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The Old Maid is a 1939 romantic drama film, produced by Warner Brothers.

It was directed by Edmund Goulding, and stars Bette Davis, Miriam Hopkins, George Brent, Donald Crisp, Jane Bryan, James Stephenson and Louise Fazenda.

The musical score was composed by Max Steiner and the film feautured costumes by Orry-Kelly.

Based on an Edith Wharton novel it was adapted into a Pulitzer Prize winning play by Zoe Akins which was performed on Broadway in 1935 with Judith Anderson and Helen Menken. The screenplay was adapted by Casey Robinson.

Contents 1 Sound samples 2 Background and early life 3 Early career 4 Hollywood success 5 World War II 6 Later years 7 Quotes - critical comments 8 1931 – 1940 9 1941 – 1950 10 1951 – 1960 11 1961 – 1970 12 1971 – 1980 13 1981 – 1989 14 Filmography 15 Television Work 16 Notes and references

[edit] Sound samples

• Image:10 Galerón a Luis Miranda.ogg (User:GJRFMorelligu)
• Image:16 El Diablo Suelto.ogg (User:GJRFMorelligu)
• Image:Alma Llanera.ogg (User:GJRFMorelligu)
• Image:1000 Miles.ogg (User:One Salient Oversight)
• Image:All I can See.ogg (User:One Salient Oversight)
• Image:2K - Fuck the Millennium (excerpt).ogg (User:Vinoir)
• Image:2LiveCrew-Me so Horny.ogg (User:ByeByeBaby)
• Image:301-howard shore-khazad-dûm.ogg (User:Locke Cole)
• Image:A Mighty Fortress is Our God.ogg (User:Markkidd) orphan
• Image:Ace of Spades.ogg (User:Wiki alf)
• Image:And I Saw a New Heaven.ogg (User:Wiki alf)
• Image:Acedropsofjup.ogg (User:Chantessy)
• Image:Aegean folk music agir zeybek.ogg (User:Deff6)
• Image:Alison Moyet - Love Resurrection excerpt.ogg (User:Ian Dunster)
• Image:America FYeah.ogg (User:Mvent2) orphan

• Image:Adayinthelifesample.ogg (40 seconds)
• Image:Aesop rock-no jumper cables.ogg (43 seconds)
• Image:Alizee - Moi... Lolita excerpt.ogg (45 seconds)
• Image:Alizée - J'ai Pas Vingt Ans (sample).ogg (46 seconds)

Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 - December 14, 1993) was a United States motion picture actress. Her career began in silent films and for several years she played minor roles, before being typecast as exotic femme fatales. In 1934, after almost a decade in films, Loy was cast as Nora Charles in The Thin Man. An unexpected hit, the film introduced the most successful period of her career as one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's leading actresses of the 1930s, noted for her glamour and wit, and nicknamed "The Perfect Wife". She appeared with some of the top male stars of the day and made fourteen films with William Powell, the most films of any screen couple.

She distanced herself from her film career during World War II and worked extensively for the Red Cross, and upon her return to films was unable to return to her earlier level of success. She continued acting until the early 1980s and also worked for social and political causes. By the end of her career she had appeared in more than one hundred films, and towards the end of her life was acclaimed for accomplishments of her long career. She died during surgery in New York City after several years of ill health.

[edit] Background and early life

Myrna Adele Williams was born in Radersburg (near Helena, Montana), the daughter of a rancher, David Franklin Williams, and his wife, Della Mae. Her paternal grandparents had migrated from Wales in the 1850s, and her maternal grandparents from Sweden and Scotland, all settling in Radersburg at the height of the region's goldrush. Her father chose the name "Myrna" after passing through a railway station of that name in Nebraska, "because [he] liked the sound of it. The Welsh in him probably thought Myrna was a pretty name. All Welshmen are like that, you know, they have a certain amount of poetry in them", Loy recalled in her autobiography. ^[1] She grew up in Helena, with an extended family of amatuer musicians and her constant exposure to music inspired her to become a dancer. In 1918 her father died, and her mother decided to move the family to Los Angeles, settling in Culver City.

[edit] Early career

At the age of fifteen she began appearing in local stage productions. Loy was noticed by the photographer Henry Waxman who photographed her and displayed her portraits in his studio. Natacha Rambova, the wife of Rudolph Valentino, was impressed by the images and arranged a screen test with Valentino, but Loy', but she persevered, and in 1925 appeared in the movie What Price Beauty. Her silent film roles were mainly those of vampish exotic women and for a few years she struggled to overcome this stereotype with many producers and directors believing that while she was perfect as these femme fatales, she was capable of little more. During her nine year struggle to establish herself, she appeared in nearly 80 films.

