“Most of the sex I’ve seen on the screen looks like an expression of hostility towards sex.”

-Myrna Loy

Myrna Loy (via pictopia)

“You know what you can do with this.”

-Myrna Loy to her movie studio when they sent her a letter reprimanding her for speaking out on behalf of German Jews. Her activism resulted in a loss of revenue for the studio when Hitler banned Loy’s movies in Germany.

“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)

Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man (1934, dir. Woody Van Dyke)

“Would you like a drink?”
“It’s a little early, isn’t it?”
“Too early for a drink?”
“No! Too early for stupid questions! Of course I want a drink!”

“[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.

Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man (1934, dir. Woody Van Dyke) (via)

She grinned at me. “You got types?”

“Only you, darling - lanky brunettes with wicked jaws.”

-Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man (1929)