Product: Myrna Loy & Williams Powell: Collection (2007)
Rating: 4.0
Great team, great box office
This set of William Powell/Myrna Loy films contains all of the MGM films, with the exception of "The Great Ziegfield" and "Libeled Lady", which they made together not featuring "The Thin Man" characters. While the dramas are OK, comedy was their forte. Powell usually played some sort of nutty character and Loy was the sane base around which the nuttiness revolved. The set is a showcase for Powell's versatility but their smooth rapport and warm charm is always a pleasure.First off is "Manhattan Melodrama" a drama starring Clark Gable and the first film in which Powell and Loy appeared together. This is the oft repeated yarn about boyhood friends who take different paths in life. Gable is a gangster and Loy switches allegiance from him to lawyer Powell. It is interesting to watch how she reacts to the different acting styles of the 2 male stars; brittle with Gable and soft with the other. All of them are excellent. One very odd standout is the song in a nightclub, sung by white Shirley Ross, with a bad black wig and swarthy makeup, fronting a black band and singing "The Bad in Every Man" in torchy style, a song which evolved into "Blue Moon" - bizarre! The film was directed by W S Van Dyke, who was the one who saw Powell and Loy's potential and teamed them in "The Thin Man", their next film. Van Dyke was known for the speed of his direction and this film has a pace which makes it more comparable to a Warner Brother's product than the usual overblown MGM product. Keep an eye out too for a very young and talented Mickey Rooney as Gable as a kid."Evelyn Prentice" was the first film Powell and Loy made after the standout success of "The Thin Man". In this one, Powell is a lawyer who works too hard and neglects wife Loy. Adultery and murder result in an unusual courtroom drama with a twist but Loy underacts to the point of inertia. In terms of reality, the film suffers from the usual MGM gloss, overdressed stars and glamorous sets. Warner Brothers would have made this more dynamic and convincing.In 1938, "Double Wedding" was farce whereby bohemian Powell melts officious Loy. The film is quite amusing due to the smooth performances of the stars but there are too many close-ups of supporting Florence Rice and John Beal, who obviously were getting a build up, one which neither subsequently warranted. Once again, the MGM house style with production line direction from Richard Thorpe makes this a pleasant way of passing 90 minutes but Powell and Loy are better than their material. By the way, Loy has some great close ups and looks terrific.Released in 1940, "I Love you Again" is a quite amusing comedy showcasing Powell as an amnesia victim. Like most of these films, the comedy revolves around the scrapes which Powell gets into and he is very funny as an amnesia victim. Loy's role, as his wife, is much less interesting. There is the usual good supporting cast but the film is overlong, once again with too many close-ups and that stolid feel from which many MGM films suffered.The last film is "Love Crazy", a marital/divorce farce, the highlight of which is Powell in impeccable drag. This might be the funniest film of all. There is a great performance by Florence Bates as Loy's mother and other good supporting players such as Sig Rumann and Gail PatrickAll of the prints are unrestored and therefore variable but mostly good. "Manhattan Melodrama" notably looks pristine. The set contains original trailers, some mostly dumb MGM cartoons, some in faded colour, and a few MGM goofy movies, Pete Smith narrated scripts to an antique silent melodrama - very corny. "Double Wedding" contains an unusual musical short with Busby Berkeley cuties set in an art deco dentist's office. This has to be seen to be believed.The set is good value.