Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
This summer has not been a summer for movies, for me. With having moved across the country, getting a new house, renovating and now welcoming a new dog, the skittish Molly Bloom, movies have taken a back seat.
But that’s okay. I’ve still been picking them up and have a fine backlog to make my way through once fall kicks in.
One of the items I picked up was the Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection I mentioned in a previous post. And I’ve managed to watch one of the five movies in the set, I Love You Again.
It’s a delight. Powell and Loy worked so well together, as they do here – just like in The Thin Man movies, only it’s not The Thin Man. It is, however, Powell and Loy jousting in their usual fashion.
Directed by “One Take Woody,” W.S. Van Dyke, he of Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) and the first four Thin Man movies, I Love You Again uses the old amnesia routine as its set up. As tired as this may sound, the script and performances work it quite well. It might not be accurate to say it’s cleverly done, but it is certainly wittily executed.
This is partly because we get an extreme contrast in William Powell who is playing the boring, prissy and abstemious Larry Wilson who, following a knock on the head, discovers he’s really George Carey, a fast living con man who has suffered amnesia for nine years.
Upon his discovery, George realizes he’s in luck. If he works things right, he can cash in on Larry’s bank accounts and bilk the townsfolk out of oodles. He’s also teamed up with another con man, ‘Doc’ Ryan (Frank McHugh), who’s life Larry/George has saved. Ryan is indebted to George, and also wants in on the score.
But there is the inevitable glitch in all this in the form of lovely Myrna Loy as Kay Wilson, the tiresome Larry’s wife. Powell as George is smitten and amazed at his good fortune until he understands Kay wants a divorce from the boring Larry, who was never the man she hoped he might be.
It all makes for myriad complications as Powell must try to win Loy over while also pretending he’s still Larry, though in fact he’s now George.
And yes, it sounds confusing but it actually plays very well. It’s a charming, light comedy that manages to employ the Powell and Loy magic while also managing to be something a little different than the Thin Man movies.
It’s simply a well-made, funny movie.
Other Loy and Powell movies:
- Evelyn Prentice (1934) (Loy & Powell Collection)
- Double Wedding (1937) (Loy & Powell Collection)
- Love Crazy (1941) (Loy & Powell Collection)
- The Thin Man (1934) (Complete Thin Man Collection)
