Old movies first set fire to my imagination when I was 11.It started with "The Moon is Blue"(1953),a romantic trifle starring William Holden and a neophyte Maggie McNamara that ventured to use the V-word (that is, virginity) during the Eisenhower years,hardly a daring exclamation to a 1980's pre-teen.Absurd as this may seem today,this innocuous film was enough to hook me to classic cinema for life.
It didn't take me long to realize that there was higher quality fare to be seen, and I was soon regularly watching old Hollywood classics.'80's television,with few exceptions,paled to a death pallor next to the richness and chic,drama and effervescence of studio-era output.
As a 16-year-old acting student,I breathlessly discovered old-school film stars from a new angle.From Spencer Tracy to Marilyn Monroe,Ronald Colman to Claudette Colbert,they were all beings who dominated the screen.Sometimes glamorous,sometimes tragic,always incandescent,they represented human variety in its stupefying spectrum.
At some point,and with great good fortune (there really is no other phrase for it),I saw a Myrna Loy film.I wish I could say,with assurance,which one it was.My memory leans towards "The Mask of Fu Manchu" (1932),or perhaps one of her earlier 'Oriental' baddie roles.Either way,it was hardly an encouraging introduction to an actress known for her sparkling wit and sophistication, yet it is fitting.In one of the strange twists that Hollywood is so known for Loy,a fresh-faced redhead from Montana,was often cast early in her career as a menacing Asian vamp. Indeed, "The Mask of Fu Manchu" came just 2 years before her star-making turn as Nora Charles in "The Thin Man" (1934).
Combining panache and elegance,she starred in comedies and melodramas,always an intelligent force to be reckoned with.Her star-power was never weakened by the dazzle of her co-stars.The wattage emanating from the likes of Tracy,Clark Gable and,most famously,William Powell only served to play up her command of the screen.Even the shimmering eyeful Jean Harlow,with whom Loy starred in 2 1936 releases ("Libeled Lady" and "Wife Versus Secretary"),did not detract from her vital presence.
At 18,with my acting ambitions still cheerily intact,I received a note from the 86-year-old Loy,by then much my favourite actress.She was gracious to this Ohio teenager with hazy though outlandish ambitions.Let me take a moment here to clarify that I am not,nor have ever been,in spite of my passion for film,star-struck.I am stubbornly hard to impress and wouldn't walk across the room to meet 99% of celebrities who ever drew breath.(Authors,dead ones,are my true weakness).Myrna Loy was the role-model exception.
In "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946),playing a war-weary wife,she proved her mettle in a drama of depth and realism,endowing the character with poignant maturity.She never played a false-scene,in any genre,never betrayed the machinery at work behind her art.The lady could act.
I eventually gave up acting in favour of writing,for me a more comfortable and primal fit,but my Myrna Loy note,hanging on the wall to the left of my writing desk,remains a treasured possession.It serves as a reminder that,as Myrna Loy proved over the decades,cinema and real life can handle smart,sophisticated,complex and witty women.
PHOTOGRAPH:MYRNA LOY IN "SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN" (1941)
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