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Love on the Run

Director: W. S. Van Dyke (Dir) Release Date: 20 Nov 1936 Production Date: 19 Aug--mid-Sep 1936 Duration (in mins): 70 or 80-81 Duration (in reels): 8			Print this page Display Movie Summary

Cast:	Joan Crawford	(Sally Parker)
	Clark Gable	(Michael Anthony)
	Franchot Tone	(Barnabas Pells)
	Reginald Owen	(Baron [Otto Spandermann])
	Mona Barrie	(Baroness [Hilda Spandermann])
	Ivan Lebedeff	([Prince] Igor)
	Charles Judels	(Lieutenant of police)
	William Demarest	(Editor [Berger])
	Donald Meek	(Caretaker)
	Charles Trowbridge	(Paris bureau chief)
	Billy Gilbert	(Maitre d')
	Frank Puglia	(Waiter)
	Adia Kuznetzoff	(Rudolph, Baron's servant)
	Leonid Kinsky	(Man on train)
	Christian Rub	(Stephen)
	Dewey Robinson	(Italian father)
	Bobs Watson	(Italian boy)
	Betty Jane Graham	(Italian girl)
	George Davis	(Sergeant of Police)
	Harry Allen	(Chauffeur)
	James B. Carson	(French waiter)
	Reynolds Denniston	(Inspector McCaskill)
	Egon Brecher	(Dr. Gorsay)
	Richard Lancaster	(English news photographer)
	Donald Kerr	(Movie cameraman)
	Charles Irwin	(Movie cameraman)
	Otto H. Fries	(Mechanic)
	Elsa Buchanan	(English department store girl)
	Viola Moore	(English department store girl)
	Nanette Lafayette	(French maid)
	Alice Ardell	(French maid)
	Norman Ainsley	(Newspaper reporter)
	Jimmie Aubrey	(Airplane mechanic)
	Robert Cory	(Assistant to Inspector McCaskill)
	Gunnis Davis	(Hotel elevator man)
	Douglas Gordon	(Cockney comic chauffeur)
	Frank Du Frane	(Assistant to editor)
	E. L. Fisher-Smith	(Reporter)
	Martha Mayo	(Mrs. Jenkins)
	John Power	(English Major Domo)
	Montague Shaw	(Hotel manager)
	Yorke Sherwood	(London Bobbie)
	Tom Herbert	(Comic taxi driver)
	Joe Mack	(Hack driver)
	Charles De Ravenne	(Telegraph messenger)
	Duke York	(Paul, the baron's chauffeur)
	Agostino Borgato	(French comptroller)
	Fred Cavens	(French waiter)
	Fred W. Malatesta	(French waiter)
	Gennaro Curci	(French train announcer)
	Alphonse Martell	(French spy)
	Frank Mayo	(Traveling man)
	Genaro Spagnoli	(French taxi driver)
	Jacques Vanaire	(French telegraph operator)
	Bobby Watson	(Assistant manager)
	Robert Du Couedic	(French clerk)
	George Andre	(Comedy reactionary)
	Dick Alexander	(Thug)
	Lilyan Irene
	Margaret Marquis
	Eleanor Stewart
	Jack De Wees

Summary:

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 Fontainbleau 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.

Production Company:	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.	(Loew's, Inc.)
Production Text:	A W. S. Van Dyke Production
Distribution Company:	Loew's Inc.
Director:	W. S. Van Dyke	(Dir)
	Clarence Brown	(Fill-In dir)
	Tom Andre	(Asst dir)
Producer:	Joseph L. Mankiewicz	(Prod)
Writer:	John Lee Mahin	(Scr)
	Manuel Seff	(Scr)
	Gladys Hurlbut	(Scr)
	Alan Green	(Orig story)
	Julian Brodie	(Orig story)
Photography:	Oliver T. Marsh	(Photog)
Art Direction:	Cedric Gibbons	(Art dir)
	Harry McAfee	(Art dir assoc)
	Edwin B. Willis	(Art dir assoc)
Film Editor:	Frank Sullivan	(Film ed)
Costumes:	Adrian	(Gowns)
Music:	Franz Waxman	(Mus score)
Sound:	Douglas Shearer	(Rec dir)
Make Up:	Bob Mark	(Makeup)
Country:	United States

