''Love on the Run'' is a 1936 American

romantic comedy film Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

, directed by

W.S. Van Dyke Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II (Woody) (March 21, 1889 – February 5, 1943) was an American film director and writer who made several successful early sound films, including ''Tarzan the Ape Man'' in 1932, ''The Thin Man'' in 1934, ''San Franci ...

, produced by

Joseph L. Mankiewicz Joseph Leo Mankiewicz (; February 11, 1909 – February 5, 1993) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Mankiewicz had a long Hollywood career, and won both the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best ...

, and starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone and Reginald Owen in a story about rival newspaper correspondents assigned to cover the marriage of a

socialite A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...

. The screenplay by

John Lee Mahin John Lee Mahin (August 23, 1902, Evanston, Illinois – April 18, 1984, Los Angeles) was an American screenwriter and producer of films who was active in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1960s. He was known as the favorite writer of Clark Gable a ...

Manuel Seff Manuel Seff (1895–1969) was an American playwright and screenwriter.Balio p.217 Selected filmography * ''Terror Aboard'' (1933) * ''The Girl in 419'' (1933) * ''Footlight Parade'' (1933) * '' Easy to Love'' (1934) * ''Gold Diggers of 1935'' (1 ...

and

Gladys Hurlbut Gladys may refer to: * Gladys (given name), people with the given name Gladys * ''Gladys'' (album), a 2013 album by Leslie Clio * ''Gladys'' (film), 1999 film written and directed by Vojtěch Jasný * Gladys, Virginia, United States * '' Glad ...

was based on a story by Alan Green and Julian Brodie. ''Love on the Run'' is the seventh of eight cinematic collaborations between Crawford and Gable. At the time of its release, ''Love on the Run'' was called "a lot of happy nonsense" by critics, but a huge financial success, nonetheless.

Plot

Rival London-based American newspaper correspondents Michael "Mike" Anthony ( Clark Gable) and Barnabas "Barney" Pells ( Franchot Tone) flip a coin to determine who will cover which of two boring assignments. Mike gets to cover the wedding of millionairess Sally Parker ( Joan Crawford) to fortune-seeking Prince Igor ( Ivan Lebedeff), while Barney has to interview

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

Baron Otto Spandermann ( Reginald Owen) and his wife, Baroness Hilda ( Mona Barrie). When Mike sees Sally running out of the church, he follows her, hoping to get a story. At her hotel, Mike runs into the suspicious Barney, but does not tell him what just happened. He then sneaks into Sally's hotel room, tells her that he has admired her for years, and suggests that he help her "get away from it all." When the gigolo prince comes to the hotel, Mike slugs him when the prince recognizes him as a reporter. He and Sally run away, using the Baron and Baroness's flying suits as disguises. Barney chases them to the airport, but is too late. They fly away, though neither is a pilot. Just before they crash land in France, they find a munitions map in a bouquet of flowers intended for the Baroness and realize that the aviators are spies. Although Mike has sent a secret cablegram about Sally to his editor, Lees Berger ( William Demarest), in New York, he is even more excited about the spy story. In Paris, Mike and Sally are found by Barney, then are spotted by the Baron and Baroness. Barney comes along when they flee, but Mike pushes him into the back of the truck they steal and convinces Sally that Barney is a lowlife reporter. By nightfall, they arrive at the Palace of Fontainebleau and sneak in to spend the night. During the evening, they realize that they are in love, and Mike tries to tell her that he is a reporter, but cannot. Next morning, Barney finds them again, but Sally does not believe him when he accuses Mike of being a reporter too. Soon, however, an ashamed Mike gives her a newspaper with his byline. He apologizes and tells her he loves her, but she sends him away. When Barney arrives, she says she will give him the greatest story of his career, and they go off to make headlines. A short time later, while they are traveling by train to Nice, Sally realizes that she still loves Mike and wants to go to him, but just then the Baron and Baroness come into their compartment with guns and demand that Sally give them the map. When they do not find it, after pushing Barney off the train, they leave. Barney catches up with Mike at a cafe in Paris and tells him what happened, Mike decides to save Sally. In Nice, Mike is reunited with Sally, and they go to the train station. In the station, the Baroness switches clothes with Sally in the ladies room, then goes with Mike, posing as Sally. The Baron finds Sally and takes her to a restaurant. She tries to alert the police, but when two policemen arrive, they believe the Baron's story that she stole his aircraft. The Baron then kidnaps Sally and the policemen and takes them to his chateau, where the Baroness has Mike bound and gagged. Having followed Mike and the Baroness (thinking that she was Sally), Barney at first laughs at Mike, then frees him. Using various ruses, Mike, Sally and the policemen eventually overwhelm the spies. Sally and Mike go off, leaving Barney tied up, but Mike has a change of heart and returns, once again finding Barney trying to get his story first by using the chateau phone to cable his editor. They finally agree to file a joint byline. Sally and Mike agree that they will soon be married.

