In Germany, in the year 1936, seven prisoners escape from a concentration camp. One by one they are caught and their bodies are placed on crucifixes at the camp as a warning to others who may attempt escape. Only one man from these seven, George Heisler ( Spencer Tracy ), remains uncaptured and it is his escape from the Nazi's Gestapo that becomes the dramatic premise of MGM's The Seventh Cross ( 1944 ).
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios made a number of excellent espionage films right in the midst of the war. "The Seventh Cross" was a novel written by Anna Seghers that the studio had purchased to adapt as a film. The novel had all the makings of a blockbuster hit and indeed, the film itself raked in a tidy profit, but in comparison to other espionage pictures of the era, The Seventh Cross, lacks a few qualities that could have elevated the film to becoming a real classic.
While Spencer Tracy gave a wonderful performance as our lead character George Heisler, Robert Taylor would have been more suited to the role. Tracy just wasn't convincing enough to be a bitter hard-hearted escapee from a concentration camp. His character has little dialogue throughout much of the film and Tracy's eyes were not expressive enough to convey what he was feeling in these scenes.....hence, the audience is given off-screen narration by Ray Collins to help us better understand his plight.
At one point in the story, George hides at an inn where a pretty maid ( Signe Hasso ) aids him in hiding from the Gestapo. Within a few hours we are to believe that she falls in love with him, but this, too, would have seemed more plausible with Robert Taylor in the lead instead of Tracy.
George Heisler's past could have been established better, too. Helen Deutsch's script smoothly avoided the topic of why George was put in a concentration camp in the first place ( the novel explained that he was a Communist ). For a brief moment, we are shown a flashback of George's sweetheart Leni ( Kaaren Verne ) vowing that she will love him always. He flees to Leni's apartment as soon as he escapes the camp only to discover that she refuses to aid him - and is now married to a German officer! This, of course, is a major shock to George but it fails to elicit much emotion from the viewer because Leni's character was given less than 3-minutes of screentime in the flashback scene, which is hardly enough time to flesh out a character.
Nevertheless, The Seventh Cross has many redeeming highlights, most notably a fantastic performance from Hume Cronyn which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination. Hume portrays Paul, an old friend of George's who is willing to shelter him from the Nazi's and help him find underground connections who can arrange his escape out of Germany. Cronyn's wife Jessica Tandy is also given a wonderful part as his character's wife Liesel. It is worth watching the film for the performance this dynamic duo alone gives.
Fred Zinnemann ( High Noon, From Here to Eternity, The Nun's Story ) helmed the production for the film and, even at this early stage in his career, it was evident what a skillful director he was.
The Seventh Cross also boasts an amazing cast of supporting players including Herbert Rudley, Agnes Moorehead, dear Felix Bressart, Stephen Geray, George Macready, George Zucco and Eily Malyon.
Every ace reporter wants a good story, one that is ripe with human interest and a fair amount of juice. But a really good reporter avoids the pulp. Sometimes, in the haste of chasing a scoop they squeeze a lemon and then they find the aftertaste to be quite bitter. Warren Haggerty ( Spencer Tracy ) did just that. As editor of the New York Evening Star, he printed a statement that heiress Connie Allenbury ( Myrna Loy ) was a marriage-breaker, cause enough for her to sue him for libel - $5,000,000 worth!
Frantic, Haggerty schemes up a plan to prove his statement true. He nabs an out-of-work reporter ( William Powell ) to marry his own fiancee Gladys ( Jean Harlow ), and then orders him to compromise Ms. Allenbury. Enter an indignant Gladys who will then publicly sue Connie Allenbury for husband-stealing. Good plan, providing all runs well.
All does NOT go well, however. Hence, the film takes a rollicking good turn into the realm of comedic mayhem.
Libeled Lady is based on an original story by William Sullivan, a former newspaper reporter himself. Its premise revolves around a newspaper editor's worse nightmare - a libel suit. But, like most editors will attest, ingenuity comes to the rescue in moments of crisis, and Warren Haggerty will do anything to avoid that suit and save his job.
The film is a briskly paced and highly amusing comedy which gives each of its stars plenty of room to sparkle and shine. It features some of MGM's top talent in their best form. Jean Harlow began her rise to stardom through screwball comedies and her return to the genre, after some more diverse roles in Riffraff ( 1935 ), Wife vs. Secretary ( 1936 ), and Suzy ( 1936 ), was welcomed with open arms by the public. Libeled Lady secured her standing as one of MGM's top female stars. She went on to make two more films before her untimely death at the age of 26.
Interestingly enough, Harlow originally balked at playing the part of Gladys. She wanted the role of Connie Allenbury in order to have scenes with her off-screen fiancee, William Powell. The MGM boss, Louis B. Mayer, shook his head at the suggestion ( he insisted the Powell/Loy teaming was what the public wanted ), and by the end of the film Harlow admitted that she enjoyed playing Gladys and the role was perfect for her. Even though she didn't get to spend many scenes together with Powell, they did spend time with each other in between scenes. As Frank Miller* writes,
" She often visited the set when he was filming his scenes with Loy. One of those times, while she was waiting for Powell to finish a scene so they could go to dinner, director Jack Conway realized that he was one extra short for a big scene. Rather than let them postpone shooting - the casting office was already closed for the night - Harlow put on a black wig and joined the rest of the extras, a return to the work she had done when she first arrived in Hollywood ".
Rosalind Russell was originally selected for the role of the heiress, but after the success of Powell and Loy's teaming in The Great Ziegfeld, it was decided that Myrna Loy would be more suitable. Libeled Lady marked the fifth of their fourteen films together.
Another star that was replaced prior to the film's shooting was Lionel Barrymore for the part of Mr. Allenbury. Walter Connolly took over and played it with flair.
Location scenes for the famous fishing sequence were filmed in the high Sierras of California. The beautiful set design of the Allenbury's fishing cottage was another wonderful creation from MGM's supervising art director, Cedric Gibbons, who was busy that year working on Romeo and Juliet and The Great Ziegfeld for the studio as well.
Libeled Lady was advertised as being MGM's first all-star film since Dinner at Eight ( 1933 ). It was directed by one of MGM's most dependable directors, Jack Conway, and was an immense hit at the box-office, earning $2.7 million in sales and even picked up an Oscar nod for Best Picture.
Unlike most romantic comedies today, Libeled Lady had a perfect balance of star punch. It subtly refused to shine the spotlight on any one person and let it rest on all of them instead. It is truly a sophisticated slapstick par excellence. We have not seen the movie in over ten years and yet the one feature we do recall about the movie is it was funny...for that to remain memorable is a testament to how amusing the film must really be.
Some may say that a libel suit is no laughing matter...but Libeled Lady proves that statement wrong. It can be a laughing matter indeed!
This post is our contribution to the Journalism in Classic Film blogathon covering newspaper men and women in classic films, hosted by Comet Over Hollywood and Lindsay's Movie Musings. Be sure to check out all the other great posts in this blogathon!
* for TCMdb
At one point in the story, George hides at an inn where a pretty maid ( Signe Hasso ) aids him in hiding from the Gestapo. Within a few hours we are to believe that she falls in love with him, but this, too, would have seemed more plausible with Robert Taylor in the lead instead of Tracy. 
