Love Crazy

Physical comedy, romantic hijinks, quick dialogue, silly antics, William Powell, Myrna Loy, large doses of screwball. Any film that has those elements will be no surprise that I'll be fond of it and those are all present in the 1941 film Love Crazy. It's a sweet and funny picture and one of those films from the studio era that just makes you feel good as you watch it.

The Irelands are about to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary. All is lovey-dovey at the start of the night. Trouble comes when you add a mother-in-law and a flirtatious old flame. By the end of the night four years might be the limit of their time together.

One thing that makes Love Crazy such a charmer is the leads--William Powell and Myrna Loy. The pair obviously have a screen chemistry together as they co-starred in the great Thin Man series and other films together. That ease and comfort is evident on screen. The duo have a natural rapport that money can't buy when it comes to on screen partnering--you either have it or you don't. Powell and Loy have it.

Loy is classy as usual but Powell gets most of the juicy material. Sporting his trademark pencil 'stache, Powell gets to unleash all his comedy moves (he's got a lot of them including some bits of business including pretending to be insane and going in drag) while also getting to do some suave, leading man scenes. Powell is hard to top.

Love Crazy is a formula picture but like a lot of formula from this time--that's not really a bad thing. When the formula is this light, energetic and fun I'll take another dose of studio system by the numbers any day of the week.