Love Is News (1937)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A sheer delight, this one is by far the best of the three movies (one of them even re-starring Ty Power) made from this material. The four principals, Ty Power, Loretta Young, Don Ameche and Slim Summerville were never handled funnier lines nor more delightful characters. The pace whipped up by director Tay Garnett is movie magic at its fast- moving best. Highly skillful direction is absolutely essential to the success of this film as most of the humor is revived by repeating the same visual and speech gags over and over. Only a really clever and right on top of his game director could get away with a constant repetition of the same gags, let alone make them seem funnier and funnier, but that's exactly what Garnett (a much under-rated director) succeeds in doing here. Needless to say, the re-makes with other directors in the chair (including Robert B. Sinclair, a stage director who found his real home in TV), are not a patch on this movie, the original version.

Loretta Young, Don Ameche and Tyrone Power in a madcap comedy about an heiress who turns the tables on a reporter by announcing they are engaged. Power as Steve Leyton is classicly comic as the sensationalistic reporter whose world is turned upside down when the media spotlight is focused on him. Don Ameche wonderfully offsets him as the city editor, an old friend, who grapples with Power to get a scoop. Loretta Young is pretty and charming as heiress Toni Gateson who chases after Power to keep him in the media spotlight. The acting is wonderfully funny, and the supporting actors do equally well--George Sanders as the egotistical count jilted by Young, Dudley Digges as Young's wealthy uncle, and Jane Darwell in a minor role as Power's landlady. Though remade in 1948 as "That Wonderful Urge" with Gene Tierney, this is one case where the original is much better. The comic rapport between Young and Power keeps the action moving. Though Power was one of the most romantic of leading men throughout his career, this movie showcases his talent for comedy.

Why is it that in the old days, movies used people's private lives as front page news? Wasn't there a depression going on? A war about to break out in Europe? A big New York newspaper then has to focus on the life of a silly millionairess (Loretta Young) who has just broken off with a gold-digging Russian Count (George Sanders). Reporter Tyrone Power gets on her plane, gets her to talk, then gets the story to his editor (Don Ameche), on a break from saying "yes, dear" to his constant telephone calling nagging wife (whom, thankfully, we never see.) Young decides to get even by alerting the other local newspapers that she has become engaged to Power, which causes him havoc at every turn as he deals with sudden "celebrity status" and the fury of Ameche. Cute premise, yet beyond "today's newspaper, tomorrow's fish wrapper" premise, who would really care about such goings on when the world is in trauma? OK, in the society column perhaps, but on the front page? Oh, let's be real here! OK, this is just a film, a screwball comedy famous for such lapses of reality. Did audiences really think that a bunch of rich people would traipse all over New York looking for a forgotten man, or that a woman dying of uranium poisoning would become the darling of New York society? Yet, "My Man Godfrey" and "Nothing Sacred" were spoofing the ridiculousness of society and newspaper headlines with their farcism. The problem here isn't the premise, or even the stars; It would be great if the story appeared in another section BUT the front page. It is also very apparent that Loretta Young and Tyrone Power were one of the best looking screen couples of the 30's, and had TONS of chemistry. That made them box-office bonanza, and they could re-do "Abie's Irish Rose" and get away with it. But I don't think anybody believes that Loretta Young was anything like the rather brainless twit she plays here that would waste her entire life trying to make Powers' miserable by acting all lovey dovey and not end up falling in love with him herself. Tyrone Power comes off best; He is handsome without being embarrassed by it (like Robert Taylor was), and masculine without being ridiculously macho. He's just your average guy who happens to look like a movie star, that's all. His charm was very apparent and he comes off more likable than Ms. Young.As for Don Ameche, sadly, he is wasted here. There is no love triangle involving him; His role could have been played by any contract character actor. Even though he had been in films for only a year, it was apparent he was going places, so he is sadly wasted. George Sanders plays his typical Euro-Trash cad, not as deadly as in some of his other films, yet obviously out for his own gain. Walter Catlett is funny as a rival reporter who plays chess with Power using beer and whiskey as the pieces. It probably set off a trend of college parties where the winner gets drunk, and the looser ends up hang-over free. (Who's really the looser?) Then, there is the small town jail scene with Slim Summerville as the droopy faced judge who sentences Power and Young to do time for various crimes. (She was speeding; He was taking something out of her car at her request, which she later denied). The sequence is funny (featuring prison doors that keep falling off the hinges) yet unrealistic. Yet again, this is a screwball comedy, not at all to be taken as anything but a fantasy of what life is really like. Jane Darwell has a few amusing moments as Powers' landlady. Dudley Digges, usually cast as elderly villains, has a change of pace here as Young's likable uncle.The film was remade in 1948 (with an aging Power and Gene Tierney) as "That Wonderful Urge" that seemed even more out of place in Post-War America when there was more important things to go into the entire newspaper than stuff like this. This time, the heroine pretends their married, which adds some sexual tension into the midst. Comparing the two films on the DVD, "Love is News" comes off a bit better, though not much.

Three of 20th Century Fox's stars of the late '30s team up for "Love is News" - Tyrone Power, Loretta Young, and Don Ameche. Power plays a clever reporter, Steve Layton, who is after a big story on a $100 million heiress, Toni Gateson (Young). Sick of being hounded night and day by the press, Young turns the tables on him and announces to the world that she and Layton are engaged. It comes as a surprise to him, as it does to his editor, Ameche, and of course, they don't have the story and the rest of the papers do. Layton soon learns that being engaged to Gateson has some perks and also a few things that aren't so great, particularly when the two of them end up in adjacent jail cells.There is a very funny scene in the beginning where Power and Ameche become hysterical laughing as they reminisce about the horrible things they've done to one another. The actors worked together often and make a great team. Young is gorgeous as the heiress, and she and Power are a beautiful couple as usual. This is one of Power's very early films - he was about 23 at the time - and still in his pretty phase. You can't take your eyes off of him when he's on screen - he lights it up.This is a high-energy, pleasant comedy with a delightful cast, though there's nothing particularly unusual about the story. Madcap heiresses abounded in '30s films. Power actually remade this movie with Gene Tierney in 1948 as "That Wonderful Urge." By then, it was tired stuff, and Power was tired of these roles. But here, it's three young stars on top of the world, and you can't beat the spirit with which they imbue "Love is News."