When the movie starts, Larry (Powell) is almost the opposite of Nick. His drink of choice is ginger ale with grape juice (some kind of warped Shirley Temple?). He's so stuffy that he walks around saying things like, "You're inebriated," and people laugh about him and call him "Mr. Grape Juice." Near the beginning of the movie Larry falls off a cruise ship trying to rescue a drowning man and gets conked on the head with an oar. When he wakes up, he has no memory of being Larry and of the last nine years of his life. It turns out he is really a swindler named George who got amnesia when he was knocked in the head in a fight nine years ago. He immediately starts to scheme with the rescued-from-drowning crook about ways to steal money from the town where Larry has been living. Things get more complicated when George steps off of the ship to find that Larry has a wife, Kay (Loy). He is torn between getting right to work on his plot and pursuing Kay, who is about to divorce him for being too boring and stuffy. Of course now that Larry is really George, he has a whole new personality, realizes he is hopelessly in love with Kay and cannot let her go, and much hilarity ensues.
My favorite scene might be when George/Larry gets Kay to dance with him by dancing alone in a crowded restaurant until she goes to get him. You can see it at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=cAjn16uT7ZA
There are just too many good lines in this movie. Myrna Loy and William Powell play off of each other just as well as in the Thin Man movies.
It makes me want to see some of their other non-Nick and Nora movies, even though I still have the final Thin Man waiting to be watched.
4 comments:
I have seen this! This is one of the ones that lives dimly in my memory from before the days of the blog (pre-historic times, as far as I'm concerned). I think I remember a scene where the George the crook cases his own factory and - do I remember correctly? - ends up leading a troop of boy scouts through the woods and posing as a master outdoorsman?
Hilarity indeed!
Four stars from me, too!
Yes! That's the movie! There was almost too much to comment on.
You have fantastic taste. This is my favorite non-Thin Man P&L movie. Four stars, indeed!
Totally agree, Millie, I've seen a few other non-Thin-Man Powell/Loy movies and this seems to be the one that has the most spunk.
Post a Comment