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Myrna Loy and William Powell CollectionManhattan Melodrama (1934) - full review! Evelyn Prentice (1934) - full review! Double Wedding (1937) - Myrna Loy's seventh pairing with William Powell was this Joseph L. Mankiewicz produced comedy that was directed by Richard Thorpe which features a screenplay by Jo Swerling. It's not as good as their earlier films together (nor at least one of their later efforts - I Love You Again (1940)), but it does exude a certain easy charm and serves as yet another example of their undeniable onscreen chemistry. Powell plays a bohemian painter who has been "corrupting" Loy's younger sister Irene (Florence Rice) and the limp-wrist-ed fiancé she'd handpicked for her sibling, Waldo Beaver (John Beal), by keeping them out all night to teach them how to act while directing them in play rehearsals. Loy's character is particularly annoyed because she'd been in control of Irene's life, and Powell's has upset the apple cart, especially since her sister has fallen in love with him. When Loy confronts Powell, he agrees to stop seeing her sister on one condition, that she allow him to paint her "extraordinary" face (e.g. one full of character). She agrees, then naturally falls for Powell's character herself, though she never lets on. The only one who seems to know that both Loy and Powell have fallen for each other is Mrs. Kensington-Bly (Jessie Ralph), a friend of Loy's that also happens to have been acquainted with Powell's in her past. Unfortunately, the plot drags a bit when slapstick sequences overrun the snappy dialogue. Edgar Kennedy, Sidney Toler, and an uncredited Donald Meek are among those who appear in supporting roles. Love Crazy (1941) - Though much of its plot is ridiculously improbable, most will be entertained by this Myrna Loy-William Powell comedy that was directed by Jack Conway and written by David Hertz, William Ludwig, and Charles Lederer. As in their Thin Man series, Powell and Loy played a married pair and this story opens on their fourth wedding anniversary, with his character literally singing the praises of their wedded bliss. Unfortunately, their routine celebration is interrupted by Loy’s mother (Florence Bates plays a perfectly annoying mother-in-law) and events then spiral out of control until she is ready to sue him for divorce!. She believes that her husband had lied to her about time spent with an ex-girlfriend (Gail Patrick), who just so happens to live in the apartment beneath theirs, even though she’d tried to get even with the ex-girlfriend’s husband (Donald MacBride) but mistakenly ended up in the ample arms of Jack Carson, who is forever introducing himself as Ward Willoughby, a championship archer. To get his wife back, on the advice of his lawyer (Sidney Blackmer), Powell pretends to be crazy to delay the proceedings, but ends up getting committed to an insane asylum (run by Sig Ruman) by Vladimir Sokoloff’s character, a place where Sara Haden’s character runs loose. Among the other character actors who appear are Elisha Cook Jr. as an elevator operator, and Selmer Jackson & Ian Wolfe as doctors. |
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