Myrna Loy Movies

Filmed between the original Thin Man and the first of its sequels, Evelyn Prentice re-teamed William Powell and Myrna Loy as another husband-and-wife team knee deep in a murder mystery. In this one, Powell is John Prentice, a prominent lawyer with an eye for women other than his own wife. His latest interest is Nancy Harrison (Rosalind Russell, in her film debut), a client accused of manslaughter, whom Prentice successfully defended. Loy plays John's wife, Evelyn, who loves him but is hurt by his inattention and the loneliness that ensues. This leads her to engage in a flirtation of her own, with a charming writer (Harvey Stephens). The writer, however, is interested in Evelyn only for what he can get out of her and threatens to blackmail her. In a panic, she shoots him and runs away, discovering later that he has been found dead and that another woman, Judith Wilson, has been accused of his murder. Hoping that his expert legal skills will the innocent woman her acquittal, Evelyn convinces her husband to take on Wilson's defense. As the film progresses, Evelyn feels increasingly pressured to admit that she is responsible for the man's death. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Just after completing It Happened One Night, director Frank Capra churned out a bread-and-butter picture titled Broadway Bill. Warner Baxter plays the carefree scion of a wealthy, highly-respected family. Baxter's cold but socially correct wife Helen Vinson forces her husband into the family business, but Baxter would rather spend his time at the racetrack. He buys a nag named Broadway Bill and tries to build the horse into a winner--if he doesn't bankrupt himself first. Only Baxter's sister-in-law Myrna Loy and black stable hand Clarence Muse have faith in Broadway Bill. The horse wins a crucial race, but dies suddenly at the finish line. Baxter is comforted and given encouragement by Loy, who is now his sweetheart, Vinson having long since washed her hands of her "irresponsible" husband. Broadway Bill was remade by Capra as Riding High (1950), utilizing generous portions of stock footage and even going so far as to rehire several of the original film's cast members (Douglass Dumbrille, Clarence Muse, Charles Lane, Raymond Walburn, Margaret Hamilton, Frankie Darro) to recreate their roles and match up their scenes from the earlier production. Long withheld from distribution due to Riding High, Broadway Bill was made available for videocassette in the mid-1980s. Keep an eye out for Lucille Ball as a blonde telephone operator and Alan Hale Sr. as a racetrack announcer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Notorious as the movie that gangster John Dillinger attended on the night he was killed, Manhattan Melodrama has weathered the years as one of MGM's finest examples of pure storytelling. The pageant-like story begins in 1904, when the excursion steamer "General Slocum" blows up and burns in the East River. Two young boys are orphaned by the disaster. They are adopted by a kindly Jewish businessman (Harry Green) who has lost his own children. Years later, when he is killed during a anarchist rally, the boys are separated once more. They grow up to be straight-arrow attorney Jim Wade (William Powell) and big-time gambler Blackie Gallagher (Clark Gable). Though the two men still like and respect one another, they are now on opposite sides of the legal fence. The professional rivalry becomes personal when Jim marries Blackie's ex-mistress Eleanor (Myrna Loy). The typically stellar MGM supporting cast includes Nat Pendleton as Blackie's faithful stooge, Isabel Jewell as his addled girlfriend, Mickey Rooney as the younger Blackie (a marvelous piece of mimicry here), and blonde singer Shirley Ross, here appearing in blackface in a Harlem nightclub sequence, singing a new Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart tune that would later gain popularity (with different lyrics) as "Blue Moon." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Scarlet River, Tom Keene plays "himself," a cowboy movie star, on location in the Wide Open Spaces for his latest epic. The locals chortle and guffaw at these picture people posing as genuine Westerners, but Keene proves his worth by rescuing Dorothy Wilson from villainous ranch foreman Creighton Chaney (aka Lon Chaney Jr.). Edgar Kennedy plays the flustered director, forever tearing out what little hair he has. The film-within-a-film sequences are staged with reasonable accuracy (future consumer advocate Betty Furness shows up as Keene's on-camera ingenue), while a few shots at the RKO commissary offer glimpses of studio contractees Myrna Loy, Joel McCrea and Bruce Cabot. The basic premise of Scarlet River would be revived in several future westerns by such cowboy stars as Charles Starrett, Buck Jones and Gene Autry. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this drama, Diana (Myrna Loy) is a beautiful tourist from the United States who is visiting Cairo, accompanied by her Uncle Cecil (C. Aubrey Smith) and Aunt Powers (Louise Closser Hale). Diana is to meet her fiance Gerald (Reginald Denny) in Cairo, but she soon makes the aquaintance of Jamil (Ramon Novarro), a handsome local who works for the hotel as a tourist guide. Jamil returns Diana's lost dog, earning her gratitude, though she's unaware that Jamil took the dog himself so that he could return it to her. After several days of showing Diana Cairo's most magificnet sights (and scheming to keep Gerald at a distance), Jamil reveals his secret to Diana -- that he's actually an Arab prince who wants Diana's hand in marriage. However, Diana isn't especially taken with this idea at first, and and before long the darker side of Jamil's infatuation makes itself known. The Barbarian was based in part on one of Ramon Novarro's silent hits, The Arab, and the film inspired more than a few raised eyebrows in 1933 thanks to a scene where Myrna Loy swims in the nude at an oasis, though Loy later wrote that she was wearing a flesh-colored body stocking in deference to her modesty (and the censors). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

