Beyond Nick and Nora … July 26, 2006
Posted by jackal in : Films , trackbackI’ve got many favourite screen couples: Bogie & Bacall, Cary Grant & Grace Kelly (To Catch a Thief), Margaret Lockwood & Michael Redgrave (The Lady Vanishes), James Stewart & Donna Reed (It’s A Wonderful Life) spring to mind, but no classic pairing - not even the magical Fred & Ginger - lives up, in my mind, to William Powell & Myrna Loy.
Over the course of 13 films together in the 30s & 40s (six of them Thin Man movies), they lit up the screen, sparking off each other like fireflies with boundless energy, their dazzling chemistry exceeded only by the irresistible glint of mischief that one or other always conveyed. Both actors were successful in “solo” efforts - Powell’s My Man Godfrey and Loy’s The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer are personal favourites - but together they just … click. Watching Manhattan Melodrama a couple of months ago (*spoiler ahead*), I remember getting rather worried when it seemed for a short while that Myrna might wind up with Clark Gable instead of Bill. I would not have been pleased.
I confess, The Thin Man series are my favourites (how could they not be?); their mix of murder-mystery and screwball comedy lifting them to the heights of effortless entertainment. As perfect as they were as Nick & Nora Charles, their non-Thin Man efforts aren’t exactly second-tier: there’s Libeled Lady, one of the finest 30s comedies, the afore-mentioned Manhattan Melodrama, and a few others - which brings me (finally) to my point. You see, I just acquired copies of another two Powell/Loy comedies, Love Crazy and Double Wedding, and I couldn’t be more excited. If I was Asta, I’d be barking up a riot.
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