kimpunkrock Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Great comedy from 1936 that is playing soon on TCM. This a film you do not want to miss if you are a Myrna Loy, William Powell, Spencer Tracy or Jean Harlow fan. This is one funny movie and one that I now enjoy thank to Robert Osbourne. His great intro on this film years ago peaked my interest in this film. I now own it as part of the Classic Comedies Collection. Anyone who is a fan of B/W movies from the 30's and 40's needs to see this wonderful film. TCM has it scheduled this week Feb 6th 2 pm est. - kpr http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027884/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bio47 Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Oh thanks. I have never seen it. And checked the schedule for the month but missing seeing it posted. I am with aniticipation awaiting based on what you said. Plus, I thought it was the answer to a trivia question here. But no. Wrong answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlywdkjk Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 MOre than once in the years past Robert Osborne has stated his belief that this film (Libeled Lady) should have won the Best Picture Oscar over the fictionalized The Great Ziegfeld. Definitely make an effort to see it if you have somehow missed it in the past. Kyle In Hollywood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VP19 Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Powell is brilliant in this (watch the scene where he tries to pass himself off as an expert angler). For Bill, 1936 was his peak year. Loy, Harlow and Tracy are wonderful too, as is Walter Connolly as Loy's father. One of the best newspaper films ever made, up there with "Nothing Sacred," "The Front Page" and "His Girl Friday." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeleine2322 Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Let me add my enthusiastic recommendation of LIBELED LADY to that of kpr's. I saw the film when it first came out (there were few MGM films that I missed), have seen it every time TCM shows it, and I own a video, which I thrust on friends. A thoroughly delightful screwball comedy! William Powell and Myrna Loy exhibit a chemistry and romantic subtlety that rises abiove the (enjoyable) romp they give us as Nick and Nora Charles. Powell (smooth and suave and always deft with the humorous quip); Harlow (never better) proves she can be funny, vulnerable and give Powell as good as she gets. Tracy, the versatile actor--ADAM'S RIB, PAT AND MIKE, HENRY DRUMMOND, FATHER FLANAGAN, and on and on, schemes. explodes, rushes about, smiles in pleasure at his sly ingenuity, provides a vigorous, uncerebral foil for Powell; and unflappable Myrna Loy, a spoiled, litigious heiress, falls in love, which complicates things, and . . . . .Give yourself a treat and see the picture. Polishced, experienced actors make the mix of disparate personalities work--with the help of a good screenplay and MGM's veteran contract director, Jack Conway-- VIVA VILLA! (1934), A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935).and many others. Madeleine2322 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Just goes to show that February ain't all bad!!! Seriously this is a great film and what a CAST, whew!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Actually there are a lot of great films scheduled this month, esp. in the beginning of the week. I remember at first when TCM started the 31 Days of Oscar I wasn't a big fan of it, but now years later, I love it. It is also great rediscovering some 80's gems. At the time when the 31 days first started I was such a film snob that I would not watch anything, unless it was a war film or a John Wayne film, after 1959. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 I'm sure you and others have noted but I think it bears repeating with all the controversary of Oscar month. Each day is a different decade: Each Monday is 1920s/1930s Oscar nominated or winning films Each Tuesday is 1940s Each Wednesday is 1950s Each Thursday is 1960s Each Friday is 1970s Each Saturday is 1980s and each Sunday is 1990s/2000s So, plan your schedules accordingly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 What I am confused about is---if weds. is the 50's day then why is Libeled Lady scheduled for Feb 6th at 2pm. I am so confused. Libeled Lady is from 1936! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lzcutter Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Kim. The front home page has the listing below but in checking the schedule, it looks like it only pertains to evening hours (8:00 EST, 6:00 CST, 5:00 PST). The early morning and day time hours are a smorgesboard of years! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 Oh that is interesting---I did not realize that format was only in Prime Time. Thanks LZ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cinemajestic Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 hello kimpunkrock i'm right on cue with you concerning "libeled lady". it is a great gem from the 1930s. it has great comic pacing, excellent writing and performances from all involved. it is a great addition to my dvd collection and i hope those who have yet to see it check it out, they won't be let down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeBSG Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 One of the unexpected joys of "Libeled Lady" is that of seeing Spencer Tracy play a jerk. I am so used to seeing Tracy play the Liberal American Conscience in a Stanley Kramer movie, that seeing him play someone lying and conceited is like seeing the sun come up in the West. He is terrific as the newspaperman who would do anything to avoid getting married, and it makes me wish that he had had more parts like this. I like him in "Pat and Mike," where he is also less than straightforward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markbeckuaf Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 Kim, yep, the Oscar's Month is not always all bad. A few years ago, it was the first time I ever saw the great THE GREEN GODDESS, with George Arliss, priceless stuff! And they even showed the Monogram fave, KING OF THE ZOMBIES, cos it was nominated for some best music award (say what???!!! LOL). You never know what gems are gonna be on, and last night was KILLER!!! And yeah, I have found some stuff from the 70's and 80's I either forgot I liked at the time, or discovered for the first time, like the great Burt Lancaster performance the other night in ATLANTIC CITY, I'd never seen that before, wow! So yeah! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Don't forget tomorrow Weds. Feb 6th Libeled Lady at 2:30 pm est.....11:30 am pst. Set your recorders if you can't make it. - kpr Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry_W Posted February 6, 2008 Share Posted February 6, 2008 Just as the Prime Time theme is dedicated to a specific decade, each daytime program has its theme - I think the daytime themes show up in the daily schedule. Libeled Lady is being shown today because the daytime theme for the 6th is Journalism. -- Terry Wallace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 6, 2008 Author Share Posted February 6, 2008 Libeled Lady today 2 pm EST / 11 am PST. Don't miss out on this awesome comedy with Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, William Powell and Jean Harlow. The latter were married when they filmed this so it is even more enjoyable to watch if you are a fan of either. Actually this is one of my favorite Jean Harlow performances. She really proves she could do comedy in this. Don't miss one of Robert Osbourne's favorite movies, Libeled Lady! