Overrated

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

"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.

This movie features Hollywood royalty in 1936: Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, William Powell, and Spencer Tracy – that's quite a cast. And it's an interesting premise: Loy is the daughter of a rich businessman who is suing Spencer Tracy's newspaper for libel. Tracy is about to get married to Harlow, but puts off the wedding in order to deal with that, and turns to Powell to 'make it go away'. Their plan is to have Powell get on a ship crossing the ocean that he knows Loy and her father will be on, seduce her into getting into a compromising position, and then have someone burst in on them so that they can threaten her with a suit of their own. To make that work, Powell first gets married to Harlow, so that Loy would be subject to an "alienation of affection" lawsuit (a law that has since been abolished in most but not all states). Harlow isn't happy, but goes along with that because of Tracy's predicament, and because she knows she can later get a divorce.Not surprisingly, things don't go as planned. I loved the banter between Loy and Powell, as she dislikes him at the outset, and suspects he's scheming at something, she's just not sure what. The fishing trip she and her father take him on has some priceless slapstick comedy from Powell, and it's fun to see Loy out there fishing. Things get complicated as Harlow begins falling for Powell, and the movie finishes strong, with a nice twist in what is a great final scene. The movie was worthy of its nomination for Best Picture, but it was in a year when another Powell/Loy vehicle would win it ("The Great Ziegfeld"). It's a bit odd to me that it's considered a "screwball comedy"; I don't think that's the right designation at all, but it's fun, will make you smile, and is definitely worth watching.

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.

"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.