Michael Anthony (Clark Gable) and Barnabus Pells (Franchot Tone) are friendly rival reporters for competing newspapers based in New York City. They are in London to cover a couple of stories. One involves American heiress Sally Parker (Joan Crawford) marrying a European Prince, the other involves the maiden flight of an experimental airplane.
Michael arrives at the church to cover Sally's wedding just as Sally storms out and jumps into a taxi. He follows her back to the same hotel where Barney is going to interview the experimental aircraft pilot. Michael is roped into accompanying Barney for the interview just long enough to see that the pilot and copilot must wear special uniforms, then he breaks away to Sally's room to discover her crying on her bed.
Sally called off the wedding because she found out the Prince was only interested in her money. Now she is being hounded by reporters ... and she hates reporters. Michael pretends that he's just a fan who followed her on the society pages, helps her get out of the hotel (by stealing those fight suits in the pilot's hotel room for disguises), then he whisks her off in the aforementioned experimental aircraft.
He's also going to use this opportunity to grab headlines back home by keeping the NY Chronicle updated via wire on his adventure with Sally.
Once airborne and headed for France Sally finds a map hidden in a bouquet of flowers given to her as she boarded the plane. So, it appears that the pilot and his wife are Russian spies and this whole "experimental" plane thing was a way to smuggle the map out of England.
The rest of the film follows Sally and Michael as they try to avoid the press and outrun the spies. Barney is the only one who catches up to them but he is inevitably restrained and left behind each time.
Overall this is a fun, fast-paced romance / adventure with cookie-cutter spies, incompetent cops, and a very odd caretaker at the Fontainebleau Palace / museum (with the invisible dog Bismarck) who briefly gets caught up in all this.
Recommended.
Michael arrives at the church to cover Sally's wedding just as Sally storms out and jumps into a taxi. He follows her back to the same hotel where Barney is going to interview the experimental aircraft pilot. Michael is roped into accompanying Barney for the interview just long enough to see that the pilot and copilot must wear special uniforms, then he breaks away to Sally's room to discover her crying on her bed.
Sally called off the wedding because she found out the Prince was only interested in her money. Now she is being hounded by reporters ... and she hates reporters. Michael pretends that he's just a fan who followed her on the society pages, helps her get out of the hotel (by stealing those fight suits in the pilot's hotel room for disguises), then he whisks her off in the aforementioned experimental aircraft.
He's also going to use this opportunity to grab headlines back home by keeping the NY Chronicle updated via wire on his adventure with Sally.
Once airborne and headed for France Sally finds a map hidden in a bouquet of flowers given to her as she boarded the plane. So, it appears that the pilot and his wife are Russian spies and this whole "experimental" plane thing was a way to smuggle the map out of England.
The rest of the film follows Sally and Michael as they try to avoid the press and outrun the spies. Barney is the only one who catches up to them but he is inevitably restrained and left behind each time.
Overall this is a fun, fast-paced romance / adventure with cookie-cutter spies, incompetent cops, and a very odd caretaker at the Fontainebleau Palace / museum (with the invisible dog Bismarck) who briefly gets caught up in all this.
Recommended.