Libeled Lady (1936)

"Libeled Lady" gives Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy co-top billing in this romantic comedy about a newspaper editor who sets up an elaborate ruse to keep an heiress from going through with a libel suit that could potentially shut down his newspaper if lost. Spencer Tracy plays the editor Warren Haggerty, who when he discovers that his newspaper published a story wrongfully accusing Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) of husband stealing, hatches a plan to head off the libel suit. Somehow, after leaving her on his wedding day to attend to the paper, Haggerty convinces his fiance Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow) to agree to marry his former reporter Bill Chandler (played by William Powell) and conspire with him to turn the tables on Connie. Are you with me here? Because it is all a bit confusing at first. So evidently Bill is contracted to seduce Connie and put her in a position where Gladys will walk in on them and cause enough of a scene in order to alert the media. The plan then is that the embarrassment of the ordeal will convince Connie to drop the suit. You have to swallow some feelings of incredulity here that first of all Gladys would agree to all this and Chandler is some suave ladies' man who can charm Connie into dropping this suit. William Powell is a fine actor but I never really see him as a leading man. With his average looks and wisecracking personality, I'm surprised he wasn't pigeonholed into supporting character roles. Although the film is co-billed with the four of them, it is really just another William Powell-Myrna Loy film, with Tracy and Harlow mostly playing supporting roles. The acting and comedic timing is first rate by all, but the wrting and editing are hit-and-miss at times. Overall it is an entertaining film worth a watch if anything to see Jean Harlow in one of her last films.

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.

I had only watched this movie once before, and watched it this time specifically because I am reading the new Spencer Tracy biography. There is one trait of Tracy's acting which is brought up over and over in the biography, and one that I recognized long ago since Tracy is one of my two favorite actors -- call it what you will either subtlety or understatement. But as I have watched so many of Tracy's movies over the past few years, I have realized that in his earlier years, Tracy did not always utilize that trait. Perhaps he hadn't fully realized that it was underplaying roles that was what made him a true movie star. You'll see it in "Fury" (1936) and "San Francisco" (1936), but you won't see it here. Here Tracy is just another actor, and that's fine, but this is not one of those Tracy roles that one will savor. Then again, it's a screwball comedy, so perhaps director Jack Conway didn't allow Tracy to play the role in that manner.It is a funny concept -- newspaper slanders a young society dame (Myrna Loy) and she and her father (Walter Connolly) sue. One of the newspaper's bigwigs (Tracy) gets the idea to hire a sort of slick playboy reporter (William Powell) to romance Loy and get something on her...hence the lawsuit will disappear. But of course, there are drastic complications.Tracy and Jean Harlow may have gotten equal billing here with Powell and Loy, but make no mistake, this is really a Powell and Loy picture...and particularly Powell. In fact, although I'm a dedicated Tracy fan, I've never seen Powell more engaging and funny. The best lines are his, and the fishing segment is hilarious.Highly recommended comedy with fine performances by Powell and Loy...perhaps better than they were in the Thin Man series. And a special recognition for character actor Walter Connolly. Well worth a spot on your DVD shelf.