One woman helps make an unknown boxer a star, but could a handful lead him back to obscurity again? Steve Morgan (Max Baer) is a ex-sailor tending bar in a seedy dive when The Professor (Walter Huston), a boxing coach, sees Morgan make short work of a troublesome customer. The Professor convinces Morgan that he has what it takes to be a successful prizefighter, and takes him under his wing. One day, while Morgan is jogging, he's nearly hit by a car operated by an attractive woman named Belle (Myrna Loy), who is making a name for herself as a nightclub singer. Belle has been dating underworld kingpin Willie Ryan (Otto Kruger), but before long Morgan is able to win her away from Ryan, and they get married. Morgan's marriage to Belle turns out to be god for publicity, and soon he's racked up an impressive string of victories, but Morgan can't keep his eyes off other women, and she has reason to believe he's been unfaithful. Belle, despondent, goes back to Ryan, while Morgan starts hitting the bottle, just as he's lined up a championship fight with Primo Carnera. The Prizefighter and the Lady gave heavyweight contender Max Baer his first leading role; a year after the film was released, Baer faced off against Carnera in a real championship bout, which Baer won by a knockout. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

New Morals for Old was the teasing title for a somewhat sedate film about the ongoing rejection of middle-class values by the youth of America. Robert Young, Myrna Loy, Donald Cook and Margaret Perry are among the freethinking young folk whose attitudes clash with those of their elders (including Lewis Stone, Laura Hope Crews and Jean Hersholt). The film's main crisis is nothing more scandalous than Robert Young's plans to pursue an art career over his father's objections. In an ironic coda, the younger people eventually marry, settle down, and become moralistic fuddy-duddies themselves. New Morals for Old was based on the John Van Druten play After All, which was set in London and thus added class consciousness to the basic generation-gap theme. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

First filmed in 1911, William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical novel Vanity Fair has undergone several cinemadaptations, most memorably as the pioneering Technicolor feature Becky Sharp (1935). This 1932 version is perhaps the least known, probably because it has been updated to the 20th century and it isn't terribly good. In her first starring role, Myrna Loy plays the modernized Becky Sharp, a crafty lass who'll do anything to advance herself socially, even if it means romancing several older men whom she doesn't love. Going from rags to riches and back again several times, Becky continually bounces back, though the same cannot be said for many of her male companions. Of the large cast, the biggest surprise is former 2-reel comedy star Billy Bevan, who makes a surprisingly effective Joe Sedley (the character played in the 1935 Becky Sharp by Nigel Bruce). Not a classic by any means, Vanity Fair gets by on its curiosity value. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this suspenseful drama, an embittered woman exacts revenge upon the 12 women who wronged her in college. The trouble began when the woman, who was of Japanese and Indian heritage, was ejected from a college sorority because she wasn't white. Still angry, the woman hires an astrologer to create 12 terrifying horoscopes for each of the dastardly dozen. These grim predictions terrify the victims into doing dreadful things. One commits suicide, while another commits murder. More mayhem ensues until the astrologer makes some dire predictions about the vengeful woman herself. She doesn't like it, and using her psychic powers she forces him in front of an oncoming train. She then resumes her revenge by trying to poison the son of the remaining woman. This causes a police inspector to get suspicious, and he follow the murderous woman to the train station where she plans to kill the woman. A chase ensues culminating in the evil woman's demise. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Directed by Victor Fleming, Wet Parade chronicles the effects of alcoholism and the Prohibition on the lives of two families from very different backgrounds. The Tarletons reside in New York City, where the family patriarch (Walter Huston) repeatedly drowns himself in liquor and local bars. The Chilcote family has the same type of problem, though they live in the deep south. Colonal Roger Chilcote (Lewis Stone) also drinks heavily, and illegally makes his income by selling moonshine. Ultimately, both families are torn apart by the alcoholism. The two stories collide when Kip Tarleton (Robert Young) and Maggie May (Dorothy Jordan), both children of alcoholic fathers, join in a common fight against alcohol, feeling it was a key factor in the destruction of their lives. Wet Parade also features actor Jimmy Durante in a small role as a bearded federal agent. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

