"The things I do for that newspaper!"

Libeled Lady (USA 1936 35m)
-Warner Bros. Classic Comedies Collection

d Jack Conway; p Lawrence Weingarten; w Maurine Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers, George Oppenheimer; c Norbert Brodine; ad Cedric Gibbons; fe Fredrick Y. Smith; m William Axt

Jean Harlow (Gladys), William Powell (Bill Chandler), Myrna Loy (Connie Allenbury), Spencer Tracy (Warren Haggerty), Walter Connolly (Mr. Allenbury)

Libeled Lady perfectly fits the "screwball comedy" label stuck on it. There's loathing that gives way to romance, jaded characters who learn to love, outrageous hi-jinx that would seem ridiculous in the real world yet feel somehow sophisticated on the screen. It's an urbane screwball. It never submerges itself in the absurdity of Bringing Up Baby nor does it completely succumb to the "Idiot Plot" of Top Hat. It's a film built around awry intentions and the manipulation of manipulations.

As with any screwball comedy, the plot makes very little practical sense. Due to an erroneous front page story, Connie Allenbury is suing the New York Evening Star for libel to the tune of five million dollars. This will drive the newspaper into bankruptcy, humiliating its owner and avenging Mr. Allenbury's failed political career. Editor Warren Haggerty employs suave, broke Bill Chandler to pose as a married man, seduce Connie, and discredit her in a public fashion that will get the libel suit dismissed.

Conveniently, Haggerty has a fiancee, Gladys, who unwilling marries Chandler and poses as his adoring wife. After the quickie nuptials, Chandler dashes off to England in order to save Connie from hired paparazzi and woe her on the boat ride stateside. Of course, the attempts of the devious man to integrate himself into the Allenbury family's good graces are fraught with humor and indifference at first sight. Once the boat lands, Mr. Allenbury invites Chandler on a fishing expedition where he and Connie warm to each other. To further complicate things, Gladys is starting to fall for Chandler and may or may not still be married to her first husband. Chandler and Connie may be falling in love. Mr. Allenbury may suspect something, and Chandler and Haggerty start a game of cat and mouse.

Both Gladys and Connie are initially presented as archetypes: Gladys as the opinionated shrew and Connie as the jaded ice queen. Without ceremony of any kind, Gladys arrives at the newsroom in a whirl of aggravation and white roses. Her wedding is being postponed, and she's turned into a woman scorned. She threatens, insults, demands, and laments. As she snarls, we can see why Haggerty was so eager to avoid marriage at the beginning of the film.

Jean Harlow's performance is extremely captivating. She's alternately worldly and clueless. She wisecracks and tosses out zingers and one liners in every situation. Harlow isn't afraid to look comical and undignified either (in Public Enemy (1931) James Cagney mashes a grapefruit in her face - a cinematic incident parodied with great effect in Kiss Me, Stupid). She doesn't bat an eye when asked to help in a fishing demonstration or when appearing in a hair dryer from Hell. As the film goes on, her verbal (and physical) attacks become less pronounced as she developing romantic feelings for Chandler, but she never loses her edge or vigor. By the end, she's shown us exactly why Spencer Tracy's Haggerty is in love with her.

Alternately, Connie is first seen indifferently standing by as her father talks on the phone with the newspeople she's about to destroy. She's aloof and only mildly engaged. Unlike Gladys, she's getting exactly what she wants. Her civil hostility toward Chandler during their maritime encounters . As he attempts to play games with her, she dupes him again and again. However as Chandler gets to know her, he sees her vulnerability and the reasons for her distance. An international playgirl (why is there always an international playgirl/boy?) has to harden herself to keep her reputation.

Like Harlow, Loy is a joy to watch. (She's one of my favorite actresses.) This is one of the 1936 batch of films Powell and Loy did together after The Thin Man (1934). The repartee between the two is fantastic. The success of a screwball comedy rests on clever candor, and these two don't disappoint.

Likewise, the film reminds us of the comedic timing of Spencer Tracy who I saw in dramas such as Inherit the Wind and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner before finding out about his comedies. His character here is the brains of the operation and tries to keep things going and the paper running. He's a compilation of Hollywood types (the career newspaperman, the harassed finance, the manipulated manipulator) who are known for their brashness.

Of course, most of the confusion is cleared up by the end, and the lovers end up (more or less) with the right person. Despite the absurd antics and obligatory drama, the film presents a world that we want to live in, a world where everything works out in the end.