Spencer Tracy, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Jean Harlow star in "Libeled Lady," about the attempts to convince a society woman to drop a lawsuit against a newspaper.

Spencer Tracy is a scream in his role of a newspaper editor who has been engaged to Jean Harlow for some time, but his work keeps getting in the way of their marriage and relationship. His whole life revolves around his newspaper. When an heiress, played by Loy, sues the newspaper for libel, Tracy puts William Powell to work, hoping that by photographing them together, he can convince Loy to drop the suit. But it will only work if Powell is a married man caught cheating, so Tracy convinces Harlow to marry him.

Harlow is her usual feisty self. Powell is marvelous, especially in his fishing scenes, which are classics, especially the one in which he literally chases a trout through a stream. It's laugh out loud material if there ever was any. Loy has the least showy part, though she's quite beautiful and works well with Powell, portending great things to come.

This is a very enjoyable film with Tracy milking the comedy for all it's worth. Apparently his comedic work was a revelation back then, unlike today, when we know how adept he was at it.

LIBELLED LADY is a comedy about the world of newspapers and libel suits. Spencer Tracy is the editor of a leading New York newspaper, and he is about to marry his long-suffering girlfriend Jean Harlow (they have put off marriage several times in the past due to scoops Tracy had to pursue personally). This time it's not a scoop, but a serious blunder. The foreign gossip correspondent has submitted an item that got printed concerning Myrna Loy's antics in England, suggesting that she disgraced herself when drunk. This is bad enough, but the newspaper owner (Charles Goodwin) is horrified by this error. It seems Loy's father is multi-millionaire mover and shaker Walter Connolly, who had political ambitions that Goodwin and his newspaper thwarted twenty years earlier. Goodwin realizes that an angry, vindictive Connolly will very likely sue the newspaper for libeling his daughter, and win disastrously large damages.

While Harlow shows up in her wedding gown, fuming at this new delay, Tracy figures he will have to bury his own feelings and approach one time rival and foe William Powell to help him here. Powell is very clever at manipulating situations to get rid of troublesome problems (i.e.: he can possibly figure out a way of neutralizing the advantage Connolly and Loy have in the original libel article). Powell does come up with a scheme. If he can ingratiate himself with Connolly and Loy, he might be able to create a compromising situation regarding Loy that if revealed will make the libel story appear to be true. Tracy agrees to this plan, even though it requires Powell to marry Harlow, so that Loy (when she falls for Powell) can be made to appear a home wrecker. Harlow (at first) is not too thrilled about this, as she and Powell don't get along.

What follows is a series of delays that prevent the rapid evolution of the plot and it's proper springing on the unsuspecting Connolly and Loy. First it is harder to get Connolly away from his regular business interests to take an interest in Loy's new acquaintance Powell. But Powell finds the key when he learns that Connolly is one of the best trout fisherman in the United States. However, Powell himself has never bothered about fishing - we see him cramming from various books to learn the difference between fly fishing and other types. Then we see him practicing casting a fishing line with the assistance of E.E. Clive in the hotel rooms he shares with Harlow. He manages to snare Harlow while doing so (again much to her anger).

Invited to go to Connolly's favorite fishing spot, to try to catch the elusive "old wall eye", Powell manages to just miss drowning himself in the river, and does catch the fish the hard way - with his clothing. But it impresses Connolly and Loy.

The scheme is seemingly working, but three new wrinkles develop. Powell finds he is falling for Loy. Harlow is slowly finding the gentleman Powell is a nicer role model for a husband than the belligerent Tracy, and is now falling for Powell. Tracy (who barely tolerates Powell) is discovering that Harlow is less interested in him than she was before, and more interested in Powell - so Tracy is now jealous of Powell.

I will only add that the comedy ends with four people arguing it out in a hotel suite. Very fine comedy.

Libeled Lady is yet another screwball comedy about a ditzy heiress. But it certainly is one of the best that came out of the Thirties. All four stars are at the top of their game in this one.

The ditzy heiress is Myrna Loy. Some drunken correspondent from London filed a false story and Myrna and father Walter Connolly want to sue the paper. Owner Charley Grapewin and editor Spencer Tracy are worried. In fact Tracy has postponed his wedding to sweetheart Jean Harlow for the umpteenth time to meet this crisis.

He hires back former star reporter William Powell to get something on Loy. Tracy and Powell hatch a scheme that would involve Powell marrying Harlow temporarily and then wooing Loy to get her in a compromising position. Of course the long suffering Harlow actually agrees to this piece of insanity.

I'm convinced that Harlow's character is the model for Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Adelaide put up with almost as much before she finally landed Nathan Detroit. It's hard to believe that a year later, Jean Harlow was gone.

Myrna Loy is not stepping too much out of character as the heiress. Her role her as Connie Allenbury is only about three steps from Nora Charles. She's a rich woman in the Thin Man also, indulging hobby Nick in his hobby as a detective away from his full time profession as drinker.

The women had worked with each other before and both male leads had played with both women before. But this was the only time that MGM heavyweights Spencer Tracy and William Powell were ever in the same film together. That in itself is reason to see Libeled Lady.

The single most hilarious scene for me is Bill Powell trying to fish in order to get in with Loy and Connolly. His scene in the trout stream landing 'old wall eye' is priceless. In fact Powell's battle with the fish was the premise for one of Rock Hudson's best comedies, Man's Favorite Sport.

And Tracy proved he could play sophisticated comedy. No doubt the reason MGM cast him with Katharine Hepburn later on.

Simply the best. Right up there with My Man Godfrey and all those sparkling comedies Tracy did with Hepburn later on.