Love on the Run (1936)

Perfect cast and a good story

Absolutely brilliant

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

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.

Joan Crawford and producer Joseph Mankiewicz snapped out of the solemnity of the movie "Gorgeous Hussey" for this movie where she is back in the arms of Clark Gable again. Mike Anthony (Gable) and Barny Pells (Franchot Tone) are both friends and fellow press reporters who are in love with the same woman, Sally Parker (Crawford). Both are on her heels in one long chase where Mike, as expected wins over Sally. There is considerable action and popular gagging, but overall entertaining. Gable, as usual outwitting the slower-moving competitor, promises to fill the void in the life of the abused heiress, Sally Parker. She has just deserted a fortune-seeker at the altar, and the two newspapermen see the opportunities in making a series of reports exposing the rich lady's reactions to real romance. Reginald Owen is ingratiating as the suave spy chief and his wife Mona Barrie makes a nice assistant. Donald Meek strains hard to make a nitwit caretaker part humorous.This is a romantic comedy and W.S. Van Dyke has directed the movie with true professionalism. Reginald Owen and Mona Barrie in the supporting roles helped the lead characters make this movie a box office success. Joan Crawford went on to make eight movies for Mankiewicz that included; The Bride Wore Red; the Gorgeous Hussy; Mannequin; Reunion in France; the Shining Hour; Strange Cargo and Love on the Run.

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.

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.