This movie wasn't as entertaining as I expected it to be, considering it's been touted as one of the 30s best examples of screwball comedy.
The problem is not with the direction, which is competent enough, and certainly not with the performers. William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, and Jean Harlow. How could they go wrong? They fit perfectly into their diverse niches.
No, it's the screenplay that is lacking. It prances along, accompanied by chipper music, but the dialog does not scintillate, neither do the awkward situations provoke laughs.
William Powell is trying to seduce high-maintenance Myrna Loy and to succeed he must get close to her father by pretending to be an expert fisherman, and fishing is a topic he knows nothing about. Howard Hawks did it at least as well in "Man's Favorite Sport," one of Hawks' lesser efforts.
Well, "Libeled Lady" has its reputation, and maybe at the time I was suffering from another attack of agenbite of inwit, a diagnosis my psychiatrist has foisted on me, along with those curious pills that do nothing for the disease except make you not mind having it. Maybe you'll get more out of it.
The problem is not with the direction, which is competent enough, and certainly not with the performers. William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, and Jean Harlow. How could they go wrong? They fit perfectly into their diverse niches.
No, it's the screenplay that is lacking. It prances along, accompanied by chipper music, but the dialog does not scintillate, neither do the awkward situations provoke laughs.
William Powell is trying to seduce high-maintenance Myrna Loy and to succeed he must get close to her father by pretending to be an expert fisherman, and fishing is a topic he knows nothing about. Howard Hawks did it at least as well in "Man's Favorite Sport," one of Hawks' lesser efforts.
Well, "Libeled Lady" has its reputation, and maybe at the time I was suffering from another attack of agenbite of inwit, a diagnosis my psychiatrist has foisted on me, along with those curious pills that do nothing for the disease except make you not mind having it. Maybe you'll get more out of it.