Product: Myrna Loy & Williams Powell: Collection (2007)
Rating: 3.0
Two Good Films - Three Forgettable
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!