L'amore è novità

Back when this film was made in the mid Thirties there seem to be an abundance of films about madcap heiresses. In the middle of the Great Depression films about the rich partying away seemed to find an audience.

Back then the real life model was Peggy Hopkins Joyce, today it's Paris Hilton. We just love to read about the rich doing their reveling.

So the premise is a bit ludicrous about Loretta Young getting very angry at the newspaper reporters for reporting on her every move. Believe me if she didn't want publicity she wouldn't get any. Believe it or not, then as now, there are rich people out there who are not tabloid fodder.

But I guess anyone can get a little cranky and Loretta has come her time of crankiness in Love Is News. When an especially enterprising reporter gets on board her private plane, she's had it. While reporter Tyrone Power thinks he's scooped his colleagues, Young has an impromptu press conference with the others and announces she's engaged to Tyrone Power.

And then Power as he was in real life becomes the object of a lot of tabloid fodder. His editor is Don Ameche who keeps firing and hiring him back to straighten the mess out. If this were done at Warner Brothers, Love Is News would have been perfect for James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.

Twelve years later Power did a remake of this same film with Gene Tierney. Hard to choose between the two which is better.

Ty is at the beginning of his career and Darryl Zanuck was casting him in all kinds of parts, comedic, adventurous, dramatic. And Power himself was perfecting his screen image.

Best scenes in the film involve small town judge Slim Summerville who Young comes up before for speeding and that sets up a whole bunch of funny situations.

I can see this being remade today, unless Paris Hilton herself wants to star in it.

Not knowing this, I approached it with trepidation thinking : Oh no, not another loud un-funny so-called Screwball Comedy. But wow - this is actually brilliant. Guaranteed to make you smile for 80 minutes!

If only all Screwball Comedies were this good I wouldn't have avoided them all my life. I love BRINGING UP BABY and IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT but loathed the plethora of all those formulaic copy cat movies. They're all essentially drivel .... or so I thought until finding this - the third best 1930s Screwball Comedy!

Admittedly I confess that I only watched this for of the pleasure of seeing lovely Loretta Young for an hour and a bit - undoubtedly the most beautiful young woman who's ever lived. I'm so glad I did and not just for opportunity to seeing my bird. It's surprisingly genuinely funny from start to finish. Perfectly directed at a perfect pace (again by the hugely underrated Tay Garnet), it's witty, well acted and professional.

It's hardly an original story, a cynic might call it a complete rip off of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT but what makes this special is the likeability of its cast. Apparently these comedies legally required a prescribed cast of a ditzy heiress, a mischievous rakish reporter, a newspaper editor on the verge of a nervous breakdown and a gruff but wise old parent. OK, it is a rip-off but Power, Young and Ameche seem to be having such genuine fun together and are just so nice, you can't help but love them all and love this wonderfully sweet, sparkling and silly film.

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."

this is one of those fast talking reporter movies that makes you laugh a lot-- and wish that you were a reporter...or an heiress. when steve tricks Toni into giving him an interview she tells all the other papers in town that they're engaged to show him what it feels like to be a "public freak". they fight it out throughout the entire movie..trying to outwit the other the whole way. they end up in jail together, in mud puddles, steve gets caught with his pants off and Toni deals with her ex husband, the Count. and of course they fall in love...choosing not to admit it to the other. it's a pretty cute movie if you like romance, comedy, tyrone power, don ameche and/or loretta young.

Love is News (1937)

*** (out of 4)

Loretta Young plays a millionaire with a strong hatred of the press who she feels is constantly telling lies on her. One reporter (Tyrone Power) is the most guilty with his lies but Young plans on getting even by announcing to the world that they're going to be married. This way the reporter will know what it's like to be in the spotlight all the time. I read a couple negative reviews of this film but I thought they were way too hard on the film, which I found to be incredibly entertaining throughout with some terrific laughs from the cast. Young is my favorite actress and she delivers another strong performance here as she really captures that society girl image and delivers great comic timing. Power also comes off terrific as does Don Ameche in his role as Power's editor. The two men are constantly battling over the headlines and their comic timing together is wonderful and adds many laughs. Power also works great with Young and the two deliver the laughs as well as the romantic angle. George Sanders has a small role as Young's ex-fiancé. The film runs 78-minutes and there are very few scenes that don't work. The screwball antics are all very funny and the entire situation just makes for some wonderful laughs. One of the highlights is a scene in the bar where Power and another reporter are playing checkers on the floor with whiskey and beer.