Product Description

Bill Chandler (William Powell) is one of America's great anglers a sports fisherman without peer. That's not the only fish story Chandler tells. Four of Hollywood's greatest stars - Powell Jean Harlow Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy - reel in this whopper of a screwball romantic comedy classic nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It all starts when society diva Loy slaps newsman Tracy with a libel suit. Tracy enlists fiancee Harlow and down-on-his-luck Powell in a counter-maneuver involving a rigged marriage a phony seduction a fabulously funny fishing scene fisticuffs broken promises and hearts and eventually true love for all. This Lady is one fine catch.Running Time: 98 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569591929

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14266 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2005-03-01
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Newspaper comedy doesn't seem like an MGM genre--ink-stained wretches don't go with Adrian gowns and white deco furniture--but Jack Conway, the designated bull in the Metro china shop (Boom Town, Too Hot to Handle) does what he can to bring some dash and flair to a wildly complicated script. Spencer Tracy is the tough city editor who goes to some spectacular extremes when socialite Myrna Loy files a $5 million libel suit against his paper for calling her a notorious home-wrecker; he hires celebrated ladies' man William Powell to seduce Loy and asks his long-suffering fiancée, Jean Harlow, to marry Powell temporarily so she can play the wronged wife when Loy and Powell are discovered together. The couples crisscross, with frenetic and not entirely unpredictable results, but much of the pleasure here lies in seeing these iconic stars being so thoroughly themselves. The dialogue strains for champagne wit, but the movie's most memorable moment is pure, rotgut slapstick--Powell's bout with an unruly fly-fishing rod. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews

Hilarious!
This is a great slapstick comedy! Spencer Tracy (before he teamed up with Katharine Hepburn)plays Warren Haggerty, a newspaperman who's company gets slapped with a $5 million dollar libel suit for printing a false story about a young socialite (Myrna Loy). He has to try and have her drop the lawsuit - and what better way to do that than have her get caught with a married (supposedly) man. He convinces an old co-worker of his (William Powell) to marry his fiancee (Jean Harlow). Just until he can get the story printed, of course. But when William Powell ends up falling in love with Connie, Spencer's plan starts to fall apart. But all ends well, and both women realize who there true love really is. This is a great movie from the 30's!

5 star comedy destroyed by 1 star print - disappointing
The availability of this classic marital farce with such star power is excellent but MGM/Warners have offered a really poor print covered in scratches and dirt. What a disappointment!

Still, we can enjoy Myrna Loy's sarcasm, Jean Harlow's hysteria, Spencer Tracy's animation and, above all, William Powell's trout fishing episode. All the leads are at their very best and play superbly off each other. Walter Connelly, that peerless character actor, is on hand too as Loy's father and is perfect.

The extras are minor, being the original trailer which looks better than the film and the radio equivalent of the theatrical trailer, of minor interest.

Outrageously Funny!
This is another great screwball comedy (1936) set during the great depression, casting some of the best performers of that time. Having nominated by the Academy in the best picture category, the movie is riveting and you will be glued from beginning to end due to the offbeat nature of the comedy. The story is a pure farce comedy, when the daughter of an aristocratic family Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy) is falsely accused by the New York Evening Star newspaper of breaking up a marriage; she sues the newspaper for libel for five million dollars. This couldn't come at a worst time when the chief editor, Warren Haggerty (Spencer Tracy) is in the midst of marrying his fiancée, Gladys Benton (Jean Harlow). In order to save his job and the newspaper, Haggerty postpones his wedding and get into the business of saving the newspaper from the law suit. He comes with a zany idea of hiring a former reporter Bill Chandler (William Powell) to convince Connie Allenbury to withdraw the law suit against the newspaper. The plot involves fictions wedding of Bill Chandler to his fiancée Gladys who is unwilling to go along with the idea but reluctantly accepts that, and then Chandler use "good opportunities" to meet Connie Allenbury, romance her without telling that he is already married. When the friendship blossoms into full romance then at appropriate moment Gladys to appear on the scene and charge Connie for breaking her marriage to Chandler. The plan goes awry and it is hilarious that Connie almost comes to know the scheme but with the ingenuity of Bill Chandler the disaster is averted. Finally Connie will agree to withdraw the lawsuit but only after several mishaps. Jean Harlow, Spencer Tracy and William Powell have offered great performances, and it is during this movie Jean Harlow and William Powell developed romantic interest. This movie was directed by Jack Conway who went on to make his next movie Saratoga casting Jean Harlow and Clark Gable. Jean Harlow is known to have collapsed on the sets of Saratoga, and later died at the age of 26. This is an excellent movie and I recommend it very highly.

1. Saratoga