Swamp of Boredom

When most people think of classic Hollywood actresses of the 30's and 40's, stars such as Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Katherine Hepburn come to mind, as they should. But, each of them had a rocky road in the 30's. After having some success in the early and mid-30's, Katherine Hepburn was dubbed 'box office poison' in the late 30's and, despite a string of successful movies, wasn't able to shed the label until The Philadelphia Story in 1940. In 1936, Bette Davis left Hollywood due to a contract dispute to make movies in England. Warner Brothers sued her and won; maybe the battle, but she won the war - when she returned, the studio treated her with newfound respect and began giving her their plum roles, thus beginning her tenure as top star on that lot. Crawford's films of the 30's while lavish as all MGM films tended to be, were rather routine and mostly forgettable. Her Crawford persona, "intelligent, often neurotic, powerful and sometimes ruthless, but also vulnerable and dependent," didn't solidify until she moved to star in Warner's film noirs of the 40's.

No Hollywood actress of the 1930's could hold a candle to Myrna Loy in popularity and star power. She was the rare actress that was equally appealing to men and women. Men wanted to marry her; women wanted to be like her. She was considered the perfect wife, a label she found amusing since she was married four times, couldn't boil and egg and didn't have children (paraphrased from Being and Becoming). So enormously popular was she that in 1936 she and Clark Gable were voted King and Queen of Hollywood.



But, before she became the poster girl for the ideal wife, she was the go to actress for exotic women in the late 20's and 30's. Her most famous role is as the daughter of the title character in The Mask of Fu Manchu (see above), a hilariously campy movie. How she was able to play that role with a straight face, I have no idea. Her final role as an exotic was in Thirteen Women starring Irene Dunne (another hugely popular 30's actress that is almost forgotten today). In her autobiography Being and Becoming, Loy had this to say about the movie:

"Rouben's (Mamoulian) revelation of my comedic talents didn't faze M-G-M. They dropped me right back into the vamp mold, loaning me to RKO for Thirteen Women (1932). As a Javanese-Indian half-caste, I methodically murder all the white schoolmates who've patronized me. I recall little about that racist concoction, but it came up recently when the National Board of Review honored me with its first Career Achievement Award. Betty Furness, a charming mistress of ceremonies, who had started at RKO doubling for my hands in closeups when I was busy elsewhere, said that she'd been dropped from Thirteen Women. (Despite the title, there were only ten in the final print.) "You were lucky," I told her, "because I just would have killed you, too. The only one who escaped me in that picture was Irene Dunne, and I regretted it every time she got the parts I wanted."

Her breakthrough role was right around the corner. W.S. Van Dyke had just directed Loy and William Powell in Manhattan Melodrama* and was adamant that they be cast as the husband and wife sleuthing team Nick and Nora Charles in his next feature, The Thin Man, a casting choice that proves to this classic movie fan that he was nothing short of brilliant. Movie goers agreed: The Thin Man was a hit and an acting team was born. Powell and Loy would go on to make 14 movies together (my favorite being Double Wedding). Their chemistry and affection for each other was so convincing that fans truly thought they were married.



When World War II broke out, Loy became increasingly politically active, spending more time on war work than in front of the camera, a trend that would continue after the war ended. Although the number of movies she made decreased, the quality didn't, with notable roles in the 40's coming in The Best Years of our Lives, The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, and The Red Pony. Shockingly, she was never nominated for an Oscar and died in 1993, two years after receiving an honorary Oscar in 1991.

Tonight, TCM is showing five of Loy's films - two from the early 30's (Penthouse, When Ladies Meet), one with Clark Gable (Too Hot to Handle), one with William Powell (The Great Ziegfeld) and one of her post-war films (The Red Pony). If you can only watch one, I recommend Too Hot To Handle in which she stars opposite Gable as an aviatrix to his daredevil news reel reporter. A great example of the easy chemistry she had with her leading men.

Source: Turner Classic Movie website.

* Myrna Loy was John Dilliger's favorite actress. Dillinger was gunned down while leaving a theater after seeing Loy in Manhattan Melodrama, co-starring Clark Gable and William Powell. It was her first film with Powell (they met for the first time when she bounds into the car that he is in). Their chemistry was immediate and obvious, leading Van Dyke to insist on them for their now iconic portrayals as Nick and Nora Charles.