[edit] Hollywood success

Her breakthrough occurred in 1934 with two very successful films. The first was Manhattan Melodrama with Clark Gable and William Powell. Her performance in The Thin Man later the same year as William Powell's sophisticated, witty wife Nora Charles made her a star. She and Powell proved to be a popular couple and appeared in 14 films together, the most prolific onscreen pairing in Hollywood history.

In 1936, she was voted "Queen of Hollywood" (in a contest which also voted Clark Gable "King") and was considered to epitomise the height of glamour and sophistication. During this period she was one of Hollywood's busiest and highest paid actresses. With the outbreak of World War II she all but abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and worked closely with the Red Cross. She was fiercely outspoken against Adolf Hitler and her name appeared on his "blacklist". She helped run a Naval Auxilary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.

[edit] World War II

She returned to films with The Best Years Of Our Lives in 1946 and played the wife of returning serviceman Fredric March. In later years Loy would recall this film as her proudest acting achievement. It also allowed Loy to make a film that demonstrated her social conscience. During her career she had championed the rights of black actors and characters to be depicted with dignity on film. In later life she assumed a more influential role as Co-Chairman of the "Advisory Council of the National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing". From 1949 until 1954 she also worked for UNESCO; she also was an active member of the Democratic Party. Her film career continued sporadically (in 1960 she appeared in Midnight Lace and From the Terrace, and was not in another until 1969 in The April Fools) and she also returned to the stage making her Broadway debut in a short-lived 1973 revival of Clare Booth Luce's The Women. Her autobiography Myrna Loy: Being and Becoming was published in 1987.

[edit] Later years

In 1965 she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work in Chicago theatre. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Kennedy Center in 1986. Although she was never nominated for an Academy Award for any single performance, she received an Academy Honorary Award in 1991 "for her career achievement", she accepted via camera from her New York home, appearing somewhat bloated (possibly from medications she was taking) and thanked everyone sincerely and graciously. It would be her last public appearance in any medium.

After battling breast cancer and enduring a two mastectomies, Myrna Loy died during cancer surgery in New York City at the age of 88 and was cremated; her ashes are buried at Forestvale Cemetery, in the city of Helena, which is near her birthplace of Radersburgh, in her beloved home state of Montana.

On August 2, 2005, the centenary of Loy's birth, Warner Home Video released the six films from The Thin Man series, on DVD as a boxed set.

Loy was married four times. Her first husband was producer Arthur Hornblow Jr (1936-42); John Hertz Jr. of the rent-a-car family (1942-44); producer Gene Markey (1946-50), and UNESCO delegate Howland H. Sergeant (1951-1960). She had no children. "Some perfect wife I am", she said, referring to her typecasting. "I've been married four times, divorced four times, have no children, and can't boil an egg".

She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6685 Hollywood Blvd.

[edit] Quotes - critical comments

From The Films of Myrna Loy

• On William Powell - (p14) From the very first scene we did together in Manhattan Melodrama, we felt that particular magic between us. There was this feeling of rhythm, of complete understanding, and an instinct of how each of us could bring out the best in each other."

On herself - privacy - (p15) "I think carrying on a life that is meant to be private in public, is a breach of taste, common sense, and mental hygiene. I made my mistakes, paid for them, recovered from them, and did it all in privacy. And I'm glad."

• On William Powell - "the best for me" (p 16)

On Darryl Zanuck - Darryl still saw me as a vamp, even after all the perfect-wife publicity. During shooting The Rains Came I don't know how many times he called me on the carpet to tell me I wasn't playing my role right, but I stuck to my guns. His background was writing and story values were the most important thing to him. Oh, he knew it was a good idea to have Betty Grable under contract, but he wasn't so concerned with finding vehicles to fit the personality of a particular star as they were at MGM.:

The following provides a list of the film and television performances of the American actress, Myrna Loy.

Although noted primarily for her extensive and acclaimed film career, Davis also made several appearances as a guest performer in television series, during the 1950s and from the 1970s until the end of her career also appeared in made-for-television movies. Titles are for films released to cinemas unless noted as television productions.

