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MGM, 1936. Directed by
W.S. Van Dyke. Camera: Oliver Marsh. With
Joan Crawford,
Clark Gable,
Franchot Tone, Reginald Owen, Mona Barrie, Ivan Lebedeff, Charles Judels,
William Demarest, Donald Meek, Charles Trowbridge,
Billy Gilbert,
Frank Puglia, Adia Kuznetzoff, Leonid Kinsky, Christian Rub, Dewey Robinson,
Bobs Watson, Betty Jane Graham, George Davis, Harry Allen, James B. Carson,
Reynolds Denniston, Egon Brecher, Richard Lancaster, Donald Kerr, Charles
Irwin, Otto H. Fries, Elsa Buchanan, Viola Moore, Nanette Layfaette, Alice
Ardell, Norman Ainsley, Jimmie Aubrey, Robert Cory, Gunnis Davis, Douglas
Gordon, Frank Du Frane. |
Rival London-based American newspaper
correspondents Michael Anthony and Barnabas Pells flip a coin to
determine who will cover which of two boring assignments. Mike
gets the story about millionairess Sally Parker's wedding to Prince
Igor, while Barney takes an interview with aviator Baron Otto
Spandermann and his wife Hilda.
On the way into the wedding, Mike sees
Sally running out of the church and follows her, hoping to get a
story. At her hotel, he runs into the suspicious Barney, but
doesn't tell him what just happened, then sneaks into Sally's hotel
room, and telling her that he has admired her for years, 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, and he and Sally decide to run away, using the Baron and
Baroness' flying suits as disguises. Barney chases them to the
airport, but is too late and 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. Though Mike
has sent a secret cablegram about Sally to his editor Berger in New
York, he is even more excited about the spy story. In Paris,
after getting money from his paper, Mike and Sally are found by
Barney, then are spotted by the Baron and Baroness. As they
flee, Barney comes along until 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 can't. Next morning, Barney
finds them again, but Sally doesn't believe him when he accuses Mike
of being a reporter, too. Soon, however, an ashamed Mike gives
her a newspaper with his byline and she realizes what he has done.
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. They search Sally but
do not find it and leave her after pushing Barney off the train.
When Barney catches up with Mike at a cafe in Paris and tells him
what has happened, Mike decides to go to Nice himself to save Sally.
In Nice, Mike is lovingly reunited with
Sally at her hotel 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 then
finds Sally and takes her to a restaurant. She tries to
contact the police, but when two policemen arrive, they believe the
Baron's story that she stole his plane. The Baron then kidnaps
Sally and the policemen and takes them to his chateau, where the
Baroness has taken Mike. Having followed Mike and the
Baroness, thinking that she was Sally, Barney also arrives.
Using various ruses, Mike, Sally and the policemen eventually
overwhelm the Baron and Baroness and 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, and Sally and Mike agree that they will soon be
married.
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