Old Hollywood
Cinema
1900-1979
Nostalgia is a seductive liar - George Wildman Ball
“My first scene with Bill, a night shot on the back lot, happened before we’d even met. Woody was apparently too busy for introductions. My instructions were to run out of a building, through a crowd, and into a strange car. When Woody called “Action,” I opened the door, jumped in, and landed smack on William Powell’s lap. He looked up nonchalantly. “Miss Loy, I presume?” I said, “Mr. Powell?” And that’s how I met the man who would be my partner in fourteen films.” -Myrna Loy on first meeting William Powell on the set of Manhattan Melodrama (1934, dir. WS Van Dyke)

“My first scene with Bill, a night shot on the back lot, happened before we’d even met. Woody was apparently too busy for introductions. My instructions were to run out of a building, through a crowd, and into a strange car. When Woody called “Action,” I opened the door, jumped in, and landed smack on William Powell’s lap. He looked up nonchalantly. “Miss Loy, I presume?” I said, “Mr. Powell?” And that’s how I met the man who would be my partner in fourteen films.”

-Myrna Loy on first meeting William Powell on the set of Manhattan Melodrama (1934, dir. WS Van Dyke)

“[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer] put me right to work in Manhattan Melodrama, which precipated the demise of John Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1. FBI agents shot him down outside the Biograph Theatre, in Chicago, after he’d seen the film. Supposedly a Myrna Loy fan, he broke cover to see me. Personally, I suspect the theme of the picture rather than my fatal charms attracted him, but I’ve always felt a little guilty about it, anyway. They filled him full of holes, poor soul.” -Myrna Loy, in her autobiography Being and Becoming Myrna Loy was reportedly real-life gangster John Dillinger’s favorite actress and he crept out of hiding to see her latest picture, Manhattan Melodrama (1934). The FBI was tipped off to his presence and Dillinger was shot to death leaving the theater. Manhattan Melodrama, Loy’s first film with Thin Man co-star William Powell, is definitely worth a watch - as far as “Last Movies Seen Before Getting Plugged by the Feds” go, Dillinger could’ve done a lot worse.

“[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer] put me right to work in Manhattan Melodrama, which precipated the demise of John Dillinger, Public Enemy No. 1. FBI agents shot him down outside the Biograph Theatre, in Chicago, after he’d seen the film. Supposedly a Myrna Loy fan, he broke cover to see me. Personally, I suspect the theme of the picture rather than my fatal charms attracted him, but I’ve always felt a little guilty about it, anyway. They filled him full of holes, poor soul.”

-Myrna Loy, in her autobiography Being and Becoming

Myrna Loy was reportedly real-life gangster John Dillinger’s favorite actress and he crept out of hiding to see her latest picture, Manhattan Melodrama (1934). The FBI was tipped off to his presence and Dillinger was shot to death leaving the theater.

Manhattan Melodrama, Loy’s first film with Thin Man co-star William Powell, is definitely worth a watch - as far as “Last Movies Seen Before Getting Plugged by the Feds” go, Dillinger could’ve done a lot worse.