☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½
Libeled
Lady (1936) – J. Conway
I don’t know if this is officially a
screwball comedy (or a comedy of remarriage, as many of them were) but it is
pretty damn close. Myrna Loy and William
Powell are delicious as usual (as the libeled young lady in question and the
man hired to get her to drop her lawsuit, respectively) but throw in Spencer
Tracy (brash newspaperman, of course) and Jean Harlow (his gal, who marries
Powell who aims to seduce Loy so Harlow can sue for alienation of affection
thus throwing the libel suit against Tracy’s newspaper into doubt) and you’ve
got the goods. The plot/plan in that
last parenthetical naturally does not go off without a hitch – but things work
out anyway (or do they?). The four stars
are at the top of their game and the script rolls merrily along, inexorably to
a complicated comedic conclusion. Great
fun!
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