I’m so happy this happened one of these years! I’ve watched a good number of comedies from this era, and many of them to me are just a relic of a bygone era: I respect and appreciate them for their historical value, but they didn’t make me laugh at all. Not so for William Powell and Myrna Loy. Two early titans of comedic timing, their comedies pop with a great mix of interesting character and great punch lines, with neither of the pair stealing the spotlight from the other! Along with The Great Zigfield (not a great film of theirs) and a few others, Powell and Loy had great years this year, spotting multiple entries onto this list, well earned for bringing the funny.
Our first Loy/Powell collab is a skate by movie. As in, it skates by on the awesomeness of its stars. Outside of the pair of the year, Spencer Tracy and Jean Harlow, also amazing, make this a fearsome foursome who help the mediocre story skate by with charm and fun.
William Wyler directs this story about middle age malaise for the idle rich. Walter Houston and Ruth Chatterton are happy but mired in sameness in their lives. Chatterton gets Houston to upend their lives and go to Europe, where both are given chances at maybe trying something new, putting their relationship to the test. Mary Astor and Maria Ouspenskaya turn in good supporting performances.
This movie succeeds on the back of Greta Garbo. Based on an Alexandre Dumas story, this…romgedy? tragedrom? Whatever it maybe, Garbo plays a woman who mostly loved money and social stature, but fell in love with Robert Taylor’s poor soldier, despite being married. The movie succeeds on Garbo’s performance, melodramatic yes, but also powerful, selling the sadness of the situation.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers might not mean a lot to kids today. However, in the 30s they were a force of movement. Their abilities are on full display here, tap dancing like champions, aw shucksing in their romantic interplay, and staging elaborate sets and dance numbers. For all you Sinatra fans, you might notice a classic he stole from this movie.
If it ain’t broke, run it back. William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Asta their dog are back in the roles that made them famous. Equally important are writers Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, who pen another amusing script where surrounding a murder plot is the brilliant comedic timing of the Loy/Powell marriage: snarky, loving and truly, really funny. In a time where comedies age horribly, this one proudly defies the odds.
Adam Sandler, almost shot for shot, ripped off this Frank Capra classic. Garry Cooper’s Longfellow Deeds, a mild mannered poet in a small town, finds out he’s the heir to a giant fortune, and has to move to the big city to claim it. Cooper and Jean Arthur, a cynical journalist, are excellent in this romcom with a dash of satire at the egotistical elite.
No Myrna Loy here, but William Powell still is pretty awesome as Godfrey, a vagrant plucked off the street by Carole Lombard to be the family butler. I think you can see where the story is going, but Powell and Lombard are almost as electric as the Powell/Loy combo, while this movie’s story has more insight than a normal farcical Powell affair, skewering the rich, vapid elites for their callous behavior toward society.
The last of Charlie Chaplin’s “silent” movies is one of his best. The lovable tramp takes full aim at industrialization, and how it produces bored, insane people doing the same thing over and over again. The result is one of the early brilliant hours of movie history, a satire that’s still potent today. And for you music fans, one of the talking parts of the movie is one of the great songs of all time, “Smile.”
