1934 was a breakout year for Myrna Loy. She had been toiling in the vineyards
for ten years in Hollywood beginning in the silent era and into the talkies.
Though she was born in Montana of Scottish and Swedish heritage her facial
features seemed to push her into vamp roles often as Hispanics or Asians
(including Fu Manchu's sadistic daughter in which she is terrific). Now approaching
30 - often the death knell of actresses), Loy appeared in this film, where
she shows great glamour, Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William
Powell (and the film Dillinger was leaving when he was gunned down), Evelyn
Prentice also with William Powell and also most significantly the first Thin
Man with Powell. That film made her the Perfect Wife in American films.
This script was put together by the great Herman Mankiewicz who helped write
Citizen Kane among other great classics. He and his brother Joseph (who wrote
Manhattan Melodrama) were quite the duo back then. His script certainly gives
this film a leg up with its witty urbane banter between Loy and the man she
falls in love with played by George Brent. It is a romance wrapped in a spy
yarn that is pretty good though - for my taste - the romance is a bit too
dramatic and heaving.
Loy plays a German spy during WW I - which kind of surprises me in that I
don't think America was too fond of the Germans then either though perhaps
enough time was thought passed. Her assignment is to go to Istanbul and test
the loyalty of a high Turkish official to Germany (they were allies). A brash
American intrudes and suspense and romance bloom. Other than what seems like
literally a last second tacked on ending, this is a sleek adult film in which
Loy radiates.
