richspenc Spencer Tracy is managing editor of New York newspaper that gets sued by Myrna Loy, daughter of rich tycoon Walter Ganolly. Spencer's wife to be Jean Harlow is getting very restless about getting married already, to the point of bursting into the newspaper office in her wedding gown screaming at Spencer "today I am getting married!" This scene is a very close parallel to the scene of the 1948 remake of this film "Easy to wed" with Kenan Wynn in the Spencer role and Lucille Ball in the Harlow role. A lot of the same lines were copied there such as "this newspaper is facing a libel suit", "and you're facing a breach of promise suit!" and "nobody talks to me like a house detective!". Also, I'm quite sure the senior manager of the paper that yells "get this woman outta here!" is played by the same guy. At least this film doesn't have Harlow carried out of the office by bouncers while screaming like with Ball in the remake. I found that a little too much. William Powell plays the man Spencer is searching for to help get the newspaper out of its bind. Spencer calls San Francisco, Reno, Atlanta, and ven Hong Kong and Australia trying to find him, and he ends up being at a hotel in town. Things in real life are like that sometimes, you search everywhere but under your nose, which is where it turns up. Powell must be staged to marry Harlow, with some amusing scenes where Harlow and Powell must fake their love to avoid suspicion. Also funny when Harlow kisses Spencer in front of the priest. "They're old friends", Powell tells the bewildered priest. Harlow and Spencer kiss again. "Really old friends" Powell then says. Powell then meets up with Myrna Loy and her dad Ganolly on a transAtlantic ship where he must continue the charade. Powell asks a ship clerk to bring him some encyclopedias so he can learn about what the guy he's pretending to be is supposed to know, such as about trout fishing. So then he can discuss his "life hobbies" to Ganolly. Of course today, one wouldn't ask for encyclopedias to learn information about something, they'd just google it on their smartphone. This overbearing woman and her daughter keep clinging to Powell, Loy, and Ganolly, and they must keep lying in order to avoid them. Many of these scenes just mentioned were copied in "Easy to wed". I love Esther Williams, but "Easy to wed" wasn't one of her better films. "Liabel lady" was the better of the two. There are more great scenes, such as the lake trip with Powell and Myrna. This is another film with Powell and Myrna together just like in the wonderful "The great Ziegfeld" and "The thin man". Those two had fabulous chemistry together. Myrna Loy's such a cute sweetheart of a girl, just like Ruby Keeler. Powell is sort of a ladies' man. He has both Harlow and Loy falling for him in this film. I won't spoil the ending in this review.

SnoopyStyle To Gladys Benton's (Jean Harlow) frustration, editor Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy) cancels their wedding to attend to an emergency at his newspaper. The New York Evening Star published a false story by their drunken reporter about socialite Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) being a husband stealer. The paper's owner Bane is an old rival to Mr. Allenbury and his daughter Connie vows to sue for $5 million. Haggerty recruits rascal Bill Chandler (William Powell) to solve the problem. Chandler comes up with a scheme to make the story a reality. Chandler marries Gladys and then tricks Connie into stealing him.The start is a lot of ridiculous fun. The manic energy is infectious. Jean Harlow is a ball of energy and has great fun with Tracy. They're a great combative couple. The real life couple of Powell and Harlow isn't that bad either. The main couple is yet another Powell and Loy affair. Powell does some slapstick fishing. Their romance is tough to get into since Chandler is suppose to be faking. It's a bit murky at the start. Harlow keeps it wacky. This is generally a load of fun.

classicsoncall I've never seen this before, the picture was nominated for exactly one award, and that was for a Best Picture Oscar in 1937. Though it didn't win, MGM, along with William Powell and Myrna Loy couldn't have felt too bad. They all had a hand in that year's winner, "The Great Ziegfeld".The premise here was just ripe for a screwball comedy and the principals delivered. Powell, Loy and Jean Harlow were all established comedy players at the time, but this was new territory for Spencer Tracy who had only appeared in dramas prior. With his performance here, his range was established as an all around actor and set him up for all those great Katherine Hepburn team-ups in years to come.The picture moves along at a pretty fast pace and you have to be as quick as the players to keep up with the dialog. You also have to accept the premise of Powell's character Bill Chandler marrying someone else's fiancée in order to stop a libel suit against the New York Evening Star. It's the kind of situation that lends itself to constant back and forth maneuvering between the players who jockey for position in order to come out on top.I would never have figured Bill Powell for such a physical actor, but when he hit the trout stream I couldn't believe all the pratfalls he took in service to the story. Coming up with the most elusive trout in Glen Arden was the icing on the cake. I fully expected old Wall Eye to slip away from that net but son of a gun, he wound up on a dinner plate after all.So anyway, Nick and Nora fans ought to be happy with the finale here, as Chandler and Connie Allenbury (Loy) wound up tying the knot at the end of the story. In real life, Powell was courting Jean Harlow at the time and was set to marry her following this picture until her untimely death shortly later. It put Powell into a deep funk for a long time before returning to the screen to begin the sequels to the Thin Man series.

MikeMagi "Libeled Lady" is a screwball spree for its four superbly cast stars. Spencer Tracy as a newspaper editor so devoted to his scandal sheet that he's a no-show at his own wedding...for the 20th time. Jean Harlow as his brash, brassy would-be bride. William Powell as a lady's man hired to con an heiress into dropping a libel suit that could put Tracy's paper out of business. And Myrna Loy as the cool deb who'd like just once to be loved for herself, not her father's fortune. As the story zips along from a trans-Atlantic voyage to an "arranged" marriage to a lunatic lesson in fly-fishing, the laughs and surprises are non-stop.