply the best. Right up there with My Man Godfrey and all those sparkling comedies Tracy did with Hepburn later on.

Libeled Lady fmovies. This movie is over 70 years old but is far better than what mostly comes out of the film industry these days. The picture is genuinely funny and all the performers are excellent. In brief a newspaper who have libeled a lady need to get her legal action against them stopped to prevent the newspaper going out of business so they devise a plot to set up their victim. There are all sorts of comical twists and turns and plenty of good gags and amusing moments. The movie is very well directed, has an excellent script and the voters here on IMDb have got the high mark exactly right. Well done to Turner Classic Movies for showing this on their channel:

8/10

One might wonder about casting 4 heavyweights in the same film-- any one of the leads could carry a film by themselves-- but all together you're afraid that they might either weigh down the film or, ala the "Dream Team" 1990, fail to live up to expectations. But this is one time you time you will not be disappointed-- with hysterical antics by Jean Harlowe, the always dependable repartee between classy Myrna Lowe and suave William Powell, and Spencer Tracy proving for the first time that he can handle snappy dialogue like the best of 'em-- the chemistry between the cast makes every scene in this film a delight.

The banter flies so fast you'll miss it-- this is the height of screwball comedy. When people say they don't write them like this anymore, alas, they really don't.

Spencer Tracy, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Jean Harlow star in "Libeled Lady," about the attempts to convince a society woman to drop a lawsuit against a newspaper.

Spencer Tracy is a scream in his role of a newspaper editor who has been engaged to Jean Harlow for some time, but his work keeps getting in the way of their marriage and relationship. His whole life revolves around his newspaper. When an heiress, played by Loy, sues the newspaper for libel, Tracy puts William Powell to work, hoping that by photographing them together, he can convince Loy to drop the suit. But it will only work if Powell is a married man caught cheating, so Tracy convinces Harlow to marry him.

Harlow is her usual feisty self. Powell is marvelous, especially in his fishing scenes, which are classics, especially the one in which he literally chases a trout through a stream. It's laugh out loud material if there ever was any. Loy has the least showy part, though she's quite beautiful and works well with Powell, portending great things to come.

This is a very enjoyable film with Tracy milking the comedy for all it's worth. Apparently his comedic work was a revelation back then, unlike today, when we know how adept he was at it.