TCM Schedule for Friday, December 23, 2016 -- What's On Tonight - Star of the Month - Myrna Loy

[Staph]

Today, it's more of all Myrna Loy, all the time, and TCM includes most of the fifteen films costarring Loy and William Powell. And that means that in prime time, we get the whole Thin Man series! Enjoy!


6:00 AM -- EVELYN PRENTICE (1934)
A criminal lawyer's wife faces blackmail when she has an affair.
Dir: William K. Howard
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Una Merkel
BW-79 mins, CC,

Film debut of Rosalind Russell.


7:30 AM -- MANHATTAN MELODRAMA (1934)
Boyhood friends grow up on opposite sides of the law.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-90 mins, CC,

Won an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Arthur Caesar

This was the movie that bank robber John Dillinger had just seen before he was gunned down in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. He had been set up by Anna Sage, the madam of a brothel, who knew Dillinger's girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. Sage was facing deportation and thought the tip might get her off. She told FBI agent Melvin Purvis that she would be wearing orange which appeared red, leading her to be dubbed "The Woman in Red". Dillinger was shot three times when he tried to escape, and Sage wound up being sent back to Romania.


9:15 AM -- THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (1936)
Lavish biography of Flo Ziegfeld, the producer who became Broadway's biggest starmaker.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Luise Rainer
C-176 mins, CC,

Won Oscars for Best Actress in a Leading Role -- Luise Rainer, Best Dance Direction -- Seymour Felix for "A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody", and Best Picture

Nominated for Oscars for Best Director -- Robert Z. Leonard, Best Writing, Original Story -- William Anthony McGuire,, Best Art Direction -- Cedric Gibbons, Eddie Imazu and Edwin B. Willis, Best Film Editing -- William S. Gray

Pat Nixon (then Patricia Ryan), the future wife of Richard Nixon and the First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974, makes an uncredited appearance as a Ziegfeld girl.


12:19 PM -- ANNIE LAURIE (1936)
This short film details how the Scottish song "Annie Laurie" happened to be written.
BW-10 mins,


12:30 PM -- LIBELED LADY (1936)
When an heiress sues a newspaper, the editor hires a reporter to compromise her.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy
BW-98 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture

Reportedly, while shooting the movie, the four stars had become close friends, and William Powell even gave up his old habit of hiding out in his dressing room between scenes so he could join in the fun with the rest of the cast. One of the biggest jokes was a running gag Spencer Tracy played on Myrna Loy, claiming that she had broken his heart with her recent marriage to producer Arthur Hornblow Jr. He even set up an "I Hate Hornblow" table in the studio commissary, reserved for men who claimed to have been jilted by Loy.


2:18 PM -- LEST WE FORGET (1937)
This short film honors the late Will Rogers, with clips from his films and stars paying tribute.
Dir: Henry Hathaway
BW-10 mins,


2:30 PM -- DOUBLE WEDDING (1937)
A dress designer tries to break her sister's engagement to a free-living artist, only to discover the man is falling for her instead.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Florence Rice
BW-87 mins, CC,

Production was partially shut down because of the death (7 June 1937) of Jean Harlow, to whom William Powell was engaged.


4:15 PM -- I LOVE YOU AGAIN (1940)
A solid married man discovers he's forgotten a past existence as a con artist.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Frank McHugh
BW-99 mins, CC,

Based on the novel by Octavus Roy Cohen.


6:15 PM -- LOVE CRAZY (1941)
A businessman concocts a series of harebrained schemes to keep his wife from divorcing him.
Dir: Jack Conway
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Gail Patrick
BW-99 mins, CC,

William Powell had a mustache for the entire length of his career, but shaved it off for this film so that he could dress as a woman.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: STAR OF THE MONTH: MYRNA LOY



8:00 PM -- THE THIN MAN (1934)
A husband-and-wife detective team takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan
BW-91 mins, CC,

Nominated for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- William Powell, Best Director -- W.S. Van Dyke, Best Writing, Adaptation -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Best Picture

William Powell spoke of how much he loved working with Myrna Loy because of her naturalness, her professionalism, and her lack of any kind of "diva" temperament. "When we did a scene together, we forgot about technique, camera angles, and microphones. We weren't acting. We were just two people in perfect harmony," he said. "Myrna, unlike some actresses who think only of themselves, has the happy faculty of being able to listen while the other fellow says his lines. She has the give and take of acting that brings out the best."


9:45 PM -- AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936)
Married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles try to clear Nora's cousin of a murder charge.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, James Stewart
BW-112 mins, CC,

Nominated for an Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay -- Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett

Though William Powell and Myrna Loy were very close friends off-screen, their only romantic moments together occurred on-screen. The public, however, was determined to have them married in private life as well. When the two stars showed up in San Francisco (where most of this film was shot) at the St. Francis, the hotel management proudly showed "Mr. and Mrs. Powell" to their deluxe suite. This was an especially uncomfortable moment as Jean Harlow, who was engaged to Powell, was with them, and the couple had not made a public statement about their relationship. Harlow saved the day by insisting on sharing the suite with Loy: "That mix-up brought me one of my most cherished friendships," Loy said in "Being and Becoming", her autobiography. "You would have thought Jean and I were in boarding school we had so much fun. We'd stay up half the night talking and sipping gin, sometimes laughing, sometimes discussing more serious things." Meanwhile, Powell got the hotel's one remaining room - a far humbler accommodation downstairs.


11:45 PM -- ANOTHER THIN MAN (1939)
Not even the joys of parenthood can stop married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles from investigating a murder on a Long Island estate.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Virginia Grey
BW-103 mins, CC,

Two tragedies befell William Powell before the making of this film: the unexpected death of his fiancé Jean Harlow, and a difficult battle with colon cancer that required colon bypass surgery and new radiation treatments. Production of this "Thin Man" movie was delayed as a result, but Powell and Loy were given a standing ovation when he finally returned to join her on the set for filming.


1:45 AM -- SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN (1941)
High society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles run into a variety of shady characters while investigating a race-track murder.
Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Barry Nelson
BW-97 mins, CC,

The backdrop footage behind Nick and Nora after leaving the Bay Bridge traveling to the racetrack is authentic and rather historical, as one reared in the Bay Area can testify. They are driving the then new East Shore Highway, now known as the East Shore Freeway, formerly US40 now I-80.


3:30 AM -- THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (1945)
On a trip to visit his parents, detective Nick Charles gets mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: Richard Thorpe
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Lucile Watson
BW-101 mins, CC,

This movie was to begin production in 1942, but Myrna Loy refused the part. Instead, she went to New York to marry car rental heir John Hertz, Jr., and worked for the Red Cross war-relief effort. The movie almost began shooting with Irene Dunne as Nora Charles.


5:15 AM -- SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947)
Society sleuths Nick and Nora Charles investigate a murder in a jazz club.
Dir: Edward Buzzell
Cast: William Powell, Myrna Loy, Keenan Wynn
BW-87 mins, CC,

Nick is about to tell Nicky, Jr. the "story of Dangerous Dan McGoup" as a good night tale - an allusion to the character "Dangerous Dan McGREW" from Robert Service's famous poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". Nick, however, never gets to tell the story of the shooting - instead, inspired by Nicky's old fashioned toy pistol, he rushes off chasing another clue.

[Auggie]

1. The entire Thin Man series, in order. You never see that. Wow ...

[TeamPooka]

2. Thought the same. Hit DVR record on all of them