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....
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