Cast

* Joan Crawford as Sally Parker * Clark Gable as Michael "Mike" Anthony * Franchot Tone as Barnabus W. "Barney" Pells * Reginald Owen as Baron Otto Spandermann * Mona Barrie as Baroness Hilda Spandermann * Ivan Lebedeff as Prince Igor * Charles Judels as Lieutenant of Police * William Demarest as Editor Lees Berger *

Donald Meek Thomas Donald Meek (14 July 1878 – 18 November 1946) was a Scottish-American actor. He first performed publicly at the age of eight and began appearing on Broadway in 1903. Meek is perhaps best known for his roles in the films '' You Can't T ...

as Fontainbleau Palace Caretaker * Charles Trowbridge as Paris bureau chief (uncredited) * Billy Gilbert as Maitre d' (uncredited) * Frank Puglia as Waiter (uncredited) * Harry Allen as Chauffeur (uncredited)

Production

Looking to capitalize on the American screwball comedy genre, MGM paired its two top box office stars, Gable and Crawford.Landazuri, Margarita
"Articles: 'Love on the Run' (1936)."
''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: July 25, 2015. Principal photography took place from August 19 to September 15, 1936. A Lockheed Model 10E Electra figures prominently as the aircraft stolen from the airport. The aircraft was provided by

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

"stunt" pilot Paul Mantz who acted as the aerial coordinator for the brief aerial sequence. It was precisely the same plane later flown by Mantz's friend

Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...

on her ill-fated around-the-world expedition in 1937.

Reception

In his review of ''Love on the Run'', Howard Barnes of the ''

New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

'' wrote, "A lot of gay nonsense has been strung together ... a fantastic and insubstantial narrative, with the result that it is almost continuously amusing and frequently hilarious ... Miss Crawford, of the big eyes and flowing hair, turns in a surprisingly volatile and amusing performance as the heiress." John T. McManus in his review for '' The New York Times'', however, called it, "A slightly daffy cinematic item of absolutely no importance." '' Variety'' wrote that it was "crowded with ludicrous situations" and suffered from "meandering story development, some slipshod dialogue concoctions and several vapid moments." John Mosher of '' The New Yorker'' wrote, "Everybody works very hard in ''Love on the Run'', but only succeeds in seeming pretty pitiful." In a later review by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, he dismissed the film as derivative; "This stale 'It Happened One Night' variation relies solely on its star power."Maltin, Leonard
"Leonard Maltin Ratings & Review: 'Love on the Run' (1936)."
''Turner Classic Movies''. Retrieved: July 25, 2015.

Box office

According to MGM records ''Love on the Run'' earned $1,141,000 in the United States and Canada and $721,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $1,284,000.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Quirk, Lawrence J. ''Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography''. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. .

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Love On The Run (1936 Film) 1936 films 1936 romantic comedy films 1930s screwball comedy films American romantic comedy films American screwball comedy films American black-and-white films American aviation films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films scored by Franz Waxman Films directed by W. S. Van Dyke Films set in France Films produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz Films set in London Films set in Paris Films set in Nice 1930s English-language films 1930s American films