Libeled Lady Blu-ray - William Powell / Myrna Loy / Jean Harlow / Spencer Tracy

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2) Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 20,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

Directed by Jack Conway
USA 1936

Bill Chandler (William Powell) is one of America's great anglers, a sport fisherman without peer, doom in waders to the wiliest trout. And that isn't the only fish story Chandler tells. Four of Hollywood's greatest stars -- Powell, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy -- reel in this whopper of a screwball romantic-comedy classic nominated for a Best Picture Oscar . It all starts when society diva Loy slaps newsman Tracy with a libel suit. Tracy enlists fiancée Harlow and down-on-his-luck Powell in a counter maneuver involving a rigged marriage, a phony seduction, a fabulously funny fishing scene, fisticuffs, broken promises and hearts, and eventually, true love for all. This Lady is one fine catch.

***

When a major newspaper accuses wealthy socialite Connie Allenbury of being a home-wrecker, and she files a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit, the publication's frazzled head editor, Warren Haggerty, must find a way to turn the tables on her. Soon Haggerty's harried fiancée, Gladys Benton, and his dashing friend Bill Chandler are in on a scheme that aims to discredit Connie, with amusing and unexpected results.

***

Jean Harlow came into her own while making Libeled Lady (1936) in more ways than one. During filming, she officially changed her name from Harlean Carpenter McGrew Bern Rosson to Jean Harlow, the name that symbolized the dream of glamour and romance she had become at MGM. The film gave her an opportunity to live one of her own dreams when she played a wedding scene with off-screen love William Powell.

From a professional standpoint, Libeled Lady marked a return to the kind of brassy comic leads that had made her a star. Harlow had campaigned for more diverse roles, and was happy to play Spencer Tracy's working-class wife in Riffraff (1935), Clark Gable's faithful girl Friday in Wife vs. Secretary (1936) and a World War I singer involved with Cary Grant in Suzy (1936). But the last film was the only one to perform strongly at the box office. And though critics had liked her acting, particularly in Wife vs. Secretary, they were clamoring for the return of the old Harlow. So she gladly doffed her brassier and spit comic insults at co-stars Tracy and Powell in Libeled Lady, scoring one of the biggest hits of her career.

Excerpt from TCM located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 7th, 1936

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Warner - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Warner - Region 1 - NTSC	Warner Archive - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1.38:09	1:38:15.931
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.55 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 37,279,655,378 bytes Feature: 28,601,493,504 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate DVD:
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1850 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1850 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Subtitles	English, Spanish, French, None	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Home Video Aspect Ratio: Original aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Audio-Only Bonus: Leo Is on the Air Radio Promo • Theatrical Trailer DVD Release Date: March 1st, 2005 Keep Case Chapters: 27	Release Information: Studio: Warner Archive 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 37,279,655,378 bytes Feature: 28,601,493,504 bytes Video Bitrate: 34.99 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Warner Brothers Short: Keystone Hotel (1935) (14:54) • MGM: New Shoes (1936) (10:23) • MGM Cartoon: Little Cheeser (9:23) • Leo is On the Air: Libeled Lady Radio Promo (13:30) Theatrical Trailer (2:47) Blu-ray Release Date: November 24th, 2020 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 37

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner Archive Blu-ray (May 2022): Warner Archive have transferred Jack Conway's Libeled Lady to Blu-ray. It has had some restoration as most of the speckles and light surface scratches are now gone - especially the scratchy opening. It's on a dual-layered disc with a max'ed out bitrate (approaching 7X that of the 2005 DVD transfer.) The overall image is brighter and shows the usual higher level of consistent grain texture and layered contrast. It's in the correct 1.37:1 aspect ratio showing a shade more information in spots - often the bottom edge. The big issues is the clean-up and it looks very appealing on my system - quite the upgrade. Thanks to Barry for recommending!

NOTE: We have added 50 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Warner Archive use a DTS-HD Master dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original English language. Libeled Lady has a lively score by Dr. William Axt (The Thin Man, Madame DuBarry) and it is a definite bump over the lossy SD edition with more consistent and crisper dialogue in the lossless transfer. "You" is played during the opening credits, we here Mendelssohn's Wedding March in a few iterations including whistled by William Powell plus Wagner's Bridal Chorus from "Lohengrin". Warner Archive offer optional yellow English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray offers many more extras compared to the 2005 DVD. It includes the same 1/4 hour Leo is On the Air: Libeled Lady Radio Promo and add a 1935 short Keystone Hotel, - a 14-minute Keystone Kops slapstick comedy, 1936's New Shoes where a love affair blossoms after a couple purchases new pairs of shoes - it has an uncredited appearance by The Andrews Sisters - and an MGM Cartoon entitled Little Cheeser featuring a young mouse who thinks he's more grown up than he is. Lastly, is a theatrical trailer.

Jack Conway's Libeled Lady is an excellent screwball comedy and the fifth of fourteen films in which William Powell and Myrna Loy co-starred. Jean Harlow and Powell were in a relationship, and Harlow wanted to play Connie Allenbury, so that her character and Powell's wound up together. However MGM weighed the undeniable onscreen chemistry and decided that it would be another William Powell-Myrna Loy vehicle, as intended. Harlow settled for the role of Gladys Benton and made only two more films before dying at the young age of 26 of complications of kidney failure. Libeled Lady is a pure screwball gem I am very pleased at the restoration of the Warner Archive Blu-ray. It deserved it. Vintage era fans of any of the four stars - Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Spencer Tracy - should indulge in this essential a/v upgrade with new supplements.