DVD available at Amazon.com
Manhattan Melodrama
Director:
W.S. Van Dyke
Cast:
Clark Gable….Edward J. “Blackie” Gallagher
William Powell…James W. “Jim” Wade
Myrna Loy….Eleanor Packer
Leo Carrillo….Father Joe
Mickey Rooney….Blackie as Boy
Warner Home Home Video presents Manhattan Melodrama. Screenplay by Arthur Caesar. Running time: 90 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: May 4, 1934.
Evelyn Prentice
Director:
William K. Howard
Cast:
William Powell….John Prentice
Myrna Loy….Evelyn Prentice
Una Merkel….Amy Drexel
Rosalind Russell….Mrs. Nancy Harrison
Warner Home Video presents Evelyn Prentice. Screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee. Running time: 79 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: Nov. 9, 1934.
Double Wedding
Director:
Richard Thorpe
Cast:
William Powell….Charlie Lodge
Myrna Loy….Margit “Baby” Agnew
Florence Rice….Irene Agnew
John Beal….Waldo Beaver
Edgar Kennedy….Spike
Sidney Toler….Mr. Keough, Margit’s Butler
Warner Home Video presents Double Wedding. Screenplay by Jo Swerling. Running time: 87 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: Oct. 15, 1937.
I Love You Again
Director:
W.S. Van Dyke
Cast:
William Powell….Larry Wilson/George Carey
Myrna Loy….Kay Wilson
Frank McHugh….”Doc” Ryan
Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer….Leonard Harkspur Jr.
Warner Home Video presents I Love You Again. Screenplay by Charles Lederer, George Oppenheimer and Harry Kurnitz. Running time: 99 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: August 9, 1940.
Love Crazy
Director:
Jack Conway
Cast:
William Powell….Steve Ireland
Myrna Loy….Susan Ireland
Gail Patrick….Isobel Kimble Grayson
Jack Carson….Ward Willoughby
Warner Home Video presents Love Crazy. Screenplay by William Ludwig, Charles Lederer and David Hertz. Running time: 99 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: May 23, 1941.
Warner Home Video presents Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection. Five movies on 5 DVDs. DVD release: August 7, 2007.
The Movies
Critics argue why movies and movie stars were more lofty back in the glory days of Hollywood. Time Magazine recently ran a piece pondering “Who Killed the Love Story?” Maybe it’s not the love story that’s bleeding in the gutter, but the lack of lovers. Ask yourself this question: When was the last time you looked at the silver screen and were charmed by an actor by his personality? When was the last time you thought an actor could seduce his love interest without remembering lines from the script? Is there a current actor you’d want as your best pal for more than leeching off his money and fame? Where’s the charm? We’ve confused charm with the slick approach used by slimy used car salesmen. Are Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Matthew McConaughey and Jake Gyllenhaal true charmers? Maybe they are compared to David Spade. But they are more eye candy than life of the party figures. If you want to witness pure charm, spend a few pleasurable hours with William Powell. Even though the focus of his charm was Myrna Loy, Powell had more than enough to share with the world. In an era of the tough guy, Powell disarmed with wit and a wink.
Powell comes off as guy you could call at 3 a.m. to see if he has any spare bottle of Jack Daniels. Instead of hanging up, he’d show up in the party in his pajamas clutching two bottles. If Myrna Loy picks up the phone, she’ll make sure you don’t get to sleep for the next week. While she was not immune to charm, Powell had to go to the next level to lower her guard. For those of you that enjoyed The Complete Thin Man Collection with Powell and Loy playing Nick and Nora Charles, this boxset is essential viewing.
Manhattan Melodrama was the first pairing of Powell and Loy. The story deals with two childhood friends who become orphaned in a boating disaster. They are adopted by a family friend, but even that turns out bad. Mickey Rooney plays the young version Blackie. Who knew Mickey would grow up to be Clark Gable? In Melodrama Clark is a classy underworld figure in the gambling business. His blood brother, Powell, has lived the straight and narrow. This clean living has allowed him to become the D.A. of Manhattan. Gable’s main woman is Loy. She’s a bit frustrated that dice come before her. When she gets a few hours alone with Powell, his charm turns her into mush. This love triangle would normally dominate a film, but Gable doesn’t mind shedding his woman. The prime event of the movie is when Gable commits a felony and Wade must not only convict, but send his brother to the chair. This film shows the immediate chemistry between Powell and Loy. It also lets us see the power of Powell since he isn’t dwarfed off the screen by Gable. This was the movie John Dillinger watched before he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago. This movie isn’t that lethal for modern viewers.
Evelyn Prentice has Loy and Powell as the Prentices. Powell’s a lawyer who’s clients are hot women in even hotter water. Loy thinks that her husband’s latest case is a slut that’s seducing him. She decides that it’s time she gets a little action on the side. She has a chaste affair with a poet. Powell gets wind that Loy suspects him of cheating. In order to prove he’s faithful, he’s dumping work to take a long vacation with his wife and daughter. They’re going to be a happy family. But the poet wants something for his trouble. He blackmails Loy with her letters that could be seen as romantic. Things get complicated because the poet turns up dead after Loy’s visit. The family vacation is canceled. Powell acts as defense attorney to every woman suspected of being the poet’s murderer. The trial scenes throw all jurisprudence out the window. Fans of Law and Order will be shocked at the finale. If you can ignore the lack of a technical advisor on the set, you might be dazzled by Powell’s approach to judge and jury.
