Loufoque et Cie

Love On The Run is yet another example of Louis B. Mayer trying to cash in on the success that eluded him when he 'punished' Clark Gable by sending him to Columbia Pictures for a minor comedy that turned out to be It Happened One Night. For the rest of the decade Hollywood saturated the American public with madcap heiress stories.

When you've got one of the leading players under contract to you however it's a bit easier. Gable is given a rival reporter to contend with in Love On The Run in the person of Joan Crawford's real life husband, Franchot Tone. These two room together, but are ready to do everything short of cutting each other's throats to scoop the other.

Two stories that they are both assigned to cover, heiress Joan Crawford's wedding to a prince, Ivan Lebedeff, and a trans-European flight by Baron Reginald Owen get mixed up together as Crawford gets cold feet and Owen turns out to be an international spy.

Gable and Crawford have done it all before, especially Gable. But I kind of feel sorry for Franchot Tone. If he wasn't in a dinner jacket in his MGM parts he was in a film like this, essentially playing the Ralph Bellamy role. It's a very one sided rivalry Gable and Tone have. It's like the Yankees and Red Sox of the last century with the Yankees constantly coming out on top. No wonder Tone left MGM to try for better acting roles. At MGM he showed what he could do in films like Mutiny on the Bounty and Three Comrades, but even these were in support of bigger stars.

There's some nice performances in the cast from Mona Barrie as Owen's wife, Donald Meek as a most eccentric caretaker and William Demarest as Gable's editor. But no new ground was broken here.

Heiress Joan Crawford runs out on her wedding and becomes involved with reporters, spies, and a castle in "Love on the Run," a 1936 comedy also starring Clark Gable, Franchot Tone, William Demarest and Donald Meek.

A really top cast makes this a winner. There were so many of these nutty heiress comedies in the '30s - "Bringing Up Baby," "Taming the Wild," "The Mad Miss Manton" come to mind without trying. Despite the Depression, there must have been a lot of heiresses around. This particular comedy has shades of another madcap heiress film, "Love is News," but is quite a bit crazier. Crawford plays Sally Parker, who, on finding she must sign a paper giving her new royal husband $3 million, bolts. An attractive man all decked out for the wedding offers to help her escape. It's Mike (Clark Gable) and he's playing an ambitious reporter who actually cheated his main rival, Barney (Franchot Tone) out of this particular story. Mike and Sally take off in a plane intended for two Russians and their highly publicized flight - except that while in the plane, Sally finds a strange-looking map, and Mike realizes these Russian fliers are spies. After a crash landing in Europe, the two spend the night in a palace with a crazy caretaker (Donald Meek). Meek, with his bowing and scraping to what he thinks are two ghosts and petting his imaginary dog, nearly steals the entire movie. He's hilarious, particularly when he checks to see if a gun is loaded by pointing it at his head and shooting.

Eventually the Russians appear trying to get their map and the hapless Barney catches up with Mike, who keeps duping him, and Barney falls for it every time.

It doesn't matter if the basic plot is derivative, it's still energetic fun and highly entertaining. Crawford is excellent and looks smashing in a series of outfits - even one originally worn by the Russian spy - it fits her perfectly! Gable is a charming devil, and Tone, a marvelous actor, plays the comedy to perfection. They all have terrific chemistry with one another, as well they should, with Crawford being Mrs. Tone and having been involved with Gable.

A very funny entry from MGM.

Enjoyable piece as society dame falls for reporter in disguise. Road trip is a tad contrived, something about spies and secret plans, but who cares - this movie is powered by the sparks flying between Crawford and Gable. Sidekick Tone is great as the wisecracking nuisance.

This movie is an obvious re-working of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and is a couple steps below it in quality. However, considering that Clark Gable, Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone do such a good job with the material, it's still an excellent film. That's because despite the familiarity of the material, the movie is so much fun to watch. The dialog is snappy and the pacing is great. And, despite the film being pretty predictable (as most were of the era), I didn't mind and felt myself being caught up in the movie.

Joan is a runaway bride and Gable is the cad pretending to help her but he's got a secret agenda. In the end, they are head-over-heels and the movie closes. Sounds familiar? Of course, but who cares--it's still lovely to watch.

This is a very good film and I enjoyed it very much. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Franchot Tone give great performances.

One of the highlights of this film is the delightful comedy cameo by that great character actor, Donald Meek as the batty caretaker at the Palace of Fontainebleu!! His scenes alone are priceless!! Don't miss this film, as it is a very good comedy--not so much a slapstick comedy, or a comedy that overdoes it with hammy performances, but it is a winner all the way!! Be sure and try to catch it next time it is on television--it is very good and you won't be disappointed from it!!