Love Is News (1937)

A financier's daughter spars with a newspaper reporter: he by writing about her, she by announcing their engagement.

Director:

Tay Garnett

Writers:

Harry Tugend (screenplay), Jack Yellen (screenplay)

Stars:

Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tyrone Power	...	Steve Leyton
Loretta Young	...	Tony Gateson
Don Ameche	...	Martin J. Canavan
Slim Summerville	...	Judge Hart
Dudley Digges	...	Cyrus Jeffrey
Walter Catlett	...	Eddie Johnson
Pauline Moore	...	Lois Westcott
Jane Darwell	...	Mrs. Flaherty
Stepin Fetchit	...	Penrod
George Sanders	...	Count Andre de Guyon
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Egbert Eggleston
Frank Conroy	...	A.G. Findlay
Edwin Maxwell	...	Kenyon
Charles Williams	...	Joe Brady
Julius Tannen	...	Logan

Storyline

When a crafty reporter uses false pretenses to get a story out of heiress Tony Gateson, she turns the tables on him, telling the press that she's engaged to him and that she's given him a million dollar dowry. Suddenly he's on the front page and every salesman is at his doorstep. He loses his job and a day later asks her to call off the ruse; she tricks him again and the publicity continues. She stays cheerful and resourceful through a series of misadventures that has him alternately back on his job and fired. Meanwhile, a count who's her ex-fiancé shows up in New York, and maybe that marriage is back on. Can an heiress be a human being, and can a reporter get a scoop?

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Plot Keywords:

screwball comedy | reporter | heiress | scoop | salesman | 

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Taglines:

love IS news...when it's romantic TYRONE...lovely LORETTA...and dashing DON stepping out together on a streamlined, screamlined, springtime love-lark! (Print Ad-Nashua Telegraph, ((Nashua, NH)) 2 April 1937)

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

Loretta Young was reportedly angry that Tyrone Power got top billing.

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Quotes

Steve Leyton: Mike, ever had a woman make a fool out of you?
Mike Allegretti: Sure!
Steve Leyton: What happened?
Mike Allegretti: Four boys and one girl.

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Connections

Remade as That Wonderful Urge (1948)

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Soundtracks

The Prisoner's Song
(1924) (uncredited)
Music and Lyrics by Guy Massey
Sung a cappella by Loretta Young
Reprised a cappella by Tyrone Power

User Reviews

Wrong actors and director to handle screwball comedy - This could have been good

While watching Love is News, what I wished for was that this film would have been cast and directed by a whole different team. Because I like screwball comedy, it's hard to do, and requires a finesse, a light touch, and a specific feather tone from both director and actors to handle delicate material - like a soufflé - a little bit too heavy- handed, and it falls flat. With the exception of Slim Summerville as the small-town judge, the performances were uniformly bad. None of the very young and green principals knew how to handle comedy - so they just went broad and big - Don Ameche bellowed, Loretta grinned and mugged, and Tyrone Power was over-animated. Of course it was the director's fault - pump it up, give me bigger, bigger. But he was dealing with actors who were not natural comedians, whose charms were more in smaller gestures. I kept dreaming of the usual stable who could handle the material - Jean Arthur, Carole Lombard, Cary Grant, Melvyn Douglas - because the storyline was fun and sillilly amusing - an heiress turns the tables on a reporter, and decides to put him under the glare of publicity by planting a false story. I watched it all the way through, seeing potential in the script, and wishing it had been at another studio and cast differently, with a different director. I think it could have been a classic. There were priceless moments, from the fake car crash, to the jail scene, the airport scene - that with the right actors and a director like Mitchell Leisen or Greg LaCava or Howard Hawkes could have catapulted this film in a minor classic instead of an ersatz version of the classic screwballs by people who knew how to do it

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 February 1937 (USA)

Also Known As:

Love Is News

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA High Fidelity Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1