Double Wedding is an screwball comedy that nails you on the back of the head. Powell is a wannabe film director who lives in a trailer next to a bar. He’s conned Waldo and Irene, an engaged couple, into thinking they can be the stars of his next production. Irene’s sister, played by Loy, runs a dress shop. Loy is not happy at this artist who might be pulling a con. Powell is smitten by the feisty minx. He claims he’s in love with Irene as a trap to get Loy between them and inside his trailer. Powell works on giving Waldo a backbone so she’ll finally marry Irene. This will give him a chance to seal the deal with Loy. This movie packs a lot of Yumph.
I Love You Again has Powell playing an uptight holy roller that gets a concussion while on a business trip. Instead of suffering from amnesia, the bump makes him recover his true memory. Turns out Powell is a slimy con man. He decides his next victim is going to be himself. The problem is that he can’t get to his holy roller’s cash because he’s in the middle of divorcing Loy. He has to adjust his game. He plays it straight in order to make everyone think he’s still the businessman. He even has to lead the boy scout troop on a camping trip. Alfalfa of the Little Rascals appears as scout. The divorce proceedings start to fall apart as Loy falls back in love with him. She wanted the split because he was such a stiff. Now that he’s a different man, it excites her. Can Powell pull off the scam on himself with love in the way?
Love Crazy has Powell screwing up his 4th wedding anniversary to Loy when he gets trapped in an elevator with an ex-lover. Loy’s meddling mother-in-law gets her daughter to believe that Powell is a cheating spouse. Powell can’t do anything right to prove his fidelity. Loy drags him into divorce court. As a delay tactic, Powell gets himself committed to an insane asylum. This screwed up plan doesn’t work. He escapes disguised as a woman for one last chance to win back his wife.
These five films are a good supplement to the six Thin Man movies that made them icons. Powell and Loy were a potent couple on screen. They didn’t merely sizzle on the screen. Their personalities allowed them to dance around the screen like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It’s easy to imagine that they would really hook up off camera. These five films remind us that no matter how rocky their relationship got, Powell could stabilize it with his all out charm attack. Today’s modern actors need to spend less time studying at the Actor’s Studio and polish their personalities at charm school.
The DVD
VIDEO:
The five films are 1.33:1 full frame. The transfers look a little worn, but that’s just the nature of an film seven decades old.
AUDIO:
The soundtrack is Dolby Digital Mono. You might have to tweak the knob up, but they’ve done a good from making them too scrunchy sounding.
EXTRAS:
Manhattan Melodrama
Goofy Movies #2 (9:18) has Pete Smith commenting on a Wotaphony newsreel. This one features Columbus getting the key to modern New York City. A christened ship suffers a terrible launch. There’s a great spoof of a film trailer with outrageous promises of what’s coming soon “But not to this theater.”
The Old Pioneer (7:43) is a Harman-Ising MGM cartoon. An old coot arrives in the big city and tells a paperboy about his journey west.
Theatrical Trailer (2:49) has the buzz quotes from the trades on the teaming of Gable, Powell and Loy.
Evelyn Prentice
Goofy Movies #3 (9:34) has Pete Smith narrating a Super-Stupid Pictures presentation of “The Heel of a Nation.” Pete creates a fake storyline for a recut silent film. This is the same technique used on Fractured Flickers. There’s also fake newsreel humor.
Discontented Canary (8:36) is a Harman-Ising MGM cartoon. A canary bored of her cage bolts when the door is left open. The bird learns the horrible truth about nature. The DVR on this is nasty. Does anyone quality check these cartoons?
Theatrical Trailer (3:03) opens with Powell, Loy and their child doing a weird morning workout.
Double Wedding
Dancing on the Ceiling (8:50) is a Tabloid Musical. Have you ever seen a musical based at a dentist’s clinic? Witness high stepping female hygienists. It’s like Busby Berekley number with a spit sink. I’d get a check up every three weeks to have these lovelies floss my molars. They dance on the ceiling after the laughing gas. This short is a gas.
The Hound and the Rabbit (7:36) is a Harman-Ising Happy Harmonies cartoon. A hound dog chases a rabbit that looks like a mouse in hare drag. The hound joins the rabbit in his friends in a good natured game of football. A fox joins in the game and things get nasty. The DVR is really nasty as objects in motion lose their lines.
Trailer (3:55) is strange as Barnett Parker introduces the word “Yumph” to the audience. Supposedly it’s the new word for “It.” William Powell demonstrates Yumph in clips from the movie.
I Love You Again
Jack Pot (19:27) is a Crime Doesn’t Pay short feature starring Tom Neal and Ann Morriss. This time we dip into the outlaw world of slot machines.
Tom Turkey and His Harmonica Humginger (7:14) is a Hugh Harman MGM cartoon. A turkey loves to play the harmonica. Did you know the mouth organ can cause destruction? There’s a great slow motion coin toss.
Theatrical Trailer (2:48) pushes the concept of two William Powells and one Myrna Loy.
Love Crazy
Alley Cat (9:30) is a Hugh Harmen MGM cartoon about a rich pussycat that finds herself romanced by a poverty row tomcat.
Screen Director’s Guild Playhouse Radio Broadcast (22:10) has the cast present a condensed radio play of the film. You’ll have to crank you system to hear it properly.
Trailer (2:56) sells the screwball.