One of the most technically accomplished and sophisticated movie musicals of the 1930's, Rouben Mamoulian's Love Me Tonight (1932) had a profound effect on the shape of the musical genre (especially the films of Vincente Minnelli), and remains a candidate for best movie musical ever made, some seven decades after its release. And that distinction is based entirely on its style and structure -- it doesn't even take into account a hit-laden score by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart, or a raft of delightful performances, several of them totally unexpected in their range and wit. The movie opens with an amazing double audio/visual montage sequence, in which the sleeping city of Paris awakens to a slowly rising chorus of sounds, street by street, house by house -- forming what the script describes as a "symphony" of sound -- which coalesces into a song. It is through the latter that we meet Maurice Courtelin (Maurice Chevalier), a young Parisian tailor who has just completed his first big job, an order of 15 suits for the Viscount de Varese (Charlie Ruggles), who has promised to pay him on delivery. He then discovers that the Viscount is little more than an upper-class ne'er-do-well who, among his other faults, has no money of his own -- being completely dependent on his crusty old uncle the Duke (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) -- and never pays his bills. In one of a half-dozen remarkable musical scenes, as Maurice's friend Emile (Bert Roach) ponders the matter of love in the new suit he has made for him, Maurice begins singing "Isn't It Romantic?", causing Emile to hum the tune as he strolls onto the street; the song is picked up by a taxi driver (Rolfe Sedan), and passed to his passenger (Tyler Brooke), a composer, who carries it aboard a train, humming it, where a group of soldiers hear it and end up singing it as they march across a field, where a young gypsy hears it and carries it to his camp on his violin, where the whole clan is soon singing. And the song is finally wafted across the surrounding fields to the estate of the Duke and the Viscount de Varese, where it is heard and sung by the Duke' niece, Princess Jeanette (Jeanette MacDonald). The two characters, Maurice and Jeanette, are linked for us in this way even before they meet, and the stage is set for the rest of the plot. For the Princess, living under her family's tradition-bound hand, romance is a source of unhappiness; there's no one at the chateau to interest her, and even if there were, she couldn't dare to be interested; already a widow from an arranged marriage at age 22 (her first husband was 75), she must marry someone of equal royal rank, and the only two known candidates in all of Europe are ages 85 and 12, respectively. Maurice journeys to the chateau with the clothes the Viscount ordered, hoping to confront him for payment, and is mistaken for one of the guests -- and he crosses paths with the Princess, and falls in love with her. Identified as the Count de Courtelin, he delights the rest of the guests with his joie de vivre and his way with a song, especially "Mimi" (which somehow managed to make it past the censors, despite some amazingly risque lyrics), getting the entire coterie of nobles singing it in his wake. But the Princess is resistant to his free and easy charm and flirtations, her staid upbringing and sense of station fighting her natural inclinations, while her other would-be suitor, the Count de Savignac (Charles Butterworth), is suspicious of this new-found rival. Also present at the estate is the Duke's other niece, Countess Valentine (Myrna Loy), who has a nymphomaniac interest in men under the age of 40, of whom Maurice is the only one at the chateau not related to her -- thus, he must fend off her advances while trying to woo a woman who wants nothing to do with him. Rumor soon spreads that Maurice is, in fact, a full-blooded royal prince traveling in disguise. And if he is a prince of the rank they think he is, then suddenly the Princess's marital and romantic prospects seem a lot more encouraging, especially as she begins to melt to his charm. Maurice wants to tell her the truth, but will she feel the same way about him, knowing that he is a commoner, a tradesman ... a tailor? Director Rouben Mamoulian had already jump-started the musical genre with the backstage drama Applause (1929), to great critical and financial success. In contrast to that movie's deceptively naturalistic approach to its subject, Love Me Tonight was highly stylized -- Applause had no actual musical numbers in complete form, while Love Me Tonight was filled with incredibly elaborate and subtle musical set-pieces that grow naturally out of the plot (adapted from a play by Paul Armont and Leopold Marchand) and advanced the narrative. Some of the scenes here helped set the stage for works such as An American In Paris and Gigi (one scene near the end, when Maurice's identity is revealed, seems to have been the model for "The Gossips At Maxim's" from the latter film) and Funny Face. Such is Love Me Tonight's reputation, that in the summer of 2007, 75 years after its release and more than five years after it showed up on DVD, the movie chalked up sell-out audiences when it opened the Mamoulian retrospective at New York's Film Forum. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

A man finds he's torn between two women -- which isn't a good state of affairs for a man who just got married -- in this romantic comedy-drama. Not long after Bill Truesdale (Robert Ames) ties the knot with his girlfriend Sarah Jaffrey (Ina Claire), he happens to meet Evie Lawrence (Myrna Loy), a woman he was once involved with. Bill soon discovers he's still in love with Evie, and finds himself pursuing her, even though he's pledged his heart to Sarah. In time, Bill comes to his senses, but he's not sure if he's given up on Evie in time to keep Sarah from finding the love she needs with another man. Hedda Hopper highlights the film's supporting cast, several years before she became one of America's best known show-biz gossip columnists. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi