Funny sinners

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Movie
German title Funny sinners
Original title Libeled Lady
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 99 minutes
Rod
Director Jack Conway
script Maurine Watkins ,
Howard Emmett Rogers ,
George Oppenheimer
production Lawrence Weingarten
for MGM
music William ax
camera Norbert Brodine
occupation
synchronization

Funny Sinner (Original: Libeled Lady ) is an American screwball comedy from 1936 with a star cast that includes Jean Harlow , William Powell , Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy . Directed by Jack Conway .

action

The very intricate plot begins with the unsuccessful attempt by the editors of the tabloid The New York Evening Star to stop the printing presses before a fictional story about the famous heiress, the playgirl Connie Allenbury, appears - here she is referred to as the husband thief. The newspaper, under its editor-in-chief Dan Haggarty, now has a claim for damages of US $ 5 million for defamation on its neck, especially since newspaper owner Hollis Bane and Connie's father James have been enemies for decades. To make matters worse, Dan gets into trouble with his long-term fiancé Gladys, whom he has repeatedly made waiting in front of the altar because of the incidents. Haggarty, whose love for Gladys, a former showgirl with a heart of gold, always beats for the newspaper first, tries everything to avert the Allenbury lawsuit.

Dan comes up with an idea that is as simple as it is crazy: the unemployed author Bill Chandler, a bon vivant and womanizer, is supposed to marry Gladys on the pretext, then turn on Connie Allenbury and thus substantiate the claim that Connie would steal other women’s husbands with facts. The lawsuit would therefore be groundless. In fact, after a while, Bill manages to win Connie's heart with his fishing coast and his charm. Dan's plan becomes more complicated, however: On the one hand, Gladys, after hesitating at first, falls in love with Bill, who always treats her with respect and respect and appears very different from Dan Haggarty. At the same time, however, Bill genuinely falls in love with his "victim" Connie. Gladys is overly disappointed and wants to let the hoax blow up, which Dan would also be welcome, since the lawsuit over five million US dollars is still in the room.

Things get even more complicated when the following comes out: Dan assumed that Gladys had legally divorced her first husband in Yucatán . That's why Bill and Connie can't marry without Bill being guilty of bigamy. However, as those involved learn some time later, divorces pronounced in the Yucatan are illegal. Connie and Bill are overjoyed at the discovery when Gladys, suddenly without a husband and with no prospect of an imminent marriage to Dan, surprises everyone. She actually got divorced again in Reno and is thus actually legally married to Bill Chandler. In the end, however, the women discuss a solution among themselves and Dan wins Gladys' love back when he has a little fight with Bill about Gladys. The million dollar lawsuit is dropped, in the end Dan and Gladys as well as Bill and Connie are in each other's arms.

background

Jean Harlow moved to MGM in mid-1932 after an unsatisfactory first career under contract with Howard Hughes . The studio quickly built the actress, who was famous for her platinum blonde hair, into one of its biggest stars. Harlow became so popular within the next few months through appearances in Red-Headed Woman and alongside Clark Gable in Jungle in the Storm that she even survived the scandal of her husband Paul Bern's suicide unscathed. MGM increasingly presented Harlow as a comedian and in William Powell she found not only the ideal screen partner, but also a new man at her side in her private life.

In 1936, the two actors were at the peak of their popularity when the studio used them alongside two other top stars, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy in the screwball comedy Libeled Lady . Everyone involved had already filmed together and therefore knew each other well personally. Harlow and Powell played together in two previous films: Harlow and Loy were rivals for the love of Clark Gable in Wife Vs. Secretary , Loy, and Tracy worked side by side in Whipsaw . Harlow and Tracy had appeared in front of the camera together in Riffraff , a somewhat quirky film that embeds the love story of the heroes in a story of unionists and wildcat strikes in a fish factory, which also marked Harlow's return to the image of their early days Career: the somewhat vulgar, very sensual woman who argues loudly with her boyfriend and yet stands faithfully by his side. The plot of the film combines a number of constants from other comedies of the time: a rich spoiled heiress, love banter in high society, swipes at the sensational press and a woman between two men. With Libeled Lady , the topic is expanded into a double triangle, so to speak, with a man - Bill Chandler - at the center for once.

A shot at the beginning of the film, often copied later, became particularly popular. Gladys and Bill are getting married. The priest now asks the couple to kiss, which they do with a very chaste, very short act. Immediately afterwards, Gladys Dan, who acted as best man, falls into the arms and kisses him long and with increasing passion. Bill smiles a little crookedly and then says apologetically to the clueless looking priest:

A good family friend.

After Gladys and Dan kiss even harder afterwards, Bill says dryly

A very good friend.

The studio shot a remake called Easy to Wed in 1946 with the popular duo Esther Williams and Van Johnson in the roles of Powell and Loy , in which Lucille Ball and Keenan Wynn played the roles of Harlow and Tracy.

Theatrical release

The manufacturing cost was $ 603,000, which was the budget for an A production at MGM. At the box office, Funny Sinner became one of the most successful films of the year. He grossed $ 1,601,000 in the United States, with a further $ 1,122,000 coming from foreign markets. A cumulative result of $ 2,723,000 brought the studio a very high profit of $ 1,189,000 in the end.

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1937 , the film received a nomination in the category:

  • Best movie

synchronization

The German synchronized editing was only created in 1988 on behalf of ARD .

role actor Voice actor
Bill Chandler William Powell Ortwin Speer
Connie Allenbury Myrna Loy Monika Barth
Gladys Benton Jean Harlow Daniela Lohmeyer
Haggerty Spencer Tracy Horst Schön
Allenbury Walter Connolly Alf Marholm

criticism

The film received rave reviews. Frank S. Nugent wrote in the New York Times on October 31, 1936 :

[…] A sardonic comedy […], it takes several freedoms with the press, liberties with the statutes and jousts at justice — all in the merriest of moods. And offhand we can think of a dozen reasons why you should find it a thoroughly agreeable entertainment. The first four reasons are obvious, being Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, William Powell and Spencer Tracy, who are just about as perfect a light-comedy foursome as you will encounter anywhere between the rockbound coast of Maine and the sun-kissed shores of California. […] And we are so pathetically grateful to Metro for restoring Miss Harlow to her proper metier that we could have forgiven even more serious lapses.
[...] A sardonic comedy [...], takes liberties in dealing with the press and breaks the law in the funniest way. And along the way, we can think of a dozen reasons why we love this type of entertainment. The first four reasons manifest themselves in Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy, William Powell and Spencer Tracy, who represent the best shallow comedy quartet between the stone coast of Maine and the sunlit beaches of California. [...] and we are so grateful to Metro for reactivating Miss Harlow that we can easily forgive past mistakes.

With a gap of several decades the film service wrote : "Perfectly staged screwball comedy, excellently played and full of turbulent entanglements that lead to an equally turbulent double happy ending."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thomas Bräutigam : Stars and their German voices. Lexicon of voice actors . Schüren, Marburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89472-627-0 , CD-ROM
  2. ↑ Funny sinners. Retrieved May 30, 2020 .