LOVE ON THE RUN

US, 1936, 81 minutes, Black and White.
Clark Gable, Joan Crawford, Franchot Tone, Reginald Owen, Mona Barrie, Ivan Lebedeff, William Demarest.
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke.

Love on the Run is a screwball comedy of the '30s, MGM style. Direction is by W.S. Van Dyke, veteran of so many films from MGM of the '30s and '40s. Clark Gable and Joan Crawford make a romantic pair and had appeared together in Dance Fool Dance, Dancing Lady. Joan Crawford had also appeared with her former husband Franchot Tone in a number of films including Sadie Mc Kee, Gorgeous Hussey. William Demarest has an early role as an editor.

The film is the usual story about runaway heiresses, newspaper reporters (echoes of It Happened One Night). There is also a touch of international espionage with British and French settings. An enjoyable piece of '30s fluff.

1.Enjoyable comedy? Screwball comedy of the '30s? Heiresses and newspaper reporters? Espionage?

2.Black and white photography, MGM production values? Settings, cast, score?

3.The title and its humorous overtones?

4.Michael and Barney and their work? In England, paper correspondents? The wedding? The international flight? Their characters? Buddies? Outwitting each other? Barney as the fall guy? Mike and his shrewdness, outwitting Barney, Barney falling for all Mike's ploys?

5.Sally as the wealthy heiress, running away from the wedding, her would-be husband and his pleas? Encountering Mike, being helped by him? Hating reporters? Disguising themselves as the aviators? The flight, the crash? Their adventures on the run in France? Changing clothes, shelter, the police? Barney catching up with him and Mike outwitting him, turning Sally against him? Ultimately in Paris, the newspaper reports? The spies? Sally caught, Mike confessing, her hostility? Sally and her escape? Mike and his coming to the rescue? Happy ending?

6.Mike as reporter, tough American style, sentimental? His friendship with Barney - and the final phone call?

7.Barney, pleasant, the fall guy? Willing victim?

8.The editor and his campaign, the headlines, his exasperation? Firing himself? Coming back on the job?

9.The spies, the interviews, their suave manner? The truth, the pursuit, the capture? Sally and her attempt to distract the spy? Their being finally caught?

10.Popular ingredients of the '30s? '30s style? Impact now?