Libeled Lady (1936)

Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy) a managing newspaper editor, wishing to save his job and his newspaper from a libel suit, sets up a socialite Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) for blackmail with former colleague, Bill Chandler (William Powell,) a financially troubled writer with a lothario reputation.

The plan itself is outrageous: His fiancé (Jean Harlow) is to legally, but temporarily, marry the adversarial colleague, and then for the colleague to seduce the socialite in front of the press; though it might still work if everyone agrees to it.

When personal feelings get involved, the problem instead becomes how to get out of the scheme relatively scot-free.

Much is made of the contemporary trend of audience discomfort-based humor, but this is a very early example of it.

No matter what, it doesn’t seem as if it’s possible for this to end well, and the deeper we get into it, the worse the eventual result is likely to be; and we aren’t even talking about the newspaper issue any longer (which the audience stops caring about quite early, especially when the characters affected by the problem seem to be such total heels,) but about ruined relationships and total emotional devastation of perfectly innocent people, or people dragged into the scheme under protest.

The film masterfully sidesteps potential disaster and resolves the matter with a series of utterly screwball revelations.

As is to be expected William Powell and Myrna Loy are wonderful (she’s also initially suspicious of him, and both she and her father carelessly ignore him during a hilarious ‘dinner’ scene); and Harlow, in a non-sexpot, regular person, character who goes from desperately wanting to marry Tracy, only to be frustrated every single time; to starting to become interested in someone she initially detested is a revelation, suggesting unsuspected vulnerability underneath: Not only is Harlow given the opportunity to act, but she gets to play nearly the entire human emotional spectrum.

Lots of funny highlights including a classic bride-kissing scene during the ‘fake’ (except, not) wedding and even an extended physical comedy fishing sequence where Powell nearly drowns.

With Walter Connolly as the trout fishing-obsessed father.

A Classic Screwball Comedy with a stellar cast.