Love on the Run

This one is worth seeing for Crawford's delightful performance: she positively glows as the madcap heiress on the run. Despite the silly story and uneven performance from Gable (his legendary chemistry with Crawford is nonetheless in evidence), there is always the snappy dialogue (much of it written by John Lee Mahin of "Red Dust" and "Bombshell"), to keep the laughs coming. Crawford's then husband Franchot Tone plays Gable's fellow reporter. For anyone who wonders why she is called the ultimate movie star.

A runaway bride (Joan Crawford) gets tangled up with a reporter (Clark Gable) and the two travel together, eventually falling love. Stop me if you've heard this one before. Obviously inspired by It Happened One Night, it's not a remake or a direct ripoff. Just a cash-in like Hollywood has always done. Still, it's actually a pretty nice movie.

Funny, silly, with wonderful chemistry between Gable and Crawford. There's a great scene early on where the two climb into a plane. Gable looks at all the plane's gauges and says "I wonder what all those gadgets are for?" What follows is one of the funniest airplane takeoffs I've ever seen on film. Franchot Tone also stars as Gable's friend and rival reporter. Donald Meek has a brief but memorable part as well. It's a fun movie with snappy dialogue and a great cast. Gable is especially good. It's not without flaws but give it a shot and I'm sure you'll find something to like about it.

Let me tell you why this movie is good: It shows that Joan Crawford and Clark Gable were great comic actors. There is no question that if I Love Lucy had been re-casted with Crawford and Gable as Lucy and Ricky, the results would have been hilarious. Also, Franchot Tone gives one the more hilarious performances as Gable's news reporter chum and rival. Tone would have played an extremely amusing Fred Mertz. The story is so upbeat and so amusing that it is virtually impossible to find anything about it to dislike. The story has snappy dialog, farcical plot, engaging characters and excellent cinematography. Any movie that features Crawford, Gable and Tone running around France and getting into all kinds of silly trouble is a movie that will entertain.

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.

So much potential here, and it easily could have been a great film if the second half was as good as the first. Even if the idea for the story was not novel, it sounded really entertaining and intriguing. When Joan Crawford was on form, she blistered. So did Clark Gable, although the likeability of his characters varied he never stopped being likeable as an actor. Franchot Tone was great in the more suave roles. WS Van Dyke did some good films such as 'The Thin Man' and 'I Love You Again'.

'Love on the Run' is not one of Van Dyke's better films though, somewhere slap bang in the middle. Actually enjoyed it quite a bit on the most part and all three stars and the support are on fine form (if not at their best), but 'Love on the Run' is somewhat uneven as an overall whole. Starting off so well and with such amazing promise, but lost focus in the latter stages as a result of trying too hard. Recommendable for fans of this type of film and if seeing all the work of the actors and Van Dyke, yet not a must see.

There are plenty of good things about 'Love on the Run'. It looks attractive, especially the stylish photography with camera angles that clearly loved Crawford (without being too absorbed in her) and the truly elegant costumes, Crawford looks stunning. The sets may not be authentic and somewhat studio-bound but don't look cheap. Franz Waxman was one of the finest film composers at that time and his score is typically lush without being over-scored.. Van Dyke keeps things moving at a lively clip and it is accomplished in the first half.

As said the first half is great, full of sparkling wit, energy and charm. Surprises may not have been many but it wasn't overly predictable at the same time. 'Love on the Run' benefits greatly from a very snappy script that is full of wit and sophistication for a lot of the length. Crawford is photogenic and charm and un-forced comic timing to spare without over-acting. Gable is dashing and suave, his character is not a likeable one but Gable sinks his teeth into the role and does wonders with it. Tone is dapper and doesn't look embarrassed by his material, taking the humiliations with such easy-going charm and professionalism. The chemistry between the three looks genuine and they looked like they were having fun with each other. Donald Meek is hilarious and the supporting cast standout.

Did feel however that the second half wasn't as strong. Would go as far to say that in terms of story and execution it was almost like watching a different and inferior film with too much of a jarring gear-change. The spy subplot too often goes well overboard on the silliness to a ridiculous degree and some of the humour strains too hard for laughs and feels contrived instead.

Pace-wise, the latter stages don't have quite as much of the energy seen in the first half. Due to being bogged down by the writing not being as inspired or as natural. The second half doesn't feel as inspired in terms of its material, and some of it is very predictable as a result of doing little fresh with familiar territory.

Overall, really liked the first half but had problems with the film when it changed gear. 6/10