Wednesday, August 5, 2009

What an Actress: Myrna Loy


Myrna and Bill Powell in "The Thin Man"





Bill and Myrna in "The Thin Man''


I should seriously win some type of an award in my sidetracking skills, I should have posted this on Monday but as usual I pushed it aside because of other things. Anyway onto Miss Loy....




Sophisticated, Classy, Witty, and often labeled as the "perfect wife", Myrna Loy fit each title perfectly. It didn't at all seem, like Myrna Loy could be deemed these things, when she first started her career in movies. When she began her career, she was often cast as a vamp but as the 1930's were in full swing, her days as the vamp were over.

The image of being the seductress was gone, and now Myrna was the classy woman that she would forever be looked at as. Outside of making movies, Myrna kept up the appearance of being a lady and in such cases, when her married male co-stars(Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy) would hit on her, she'd ignore them. She didn't need their attention and she certainly didn't need them.





She stood apart from other actresses because of her determination and her uncanny ability to make the audience believe that she was the character. Often times, there are actresses from today more so than of yesteryear that come off as the actress rather than the character and Myrna made you believe that she was the character. I think that it is so incredibly necessary for an actor to portray the character as if they were them, and Myrna did it every time.


My particular reason for liking her so much is because I can genuinely believe she is the character she is playing. Have you ever watched any of "The Thin Man'' movies, and been able to see Myrna Loy the actress and not Myrna Loy playing Nora Charles? Well for me, when I watch "The Thin Man", I completely believe that Myrna Loy is Nora Charles, wife to detective, Nick Charles. The chemistry that the two possess in the films they did together is so real and believable, it almost seems like they were actually married in real life.


My other reason for liking her so much is because she could do it all, comedy, drama, romance, even horror. The woman could do it all, she wasn't a one-themed woman and that's what makes her so intriguing.

I could probably go on and on, about why I adore Miss Myrna Loy so much, but I think I puzzled you enough with how out of order this post is. Maybe in the future, I will do better than this and write a much better post on Myrna Loy. Who knows, and as for the fashion post, it'll be posted later today.

Till then...

4 comments:

Juliette. said...

I find it so weird (and cool) that Myrna did a total 180 in her movies, from vamp to "perfect wife." Pretty cool that she pulled it off too. Thanks for sharing these pictures!

A said...

Thanks for bringing up the fabulous Myrna! One of my personal favs

Meredith said...

my favorite actress (who i haven't written anything about in my blog. fail)

and <33 your theodora goes wild header.

Lolita of the Classics said...

I think it's swell not to feel pressed to do a cliché portrait post on an actress, and instead share your own opinion and experience!
I made a post on Myrna Loy back in March, if your interested:

http://lolitasclassics.blogspot.com/2009/03/myrna-loy-1905-1993.html

Keep up the good work!