Myrna Loy . John Dillinger had a crush on starlet.
1934 film made her bait to nab Dillinger
Myrna Loy, the Public Enemy's pinup
From Carrie Rickey's Flickgrrlflickgrrl
According to Michael Mann's Public Enemies, it was FBI agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) who set the trap that caught notorious bank robber John Dillinger (Johnny Depp). It was starlet Myrna Loy who was the bait. Dillinger had a crush on the sleepy-eyed lovely, whose movie Manhattan Melodrama (1934) tempted the robber out of hiding months before she became a star in The Thin Man films. There are those who would argue that Dillinger's cause of death was the love of Loy. Those interested in the 1930s milieu of Purvis and Dillinger could do worse than take a look at Manhattan Melodrama, a snappy film about childhood buddies William Powell and Clark Gable who pursue the same dame (Loy, natch) but different careers.
In the ripping story that established the "opposite sides of the law" motif, Powell plays the district attorney who prosecutes the lawless Gable. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, who would reunite Loy and Powell for The Thin Man series, the film boasts atmospheric cinematography by the peerless James Wong Howe and is a glorious setting for the sparkling jewel that was Loy. Buoyed by this movie and her notoriety as the Venus flytrap who caught Dillinger, Loy deservedly soared to stardom.
I love Loy in just about everything, from the slinky siren in The Mask of Fu Manchu, to "perfect wife" Nora Charles in The Thin Man films to Cary Grant's teasing spouse in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. But my favorite role of hers is as the cheerful nymphomaniac who is second fiddle to Jeanette McDonald in Love Me Tonight (1932). "Could you go for a doctor?" McDonald asks. "And how!" replies Loy, with the enthusiastic sexuality that may have appealed to Dillinger. Your favorite Myrna?
Megan Fox: A theory
From Carrie Rickey's "Flickgrrl"www.philly.com/philly/blogs/flickgrrl
Via e-mail and voice mail and watercooler, the pressure was on. The (predominantly) male friends of "Flickgrrl" want to talk Megan Fox, fetching costar of Transformers II. What can I say but that in Transformers and Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen she struck me as very pretty? What can I say but that in the tabloids, she gives saucy quote? What can I say but that her right shoulderblade is inscribed with a quote from King Lear (Act 5, Scene 3): "We will all laugh at gilded butterflies" - a line from Cordelia's soliloquy?
I can say that this green-eyed brunette possesses coloring that is a distinct asset. As legendary cinematographer Nestor Almendros observed, actors with dark hair and light eyes - or the reverse - are uniquely cinegenic. Almendros called this his "theory of complementary contrasts," and his proofs were brown-eyed blonde Catherine Deneuve and blue-eyed brunet Mel Gibson. Vanessa Williams is another excellent example. Consider this an open thread to discuss Fox, cinegenic coloring and stars with names that describe their personalities.