[edit] 1931 – 1940

[edit] 1941 – 1950

[edit] 1951 – 1960

[edit] 1961 – 1970

[edit] 1971 – 1980

[edit] 1981 – 1989

[edit] Filmography

• What Price Beauty? (1925)
• The Wanderer (1925)
• Pretty Ladies (1925)
• Sporting Life (1925)
• Ben-Hur (1925)
• The Caveman (1926)
• The Love Toy (1926)
• Why Girls Go Back Home (1926)
• The Gilded Highway (1926)
• Exquisite Sinner (1926)
• So This Is Paris (1926)
• Don Juan (1926)
• Across the Pacific (1926)
• The Third Degree (1926)
• Finger Prints (1927)
• When a Man Loves (1927)
• Bitter Apples (1927)
• The Climbers (1927)
• Simple Sis (1927)
• The Heart of Maryland (1927)
• A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927)
• The Jazz Singer (1927)
• The Girl from Chicago (1927)
• If I Were Single (1927)
• Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927)
• Beware of Married Men (1928)
• A Girl in Every Port (1928)
• Turn Back the Hours (1928)
• The Crimson City (1928)
• Pay as You Enter (1928)
• State Street Sadie (1928)
• The Midnight Taxi (1928)
• Fancy Baggage (1929)
• Hardboiled Rose (1929)
• The Desert Song (1929)
• The Black Watch (1929)
• The Squall (1929)
• Noah's Ark (1929)
• The Great Divide (1929)
• Evidence (1929)
• The Show of Shows (1929)
• Cameo Kirby (1930)
• Isle of Escape (1930)
• Under a Texas Moon (1930)
• Cock o' the Walk (1930)
• Bride of the Regiment (1930)
• The Last of the Duanes (1930)
• The Jazz Cinderella (1930)
• The Bad Man (1930)
• Renegades (1930)
• Rogue of the Rio Grande (1930)
• The Truth About Youth (1930)
• The Devil to Pay! (1930)
• The Naughty Flirt (1931)
• Body and Soul (1931)
• A Connecticut Yankee (1931)
• Hush Money (1931)
• Transatlantic (1931)
• Rebound (1931)
• Skyline (1931)
• Consolation Marriage (1931)
• Arrowsmith (1931)
• Emma (1932)
• Vanity Fair (1932)
• The Wet Parade (1932)
• The Woman in Room 13 (1932)
• New Morals for Old (1932)
• Love Me Tonight (1932)
• Thirteen Women (1932)
• The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932)
• The Animal Kingdom (1932)
• Topaze (1933)
• Scarlet River (1933) (cameo)
• The Barbarian (1933)
• The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)
• When Ladies Meet (1933)
• Penthouse (1933)
• Night Flight (1933)
• Men in White (1934)
• Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
• The Thin Man (1934)
• Stamboul Quest (1934)
• Evelyn Prentice (1934)
• Broadway Bill (1934)
• Wings in the Dark (1935)
• Whipsaw (1935)
• Wife vs. Secretary (1936)
• Petticoat Fever (1936)
• The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
• To Mary - with Love (1936)
• Libeled Lady (1936)
• After the Thin Man (1936)
• Parnell (1937)
• Double Wedding (1937)
• Test Pilot (1938)
• Man-Proof (1938)
• Too Hot to Handle (1938)
• Verdensberomtheder i Kobenhavn (1939) (documentary)
• Lucky Night (1939)
• The Rains Came (1939)
• Another Thin Man (1939)
• Northward, Ho! (1940) (short subject)
• I Love You Again (1940)
• Third Finger, Left Hand (1940)
• Love Crazy (1941)
• Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
• Show Business at War (1943) (short subject)
• The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
• So Goes My Love (1946)
• The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)
• Song of the Thin Man (1947)
• The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947)
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
• The Red Pony (1949)
• That Dangerous Age (1949)
• Cheaper by the Dozen (1950)
• Belles on Their Toes (1952)
• The Ambassador's Daughter (1956)
• Lonelyhearts (1958)
• From the Terrace (1960)
• Midnight Lace (1960)
• The April Fools (1969)
• Airport 1975 (1974)
• The End (1978)
• Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)

[edit] Television Work

• Meet Me in St. Louis (1959)
• Death Takes a Holiday (1971)
• Do Not Fold, Spindle, or Mutilate (1971)
• Columbo: Étude in Black (1972)
• The Couple Takes a Wife (1972)
• Indict and Convict (1974)
• The Elevator (1974)
• Summer Solstice (1981)

[edit] Notes and references