Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
William Powell and Myrna Loy, as a team, are one of my top ten favorite things about cinema. High praise, indeed.
I love the THIN MAN series unreservedly. I watch those movies one right after another after another twice a year. I use them to cleanse the palette whenever I feel like I’ve seen too much Hollywood or just had enough of hype or whatever. Whenver I’m feeling at all jaded about the joy of watching movies, I reach for these as a reminder of the existence of pure cinema pleasure. The sort of thing that never gets old for me. We all have our movie comfort food (I’d love to hear some of yours... stuff that you enjoy but don’t normally talk about), and for me, there’s something about the chemistry between Powell and Loy that works on all levels. They’re funny together. That’s a given. They know how to play verbal ping-pong, with clockwork timing in the back and forth. But there’s more than that. You believe the affection. They seem to enjoy each other, and that’s what makes it sexy. All the repartee, all the jokes, all the verbal sparring... it’s clearly a prelude to good ol’ fashioned fucking. It’s not even subtext. Considering when the movies were made, they are a shockingly randy couple, and it always seems to me that most of their scenes in their movies either start right after or conclude just before some seriously spirited marital bliss. They make the idea of marriage powerfully sexy in the THIN MAN movies. Myrna Loy gets worked up watching her husband do what he does best, and she always seems to find him most exciting when he’s most completely in his element.
I know they did more films together, but they haven’t been readily available until now. TCM has the rights, and I assume they’ve had the movies in circulation to some extent. I see the stickers on the front of the TCM releases now: “WATCH IT ON TCM! OWN IT ON DVD!” They’re basically using their channel as an advertisement for their catalog titles, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s a great idea. I don’t watch movies on broadcast cable very often... I have the channels, and on rare occasion, I’ll stop and watch a few minutes of something. The truth is, I just hate watching movies on someone else’s schedule.
All I know for sure is there are five new Powell/Loy films on DVD that I’ve never seen before, and that’s great news.
So far, the one title from the collection that I’ve watched was LOVE CRAZY. There’s an MGM cartoon included as part of the special features, a Hugh Harman production called “The Alley Cat.” It’s a mediocre MGM effort, nothing memorable, but in one way, it sort of echoes THE THIN MAN. Remember... Nora was a society princess from a family of money, married to a retired police detective who was older than her, rougher than her, and not at all whom she “should” marry. That’s sort of the subtext of “The Alley Cat,” in which a pampered housecat falls for the titular character. Other than that, which I found amusing in passing, it’s nothing special.
The movie, though, was pretty damn good. It’s not MY MAN GODFREY or the original THIN MAN good, but it’s good. It was made in 1941, the same year as the fourth film in the THIN MAN series, a year after they did I LOVE YOU AGAIN. The studio had obviously identified a good thing by this point, and they knew not to stray too far from formula. Powell’s a cad... but just a little bit of a cad. He’s a good guy at heart, but he’s been around the block (many, many times), and he’s often the victim of circumstance. He tries to do the right thing, and people think the worst of him. Here, he’s Steve Ireland, still madly in love with his wife Susan (Loy) even after four years of marriage. They celebrate their anniversary each year by reliving their first date, beat for beat. Steve wants to shake things up on this anniversary, though, and do everything backwards. In other words, he knows how tired he’s going to be at the end of the six hour date, and he’d like to get his boot knockin’ in at the start of things. I love how he brings it up, and I love how Myrna Loy is more than willing to start with dessert as well. Again... these two weren’t subtle at all. It’s all right there on the surface. They make it feel like they can barely keep their hands off each other.
Powell runs into an old girlfriend, Isobel (Gail Patrick), who has since married as well. She’s not above a li’l afternoon delight with Steve, though, and makes that abundantly clear. Steve keeps her at arm’s length, and at first doesn’t tell Susan about it. Once she hears about him running into Isobel, it’s like everything Steve does makes him look guiltier, even though he’s not.
When things get out of hand, Steve finds himself staring down the barrel of a divorce, and he does the only thing he can think of to stop Susan from making a rash mistake: he fakes being insane so that the court won’t process the divorce. If you’re a fan of Powell as a comic actor, that’s probably all I need to tell you. The opportunity to watch him play fake crazy, all the while desperate to prove to his wife that he loves her and only her, is pretty fully realized here, and that’s why it works. Sometimes, a comedy sets up a great premise then never really pays it off. Here, the film keeps getting better as it goes, culminating in an extended sequence that (I believe) features the only occasion in Powell’s entire career where he shaved his trademark moustache. I always think of Powell as sort of having the career I thought Bill Murray was going to have for a little while. Back when STRIPES and GHOSTBUSTERS and TOOTSIE were all fresh memories, back when Bill Murray was still sort of coming into his own as an icon, I think he could have had a career doing romantic comedies, one after another. He’s made a few that I think really work, like GROUNDHOG DAY or SCROOGED (seriously... it gets me every time), but Powell was the man. He made dozens of these, and when he worked, he was pretty much without peer. Powell elevates the scenes he’s in, and everyone else has to raise their game to keep up with him.
LOVE CRAZY marked a reunion for Powell and Loy with Jack Conway, the director of the very good LIBELED LADY from 1936. Conway was pretty much the textbook definition of a studio-era director. He shot what the studio told him to shoot. He shot it pretty well. He was good with actors. He didn’t make any classics, but he worked consistently and with a fair amount of skill. This is one of his best films, and he keeps things just light enough, just romantic enough, that it all works.
The new MYRNA LOY AND WILLIAM POWELL COLLECTION is going to be released August 7th, and in addition to LOVE CRAZY, you’ll get MANHATTAN MELODRAMA, EVELYN PRENTICE, DOUBLE WEDDING, and I LOVE YOU AGAIN.
Like I said at the end of my HAIRSPRAY piece, I’ve been busy moving into a new house with my family, and there’s a lot of stuff that’s half-finished for you guys that I’m trying to get to.
Have you checked my DVD Blog Today?
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Have you checked my DVD Blog Today? Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
