LIBELED LADY (1936)

"She may be his wife, but she's engaged to me!"

Spencer Tracy is a stressed out newspaper man engaged to be married to hot-headed Jean Harlow. On the morning of their latest wedding day (the marriage keeps getting postponed due to newspaper crises), the newspaper prints a false story about the wealthy Myrna Loy having an affair with a married man. She threatens to sue the paper for $5m, so in an act of desperation the newspaper hires suave ladies man William Powell to secretly marry Jean Harlow and then seduce Myrna Loy so the newspaper can catch her in Powell's arms and have the case dropped.  That all sounds good in theory, but Fate throws a monkey wrench in the works by having Powell fall in love with Loy while at the same time Harlow falls in love with Powell!

The idea for the movie is brilliant, but when you throw in not one, not two, not three but four of the greatest stars of silver screen plus the amazing Walter Connolly as Loy's protective father...then you have yourself a surefire screwball classic!  Quick pace that never slows down, wonderful chemistry between the leads, funny lines, hilarious physical comedy, Loy and Harlow are both beautiful.  I've revisited this film many times over the years and I still laugh each time.  William Powell is especially great. His yodel when he walks into to Loy's mansion is hysterical.

Five years later, in 1941, Jack Conway directed another Loy/Powell classic LOVE CRAZY which is almost as funny as LIBELED LADY. Both are highly recommended.

T-MEN (1947)

"Did you ever spend 10 nights in a Turkish bath looking for a man?"

People often never ask me "What film would be a good starting point if I wanted to learn about film noir?", but if they did, I would point them towards 1947's T-MEN.  It's a great film that kinda creeps up on you at just how good it is.

The film is presented in a semi-documentary style complete with a narrator.  The story is about a counterfeiting gang based in Los Angeles.  The Treasury Department has been after them for awhile, but the only clue they have is there's a connection with a gang in Detroit.  They send in two undercover T-men to infiltrate the gang.  

A lot of noirs have all kinds of crazy twists, double-crosses and sometimes even triple-crosses that are sometime hard to follow.  T-MEN has none of that.  It's very straightforward and a lot of fun to watch over and over.  Strong direction by Anthony Mann, amazing cinematography by John Alton, great acting, fast pace, impressive cast.  T-MEN is just a solid movie that should be in every classic movie lovers film collection.  Highly recommended.