(3.5/5) – screwball comedy, romance

Reference: | | TCM
Reviews: IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes (80%)

While deftly putting off an inevitable marriage to his fiance (played by Jean Harlow), in Libeled Lady (1936) the editor of a New York paper (Spencer Tracy) hires a reluctant former employee (William Powell) to seduce the daughter of the owner of a rival publication (Myrna Loy) to ward off a libel suit.

Libeled Lady is one of 14 films starring the wonderful Powell and Loy duo. Ironically it lost the 1936 Best Picture Oscar to another of their collaborations, The Great Ziegfeld (1936). TCM’s Robert Osborne believes Libeled Lady was the better of the two. (Having not yet seen Ziegfeld, I’ll reserve judgment).

While Powell and Loy are one of the most famous onscreen couples in movie history, at the time this movie was being made Powell and Harlow (19 years his junior) were engaged to be married. Sadly, Harlow died of kidney failure just two years later at the age of 26.

It was a treat seeing two of my favourite leading men together for the first time. And having seen 8 of the Powell-Loy movies, It’s always a pleasure to watch them together.

Powell and Loy, with their undeniable chemistry, were terrific as usual. Tracy in his first comedy was just OK. Dramatic roles are his forte. I don’t understand how Jean Harlow was considered a sex symbol in her day. Her voice grates on my nerves and, in this movie at least, she’s rather obnoxious.

As was common for the era, the story is implausible and rather goofy. But, I’m a sucker for Powell and Loy (one of the most beautiful and classiest women in the Hollywood history), so that’s OK with me. The movie gets better as it gallops towards the finale. I laughed frequently and enjoyed it quite a bit.

  (3/5) drama, mystery, romance

William Powell and Myrna Loy are second only to Tracy and Hepburn in the pantheon of my favourite classic movie on-screen couples. They appeared together in 14 films over 13 years, the most famous of which were the widely popular (in their time) “Thin Man” series.

In Evelyn Prentice a workaholic lawyer (played by Powell) is too busy for his young wife and child. As the relationship is strained, Loy spends an increasing amount of time with a womanizing poet intent on blackmailing her.

Evelyn Prentice (1934) came out in the same year as the first Thin Man movie. What made the Thin Man and its successors so delicious for me was the terrific chemistry between the two. That couple was clearly, absolutely and deeply in love with each other. Their witty banter and repartee combined with mutual respect and equality was uncharacteristic of the era.

Their relationship in Evelyn Prentice, a very different kind of movie, is only a hint of what it is in the Thin Man series.

While some of the acting by the supporting cast is over-the-top, bad, particularly by Rosline Rusell (Powell’s client) in her silver screen debut and the early scenes with Isabel Jewell (the poet’s girlfriend), Powell and Loy are very good. The child-star Cora Sue Collins was cute and surprisingly good, as child actors go for the era. Very similar to Shirley Temple.

With a faulty script, the movie is not as entertaining as the other Powell-Loy films. But I can recommend this movie to classic movie lovers given how uniquely the court room drama is wrapped around the relationship story and because of  the clever ending. As a rather extreme film buff, I am rarely surprised by plot twists – especially in classic movies. But I did not anticipate the ending to this one. That is a rare. You’ll have to suspend some disbelief – but if you are a Powell-Loy fan, it’s worth it.

Reference: | the mave 
Reviews: IMDb External Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes