JohnHowardReid
Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Copyright 16 November 1936 by Metro Goldwyn Mayer Corporation. New York opening at the Capitol: 27 November 1936. Australian release: January 1937. 8 reels. 81 minutes. SYNOPSIS: Two rival newspapermen (Clark Gable and Franchot Tone) pursue a scatty American heiress (Joan Crawford) halfway across Europe. Their romantic misadventures are curtailed by an encounter with a German spy (Reginald Owen) who kidnaps the unfortunate rich girl. The reporters, each in their own way, set out to rescue her. COMMENT: This M-G-M attempt to cash in on the success of It Happened One Night looks as if it was shot on the run too. Back at his home studio, Gable is playing the hard-bitten reporter once more, while this time Joan Crawford assumes the Claudette Colbert role of the escaping-from-an-unwanted-marriage heiress. No doubt to forestall any Columbia claim for outright plagiarism, Metro has been forced to make the situations far more outlandish, complete with a brace of comic-opera spies plus a competitive "buddy" for the reporter. As a result, a good deal of the humor seems rather forced--a problem often intensified by the players themselves who try to make up in aggressive delivery what the script often lacks in genuine wit. Nonetheless, Gable manages to impress his usual creditable performance upon his characterization of the fast-talking, double-crossing reporter (we like the scene where he dances and fools around in period costume). Crawford looks beautiful and acts adequately. Tone is wasted. He really hasn't much to do. He's just a foil. A fine assemblage of support players is also on hand, led by Reginald Owen as the bogus baron, Donald Meek as a loony caretaker, and Billy Gilbert as a put-wise headwaiter. Oddly, Love on the Run lacks Director Van Dyke's usual skilful polish. The film editor should be congratulated for the clever job he often does in disguising some very clumsy camera set-ups-including a crowded tracking shot that Van Dyke went ahead and printed anyway, even though it missed the marks for Mona Barrie and Reg Owen! (Now there's a wonderful example of his penchant for hasty and just tear-ahead shooting). The film was produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Two or three particularly snappy rejoinders in the dialogue were no doubt contributed by him. And maybe he did a lot more. It wouldn't surprise me if producer and writers made up the script as the film rolled along. It certainly sounds that way. A lot of money has been expended on the movie. The sets look astoundingly (but attractively) lavish, and there's a nice music score too (including the song, "Gone"). Doubtless owing to the director's insistence on celerity, Marsh's lighting photography, however, is less artistically stylish than his customary approach.
SimonJack
The title of this film, "Love on the Run," nails the plot perfectly. This is a hilarious movie from start to finish. It has a wonderfully crazy script. The silliness, mix of subplots and twists, and wacky situations are what make it so funny. The dialog and humorous lines fit those situations to a T. Much of the humor comes in the visuals with the expressions and reactions to dialog as well as the details of each situation.Joan Crawford was at the top of the MGM list of contract players in 1936 and she gets top billing here over Clark Garble, who had won a best actor Oscar two years earlier for "It Happened One Night." But that was under a loaned out deal with Columbia Pictures. Franchot Tone co-stars with third billing. Gable and Tone were leading male stars for MGM, and Tone was married to Crawford at the time. What a show the three of them put on in this very funny and entertaining film. It's borderline but close enough to be labeled screwball comedy.Crawford plays rich American heiress Sally Parker. Gable and Tone are Michael Anthony and Barnabus Pells. They are friends and reporters – called foreign correspondents in those days. They live together in Paris and work for rival American newspapers. Fiction comedies rarely used real newspaper names. Mike works for the New York Chronicle and Barney writes for the New York Dispatch. They share stories to report back home, with each one trying to cover the most interesting story of the day. This day, Mike goes to cover a socialite wedding and he's dressed in a formal tux with tails and top hat.The film has a tremendous supporting cast. Reginald Owen is superb as Baron Otto and Mona Barrie is very good as Baroness Hilda. It's never clear and one wonders if they are supposed to be German or Russian. I suspect it is a poke at Nazi Germany and also at the Soviet Union. The Soviets then would have had no one of royalty, nor would they have the technology to be building a plane to fly into the stratosphere. The accents seemed to be more German, and Germany definitely had science and technology advances by the mid-1930s. Yet, when she's being tied up by one of the Baron's thugs, Sally says she'll pursue him across the planet, even to Vladivostok.Donald Meek is the caretaker of the Fontainebleau Palace, which had been home to the kings and queens of France since it was built in the 16th century. He and his invisible dog, Bismarck, steal the scenes they are in with Gable and Crawford. William Demarest, Charles Judels and Ivan Lebedeff are very good in their roles.The film has non-stop action. The script has some clever dialog and witty exchanges. But the greatest laughs come from the situations that the leads find themselves in, and the dupes that Mike plays on Barney. I'm guessing they had to shoot a number of takes for some scenes. The cast – Tone especially, seemed to be having so much fun that it's hard to imagine him not cracking up with laughter in some scenes.Mike and Barney are in a battle of one-upmanship for the top story of the day, whatever it may be. And this film has as many hi-jinks as any other I can recall. They include a broken high society wedding, a runaway bride, espionage, kidnapping, pioneering aviation, a train trip, a man thrown from a train, stolen airplane and plane crash, a ride on a horse-drawn farm cart with pigs and cabbage, theft of a dry cleaning truck, breaking into a French national monument, sleeping in a museum overnight, and more.The film has more than a little lampooning in places, and It's a hilarious romp throughout. This film has a couple of scenes that are among the funniest of all time. My favorite is at the very end. Barney is lying on the floor tied to a chair, with the phone off the receiver and he's talking to the cable office. Mike and Sally are untying him. He spells the names for the joint byline.Barney, ""M for maniac." Sally, "I for I love you, darling." Barney, "I for I love you darling. C for crackpot." Mike, "H for how soon are we going to get married?" Barney, "H for how soon are we going to get mar… No, I'm not drunk." Sally, "A for any time you say." Barney, "A for any time you say. Aw, shut up!" Anyone with a sense of humor who enjoys clean-cut comedy should get a bang out of this film. It's a must for any serious comedy film library.Here are a few funny lines from the film. Barney, "You could've been sitting in the theater the night Lincoln was shot and you wouldn't have covered me." Mike, "I'd have told you, I swear." Barney, "Oh, yeah, you'd have told me Lincoln shot Booth." Igor, "I'm not at disadvantage? Have I met the gentleman?" Sally, "You scurrilous little scavenger. Don't be silly. Where would you ever meet a gentleman?" Sally, "Trains run to Paris, you know? Choo, choo, choo." Mike, "I don't know why I keep explaining things to you, but railroad stations have a habit of being watched." Sally, "You sheer, unadulterated worm." Mike, "Go ahead, I deserve it." Barney, "Baby, you call the shots and I'll pull the trigger." Sally, "Now stop it, Barney. Poor Michael." Barney, "Woman, thy name is screwball." Mike, "Well, you don't think I enjoy playing cops and robbers all over Europe with a …" Sally, "But you can't leave me here with all these cabbages."
MartinHafer
This movie is an obvious re-working of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and is a couple steps below it in quality. However, considering that Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone do such a good job with the material, it's still an excellent film. That's because despite the familiarity of the material, the movie is so much fun to watch. The dialog is snappy and the pacing is great. And, despite the film being pretty predictable (as most were of the era), I didn't mind and felt myself being caught up in the movie.Joan is a runaway bride and Gable is the cad pretending to help her but he's got a secret agenda. In the end, they are head-over-heels and the movie closes. Sounds familiar? Of course, but who cares--it's still lovely to watch.
