Very well executed

Please don't spend money on this.

Best movie ever!

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

"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.

The opening credits of Libeled Lady are not your typical list of screen names, instead we get footage of the four main stars walking arm in arm very happily as their names come on screen one by one. Four heavy weights in roles which play to their strengths, giving some of the best dialogue the screwball comedy has to offer. Libeled Lady is my favourite newspaper comedy, a world in which journalistic ethics are nonexistent and people struggle to make relationships and careers in journalism mix. Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy) is so preoccupied with his job as the managing editor of a paper he has missed his own wedding several times, so no surprise Jean Harlow gives a very comically angry performance throughout most of the film.William Powell's Bill Chandler has such cool and confidence, he even draws his own contract which will bring him back to the paper he was sacked from as he knows Warren Haggerty will come looking for him following a scandal. Powell gets the chance to show the full range of his comic abilities, not only as a master of words but also gets showcase slapstick comedy similar in vain to Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin during the film's fishing scene. The subplot of Bill Chandler learning to fish would be the basis of Howard Hawk's comedy Mans' Favorite Sport?. Despite how incredibly fast he picks up the ability to fish like an expert it doesn't feel contrived. A portion of the story is spent trying to find William Powell with telephone, telegraph and radio as their means of communication. Outdated aspects like in old movies always intrigues me and makes me ponder if stories like this could be told today. With the internet and other modern communication devices they could have been able to recall those newspapers at the start of the film. Likewise publications today are no less obsessed with covering the escapades of socialites and people famous for being famous; but Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) is not a typical socialite. She is down to Earth, has an image distorted by the media and can even outwit the paper. It's appropriate this role would be played by Myrna Loy; the so called only good girl in Hollywood.

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.

"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.