Songs:	"Gone," music by Franz Waxman, lyrics by Gus Kahn.
Composer:	Gus Kahn
	Franz Waxman
Source Text:	Based on the short story "Beauty and the Beat" by Alan Green and Julian Brodie in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan (Mar 1936).
Authors:	Julian Brodie
	Alan Green

Copyright Claimant	Copyright Date	Copyright Number	Passed By NBR:
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.	16/11/1936 dd/mm/yyyy	LP6748	Yes

PCA NO:	2673
Physical Properties:	b&w:
	Sd:	Western Electric Sound System


Genre:	Comedy
Sub-Genre:	Road

Subjects (Major):	Heiresses
	Impersonation and imposture
	Reporters
	Rivalry
	Romance
	Spies

Subjects (Minor):	Airplane accidents
	Aviators
	Butlers
	Caretakers
	Chateaus
	Fontainbleau (France)
	France
	Maps
	Nobility
	Paris (France)
	Police
	Ruses
	Trains

Note:	Although most sources list a running time of 80 or 81 minutes, Var lists the picture as 70 minutes long for its New York opening. According to a production chart and the review in HR , Clarence Brown directed portions of the picture for a brief period during W. S. Van Dyke's illness. According to various news items in DV and HR , M-G-M originally bought the short story "Beauty and the Beat" for Myrna Loy and Robert Montgomery. Because Loy and Montgomery already had too many assignments, a re-write of the script was made to turn the picture into a vehicle for Montgomery and Jean Harlow, and later as a film for Harlow and Robert Taylor. In mid-Jun 1936, an HR news item announced that Victor Fleming was to direct Harlow in the film. A short time later, Joan Crawford, Clark Gable and Robert Young were announced as the stars. Franchot Tone replaced Young just after the start of production. Production was delayed for several weeks when Van Dyke was assigned to complete the direction of The Devil Is a Sissy (see above), and studio executives considered hiring another director for Love on the Run . In one of the film's scenes, Tone's character tries to cheer up Crawford's character with the following joke: "Knock-knock," "Who's there?," "Machiavelli," "Macchiavelli who?," "Machiavelli good soup for ten dollars." According to modern sources, "knock-knock" jokes began in 1936. This may have been the first of its type ever filmed.

Bibliographic Sources:	Date	Page
Daily Variety	17 Jul 36	p. 3.
Daily Variety	28 Jul 36	p. 3.
Daily Variety	13 Nov 36	p. 3.
Film Daily	17 Nov 36	p. 9.
Hollywood Reporter	21 Mar 36	p. 3.
Hollywood Reporter	10 Jun 36	p. 2.
Hollywood Reporter	20 Aug 36	p. 5.
Hollywood Reporter	21 Aug 36	p. 3.
Hollywood Reporter	8 Sep 36	p. 6.
Hollywood Reporter	24 Aug 36	p. 10.
Hollywood Reporter	13 Nov 36	p. 3.
Motion Picture Daily	14 Nov 36	p. 2.
Motion Picture Herald	3 Oct 36	p. 37.
Motion Picture Herald	21 Nov 36	p. 46, 51
MPSI	1 Jan 37	p. 10.
New York Times	28 Nov 36	p. 13.
Variety	2 Dec 36	p. 18.

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The American Film Institute is grateful to Sir Paul Getty KBE and the Sir Paul Getty KBE Estate for their dedication to the art of the moving image and their support for the AFI Catalog of Feature Films and without whose support AFI would not have been able to achieve this historical landmark in this epic scholarly endeavor.



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