Movie #123........................."The Libeled Lady"

Movie #123 "The Libeled Lady" is a classic I hadn't seen before. I sought it out because I'm such a fan of "The Thin Man" series and I had read that Myrna Loy and William Powell had been in other films, and this is one of them. And then one of my very favorite ( and I think the best male actor in the 40's) Spencer Tracy and you have a great, great film. At first, however, I was put off by a scene between Spence and Jean Harlow (I've never been a fan of hers). She was wooden and said all her lines the same (she's the reason the move just got 4 stars from me). She gets a bit better, but it's kind of funny how they work around her limitations ---- In fact, at the very end Myrna Loy explains that she felt neglected by Tracy, etc. stuff that the actress should have gotten across with her acting, I think. Oh,one last thing --- besides the triad of great acting, the film had one of the best screwball comedy scripts I've come across in a long time ---- one that maybe should be remade....one that romantic comedies and t.v. shows should take a second look at and model. The reason why is that the characters and the plot aren't stretched so much for humor so that we don't believe they are real people any more............they don't have to be, and you can see that in this film. Also, if you are tired of romantic comedies where relationships are built on pure lies, and then in the last couple of minutes everything is straightened out and the two are now in love (?), well, forget that. This film teaches you that you have to come clean and be truthful and it'll be the best thing you can do for any relationship. So put all this together,and you have a film that was a delight to see on the long plane ride from Chicago to Florida. And I highly recommend it.



Average rating: 3.837
I gave it 5 stars
Libeled Lady
(1936) NR
This Oscar-nominated classic film directed by Jack Conway stars Spencer Tracy as Warren Haggerty, a newspaper editor who's prone to postponing his nuptials to Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow) and who faces an even greater problem when he's sued by a woman (Myrna Loy) who claims she's been libeled by his publication. Haggerty hatches an intricate plot to put the woman in her place before she can bilk the paper for all it's worth.