According to Jerry Seinfeld, men are channel surfers but women would rather land on a station and stay there.
In fact, women would rather land on almost any station, rather than go hopping from channel to channel, while men insist on channel-flipping until it drives their significant others crazy.And I admit it, I'm guilty of this sexist stereotype.
But there are a few TV images that will bring my channel surfing to a halt, and one "sure thing" is Myrna Loy. If Loy appears on the screen - whether the movie is good, bad or indifferent - the surfing stops, I settle in and finish the picture.
Loy's presence is truly inspiring. In fact, a color postcard portrait of Loy above my desk is there to remind me of how many good movies there are, especially when I've had to review 20 bad pictures in a row.
I have my favorite Loy movies, of course - the list being topped by "The Best Years of Our Lives," which I consider one of the finest films ever made. But for surfing purposes, any Loy flick will do.
Her death this past week (she died in New York Tuesday at age 88) has prompted me to ponder why I enjoy her screen appearances so much.
She wasn't the sexiest star of her era, though she started out as a husband-stealing/man-destroying vamp in many of her early films. Yet, as her career progressed, Loy displayed a combination of sex appeal, wit and sophistication that joined with a wise understanding of how the world works, which helped make her one of the most engaging and appealing performers in cinema history.
You can have Jean Harlow, Marilyn Monroe, Sharon Stone and Julia Roberts. I'll take Myrna Loy every time.
Loy's film career began in the silent era, and for a time - almost a decade in more than 60 films - she found herself typecast as Asian vamps and mysterious mistresses, most famously as Boris Karloff's twisted daughter in "The Mask of Fu Manchu," and "Thirteen Women," in which she plotted to kill 12 sorority sisters. (She can also be glimpsed as a showgirl opposite Al Jolson in "The Jazz Singer," the first "talkie.")
Her rise to stardom began in 1930, when John Ford cast her in "Arrowsmith," in which she played yet another seductress, and as Morgan le Fay in the Will Rogers version of "A Connecticut Yankee." The next year she was a countess in Ernst Lubitsch's "Love Me Tonight," and in 1932 was cast as a sophisticated Parisienne in "Topaze," with John Barrymore.
Of course, Loy made quite a few other films during those years, as a contract player for both MGM and RKO. Then, in 1934, she made such a strong impression opposite Clark Gable and William Powell in "Manhattan Melodrama" that director W.S. Van Dyke decided to cast her opposite Powell in a cheap, B-movie adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Thin Man," a comedy-thriller about a sophisticated, high-society married couple, Nick and Nora Charles, who solve murder mysteries when they aren't going to parties.
The film was an unexpected smash, and over the next 13 years there would be five sequels. (All together, Loy and Powell were teamed in a dozen films.)
After her "Thin Man" success, the films got consistently better and her star was truly on the rise. By 1936, Loy was Hollywood's No. 1 female box office attraction and became known as the "Queen of Hollywood," a variation on a title bestowed by a newspaper columnist - Ed Sullivan - who conducted a poll that resulted in readers dubbing her "Queen of the Movies."
Still later, Loy got the title "the perfect wife," a reflection of her professional partnership over the years with Powell, Cary Grant ("Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"), Fredric March ("The Best Years of Our Lives") and Clifton Webb ("Cheaper By the Dozen").
The Loy moment that is most firmly etched in my mind is the homecoming scene in "The Best Years of Our Lives" . . . and even the very brief snippet I glimpsed the other night on CNN (during a Loy obituary story) had an emotional impact.
Loy is a middle-aged homemaker, bustling around her apartment, and as she goes into the kitchen, Fredric March, as her husband, quietly makes his entrance. Their two teenage kids see him as he comes in the door, but he motions them to be quiet so he can surprise their mother. March has come home from World War II, and though he is expected, there has been no indication of exactly when he'd be arriving.
A moment of silence follows, and as Loy becomes aware of the silence, her expressive eyes tell us that she has been tipped to what's happening. She comes out of the kitchen, spots March in the hallway, drops everything and runs to embrace him.
It's a vividly emotional cinematic moment, which tells us much about this couple, while becoming a highlight in both the film and Loy's career.
In later years, she became a comfortable older character player in movies like "Midnight Lace," "April Fools," "Airport" and others. Her best film during this later phase of her career was "Summer Solstice," a made-for-TV picture that cast her for the first time opposite Henry Fonda. New York Times critic John J. O'Connor wrote of that film, "demonstrates splendidly why they remain stars."
Loy was never nominated for an Oscar, strangely enough. But she will be remembered long after many Oscar-winning actresses have faded from memory.
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Myrna Loy, on the "Thin Man" movies she made with William Powell:
"The later ones were very bad indeed, but it was always a joy to work with Bill Powell . . . and in the early `Thin Man' films with (director) Woody Van Dyke, we managed to achieve what for those days was an almost pioneering sense of spontaneity."
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK II: William Powell on Myrna Loy:
"Her charm is that she never tries too hard."
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK III: Cary Grant on Myrna Loy:
"All the leading men agreed - Myrna was the wife everybody wanted."
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK IV: Lillian Gish on Myrna Loy:
"Myrna Loy, what a joy!"