Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fantastic Fans' Fervour Ferments Fun-Filled Favourites


Tonight, my family enjoyed a classic movie together, and I marveled once again at how wonderful a long-dead actor was.

We watched My Man Godfrey with William Powell and Carole Lombard. It had some good lines, but it wasn't a masterpiece. Still, his performance is terrific. I find him extraordinarily appealing. His voice isn't like anyone else's. It's strong and clever, sincere and sardonic. He's not classically handsome, but I love his looks.

There's genuine affection between the two stars, but it's a tender brother/sister sort of affection. In real life, they'd been married for two years and amicably divorced for three more before they filmed the movie.

The costar with whom Powell had the greatest chemistry was apparently never romantically involved with him. (Note I say apparently because I've been corrected by my readers before when I make similar statements about other performers!) He and Myrna Loy played Nick and Nora Charles in a series of six Thin Man movies. They were enormously popular; moviegoers loved their snappy dialogue.

I found a fun piece on youtube to share with you.


Clearly, these two inspire many fans to make tribute videos. I love to see what people create in assembling clips and music of their favourite performers, don't you? It's fun to speculate whether someone will do the same sort of thing twenty years from now when my own son is a famous actor....

7 comments:

kyooty said...

That was fun to watch, :)

Anonymous said...

I am crazy about the classic old movies. Just re-watched "Bringing Up Baby" ... yet again. I love the chemistry between Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant!

La Belette Rouge said...

I love-love-love William Powell. So smart, funny, witty and oozing with charm.

Kathy Amen said...

I could watch Thin Man movies all night long! They just don't make 'em like that any more...

shrink on the couch said...

"you wouldn't know them, darling. they're respectable."

baha!

lisahgolden said...

I adore old movies, classics or not. One of my favorite roles for William Powell is in Life with Father, as Clarence Day. I often refer to my husband as Mr. Golden and each time I do, I am reminded of that movie because Irene Dunne is formal when she refers to her husband Mr. Day.

Bee said...

I kind of "knew" about these characters without actually knowing them at all. If you get what I mean with that contradictory statement. MUST see these movies now. I am now resigned (sort of) to the next 6 months of mostly abysmal weather.