- This set includes: Manhattan Melodrama, Loy and Powell’s first screen pairing, showcases an on-screen magic that also sparks the tense courtroom thriller Evelyn Prentice. Comedies, however – urbane to insane – were the duo’s mainstays, and this set has three of their bubbliest. In Double Wedding, Loy doesn’t want her sister to wed bohemian Powell. Any guess who does? A clunk to the hea
CONTAINS: DOUBLE WEDDING, EVELYN PRENTICE, I LOVE YOU AGAIN,LOVE CRAZY AND MANHATTAN MELODRAMA.The Thin Man was just the beginning. Myrna Loy and William Powell were one of Hollywood’s best-matched screen teams, with the chemistry fairly bubbling in their scenes together, as this Warner treasure trove boxed set shows. Audiences in the ’30s and ’40s delighted in the fact that Loy’s urbane sophisticate characters could match Powell’s quip for quip, martini for martini.
Manhattan Melodrama (1934) showcases Powell and Clark Gable as longtime friends on opposite sides of the law, and is the first pairing of Loy and Powell (and the first of four films they would make in 1934 alone. The film is briskly directed and the crackling screenplay won an Oscar the next year. Evelyn Prentice (1934) is the troubled wife (Loy) of a preoccupied attorney (Powell) who appears oblivious. The story isn’t one of the strongest in the collection, but the cast sparkles nonetheless. A witchy Rosalind Russell makes her memorable film debut as a femme fatale.
Double Wedding (1937) lets Loy and Powell flex their comedic chops. The plot is full of switchbacks and misunderstandings, but the key point is that their pal Waldo (John Beal) is that dreaded ’30s male screen archetype, the milquetoast. Much of the film’s fun is watching Powell’s character coach poor Waldo to grow a backbone: “Women don’t like noble, self-sacrificing men. Women are not civilized like we are. They like bloodshed!”
I Love You Again (1940) is one of the top screwball comedies of all time. George (Powell) is bonked on the head and realizes he’s had amnesia for the past several years, has been terribly boring and has been, yes, a milquetoast–who’s about to be divorced by his fed-up wife, Kay (Loy). The crazy plot is lofted by the brilliant screenplay and the delivery of the two leads, who spar like expert fencers: George: “You be careful, madam, or you’ll turn my pretty head with your flattery!” Kay: “I often wished I could turn your head–on a spit, over a slow fire.” Divine! Love Crazy (1941) is another classic farce, featuring Powell in drag, Powell faking insanity, Powell conniving to win back Loy’s love–all in a witty, urbane way, of course.
The set is also chockfull of great extras, with each feature paired with a classic comedy or musical short, plus cartoon or audio radio interviews. The icing on the cake: The fabulous packaging, including an image from the original movie posters on the discs themselves. Film lovers won’t want to miss this splendid collection. –A.T. Hurley
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March 13, 2010
#1
5 Stars = Best, 1 Star = Bad
Manhattan Melodrama = 4 stars
Evelyn Prentice = 3 stars
Double Wedding = 5 stars
I Love You Again = 3 stars
Love Crazy = 4 Stars
March 13, 2010
#2
Powell and Loy are at their best in the last two films. I personally much prefer Love Crazy to I Love You Again, which is slightly skewered and in some ways unpleasant – Powell’s earlier years playing villans gives a bit too much authenticity to his characterization of a cad. One is left the ugly suspicion that a hidden side of his character is fundamentally quite detestable. Too, I Love You Again calls up a little too much of the drab small town dinginess (and sets to match) infiltrating and to my taste weakening the glamour of scenes in the later Thin Man series. Loy made some fine realistic movies, but Powell and Loy together are NOT small town!
Love Crazy finds the urban-dweller Powell waltzing into the movie, happily in love, ironically whistling the playful ditty “It’s Delightful to be Married” a previous screen love, Louise Rainer, sang for him as Flo Ziegfeld’s Fanny Held. (Who Powell playing Ziegfeld divorces for – Myrna Loy as Billie Burke.) The knowing and biting comments on marriage from the cabbie and the doorman regarding Powell’s martial bliss set the undercurrents in play for the giddy Powell’s undoing as the cheerful husband – ignorant of the games the mischievous Fates (The Gods of Comedy) have in store for him ahead. Into the apartment complex he jauntily carries his wedding present – a portable phonograph, and almost immediately his evening begins to unravel. I Love You Again is at all times genuinely loveable, and works it’s sleight of hand with the practiced aplomb we expect from such talents. The moment when Powell suggests he and his wife, Loy, recreate their honeymoon night, but do everything ‘backwards’ is as priceless as is Loy’s cooling rebutal to his attempt at jumping the gun on the bedroom. Too, the underrated Gail Patrick (see her sensational working with Powell in My Man Godfrey) and the lively and fun Jack Carson are most effective in their set-up roles. The best scene: a Lincoln-like Powell, pretending insanity to prevent a divorce proceeding, sets top hats sailing on a swimming pool, “Be free!”
The other three films are for me at least largely forgettable.
If I Love You Again and Love Crazy were paired I would rate them at least a 4, possibly a 4 and half. But the rating plummets when they’re connected to the others.
When will we be able to see some Powell movies without Loy? Life With Father demands release restored to its glorious colors, not to mention Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid. A set of the best of Powell’s Warner Brothers films?
If, unlike myself, you loved all these films and don’t yet own Libeled Lady then by all means order that film ASAP! The DVD print is not quite as good as it should be, but the movie is wonderful, with Powell’s real life girl friend (and what a twist that gives the film!) Jean Harlow just sensational fun!
March 13, 2010
#3
What can you say about the Thin Man series…The chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy is magical.
March 13, 2010
#4
No one does it better than William Powell and Myrna Loy. Their timing and chemistry are superb. This is another great collection of films that will meet or exceed the quality of one’s classic film library.
Powell and Loy are unequalled whether they are in a comedy or a drama. If you love fine films, add this to your collection. And put it next to your “Thin Man” collection.
There are very few classic film duos from the golden age of motion pictures and William Powell and Myrna Loy are at the top of that list. A huge thanks to Warner Home Video for releasing these great films on DVD.
March 13, 2010
#5
A great set. Few people know that Manhattan Melodrama was the film that the infamous gangster John Dillinger saw just before he was gunned down by FBI agent C.B. Winstead outside the Biograph Theater on Chicago’s Lincoln Avenue on July 22, 1934. Dillinger was in the company of two women, one of whom is believed to have set him up. Dillinger was shot three times with a Colt .45 automatic: one shot through the lung and out the chest, one shot through the head and out below the right eye, and the third round grazing his face. He died within minutes. An unfired Colt .380 automatic was found in his pocket. One can only wonder what he thought about while watching Clark Gable in this great gangster film, perhaps wondering if his own life of crime was about to come to a sudden end.