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CineMaven Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 "...Don't miss out on this awesome comedy with Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, William Powell and Jean Harlow. The latter were married when they filmed this so it is even more enjoyable to watch if you are a fan of either." "Libeled Lady" was a great film...and a plot I think would work today Kim. But you are wrong about Harlow and Powell. They were NEVER married. Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Really, I could of sworn I read somewhere that Powell and Harlow were married. Hmmm.. I will have to research where I read that. thanks kim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandykaypax Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Harlow and Powell were engaged to be married, but she died before they wed. Sandy K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vallo13 Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Kim, IMDb on Jean Harlow :Following the end of her third marriage she met actor William Powell. They were together for two years, but Jean became ill and died before Powell proposed marriage I thought they were engaged. vallo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimpunkrock Posted February 7, 2008 Author Share Posted February 7, 2008 Oh...that explains it. I knew they were together in some way. Did everyone like the film? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandykaypax Posted February 7, 2008 Share Posted February 7, 2008 Thanks vallo, for the clarification on Harlow and Powell. Sandy K Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeleine2322 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 I'm so glad that LIBELED LADY is being discovered and enjoyed. It's a hard call, but that may well be the film (among many favorites) that I would choose if I were locked in a theater. (I'd prefer a Caribbean island, deserted except for several masculine hunks, preferably able-bodied, able-minded, under 90, and marooned for months without feminine companionship.) It was Harlow at her best despite the upheavals and scandals afflicting her personal life. Hectic, nonstop filming schedules; an ever-present, domineering mother and her husband (Jean's stepfather), who lived well off Jean's salary. The suicide note left by Jean's second husband, Paul Bern, a top MGM production executive, sparked a press feeding frenzy from inferring that Bern was impotent. There seems no doubt that William Powell was the love of Jean Harlow's life. He gave her a huge sapphire ring, presumably as an engagement ring. The rumor mill's most prevalent and persistent claim was that Powell refused to marry Jean because he had had two failed marriages with actresses, the latter being with Carole Lombard.. (Also, being 19 years older than Jean, he may have wanted a more peaceful and stable life than the baggage of Mama Jean and the idler stepdad had previously provided. Just guessing.) Even Jean's death caused controversy. A particularly brutal rumor had Christian Scientist Mama Jean denying her beloved daughter timely medical attention that may have saved her life, at the age of 26. The official cause of death was listed as "uremic poisoning." A rumor surfaced that the real, hushed-up cause was a botched abortion. I repeat: those were RUMORS, with no substantiation. Jean and Clark Gable were filming SARATOGA at the time she fell ill. To film the few remaining scenes, Metro substituted a girl with the same honey-blonde hair and slim figure. Since there were no frontal views of her face, the deception proved successful. Clark Gable is reported to have said that Jean was the bravest person he had ever known. If you're interested in learning more about L. B. Mayer (self-styled patriarch of his MGM "family" and benevolent dictator), and the history of MGM, which became, under Mayer, THE star-packed, prestigious, hugely profitable Hollywood studio in the "Golden Age"; including fascinating accounts of stormy relationships, payoffs and cover-ups to save an MGM top star and top director from serving time in prison and to save MGM from scandalous publicity; and many more inside revelations, I recommend Charles Higham's MERCHANT OF DREAMS, Dell Publishing, 1993. Unlike the run-of-the-mill, unreliable fluff stuff bios, it's a comprehensively researched, responsively handled and highly readable work. Character flaws or quirks produced contradictory, tyrannical, bizarre and commendable behavior. He promoted family values via the Andy Hardy films; yet he had serious extramarital relationships while still married to first wife Margaret and the mother of his two daughters, Edith and Irene. He was a right-wing conservative, communist-hating Republican; yet (to his credit) he hired blacklisted writers, those whose works he knew to be first-rate, to give MGM films the highest possible quality. Always his top priority. Despising what the Nazis stood for, he, nevertheless, acceded to demands of the L.A. German Consul General to delete anti-Nazi dialogue in MGM films in order not to lose Germany's business His blindness to the powerful impact of TV's competition, his continuing to favor glamour, beauty, happy endings over the ugly, grim realities of war, poverty, fighting disease increased the company's losses. Time and trends had passed him by. He was replaced by Dore Schary. But for all his childish temper tantrums, unseemly tearful ham acting, his dictatorial displays of power, trying to control his actors' private lives, elevating the importance of the studio's profits over that of principles (with exceptions), he made a movie studio from scratch, answerable only to Marcus Loew and then to successor Nicholas Schenck of NY parent office, Loew's, Inc., and keeping them happy with the profits his decisions and management were producing. In its heyday, MGM wore the mantle of aristocracy of film studios, the name itself symbolizing glamour, superstars, prestige and power. Sorry, Windy is back, but not for long, I hope!. I did delete a paragraph of interesting inside stuff, but I had already strayed too far from the thread, and I expected to be timed out Madeleine2322. Message was edited by: Madeleine2322 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VP19 Posted February 8, 2008 Share Posted February 8, 2008 Wonderful film -- "Libeled Lady" is among my all-time favorites (the only thing I'd change about it is the rather abrupt ending) -- and I'm delighted to see it's inspired such a good thread. Moreover, Madeleine2322 made several accurate observations on L.B. Mayer, whose life indeed was a swirl of contradictions. Reflections on Carole Lombard and classic Hollywood: http://community.livejournal.com/carole_and_co/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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