Van Dyke, produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and starring Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Franchot Tone and Reginald Owen in a story about rival newspaper correspondents assigned to cover the marriage of a socialite.

[2] The screenplay by John Lee Mahin, Manuel Seff and Gladys Hurlbut was based on a story by Alan Green and Julian Brodie.

[3] At the time of its release, Love on the Run was called "a lot of happy nonsense" by critics, but was a huge financial success, nonetheless.

Rival London-based American newspaper correspondents Michael "Mike" Anthony (Clark Gable) and Barnabas "Barney" Pells (Franchot Tone) flip a coin to determine who will cover which of two boring assignments.

Mike gets to cover the wedding of millionairess Sally Parker (Joan Crawford) to fortune-seeking Prince Igor (Ivan Lebedeff), while Barney has to interview aviator Baron Otto Spandermann (Reginald Owen) and his wife, Baroness Hilda (Mona Barrie).

Although Mike has sent a secret cablegram about Sally to his editor, Lees Berger (William Demarest), in New York, he is even more excited about the spy story.

Looking to capitalize on the American screwball comedy genre, MGM paired its two top box office stars, Gable and Crawford.

[Note 1] In his review of Love on the Run, Howard Barnes of the New York Herald Tribune wrote, "A lot of gay nonsense has been strung together ... a fantastic and insubstantial narrative, with the result that it is almost continuously amusing and frequently hilarious ... Miss Crawford, of the big eyes and flowing hair, turns in a surprisingly volatile and amusing performance as the heiress.

"[7] Variety wrote that it was "crowded with ludicrous situations" and suffered from "meandering story development, some slipshod dialogue concoctions and several vapid moments.