Evelyn Prentice (1934)

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

"Evelyn Prentice" is a different film in more ways than one. It's the only real heavy drama piece of the more than dozen movies that William Powell and Myrna Loy made together. And, it's the only one in which Loy's character was the bigger role. She performs it marvelously. It's also out of the character of the Thin Man series and most of the rest of the Powell-Loy pairings which were comedy-crime films or genuine mysteries. IMDb lists this as a drama, mystery and romance. It's a mystery in which the audience in let in on most of the goings-on. So much so, that one can guess the outcome without too much difficulty. So, it doesn't' rank up there with the good mysteries of the period or with the very clever and intriguing Agatha Christie whodunits. But this film has something else that I haven't noticed anyone else comment about. Many call it a romance, but it's more than that. The plot involves a couple – Powell and Loy, who play John and Evelyn Prentice, who are very much in love with each other. Viewers will be quick to notice the workaholic in John, and the developing martyrdom persona of Evelyn. But one very different thing that I noticed about the film was the role of Evelyn's friend, Amy Drexel, played very well by Una Merkel. Some friend! She know that John and Evelyn are deeply in love. Yet, when she sees a handsome man (Lawrence Kennard played by Harvey Stephens) show interest in Evelyn, she encourages Evelyn to see him. We know of Evelyn's true love for John because of her apprehensions and decisions to end her innocent meetings with Lawrence. And, we see the outcome. So, this film makes a point – intentional or otherwise – about one's friends. There's an old saying from years ago in the national campaign against drunken driving. "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." Well, a similar one might apply here, in the plot of this film. "Friends don't encourage friends to step out on spouses they love." Another might be, "Friends don't tempt friends to be unfaithful."There's not a lot of intrigue here, but it's a very good drama with excellent performances by all, especially Loy. Definitely worth seeing. And an especially goof film to watch with friends. And, then raise the point afterwards.

There's nothing particularly *awful* about the script or story of Evelyn Prentice, but there's nothing that sparks out that it's particularly deep or original either. It runs just shy of 80 minutes and it was surely one of those "programmers", a movie that was put through by the studio to get some select butts in seats - not too dissimilar, of course, from much of the history of Hollywood, just that it doesn't really distinguish itself in any artistic way outside the box. In other words, William K. Howard puts the camera where it goes, gets his mediums and close-ups, and moves along to the next set-up once he's got what he needs. Scenes even fade-out and fade-in at the point where, perhaps with a more confident or creative director, they might go on or start a little sooner, give a little more depth to the characters. Not all terrible filmmaking, but, perhaps still not so impressive, it's... standard.It's interesting to see that in 1934 William Powell and Myrna Loy got not one, not two, but THREE leading vehicles with one another, two of them melodramas, and both of those were with Powell as a lawyer. But where one of those other films was a smash of a comic mystery (The Thin Man, of course, which set them off to be super-stars), and the other a story that also featured Clarke Gable (Manhattan Melodrama, an underrated effort all things considered), this one shows them having to do a little extra leg-work with the script. It gives them moments, to be sure, especially in the first act with those little moments that creep into a marriage like with the Prentices - he a successful but usually-at-work lawyer, her the stay-at-home mom with too much time on her hands - where the actors show doubt and dismay very subtly. A moment where Loy discovers a note and necklace with some shocking conclusions to take from it, her restraint and her eyes say it all. Powell, too, gets those moments.It was them, and some decent supporting work from Isabell Jewel (as the woman on trial for killing her husband) and Una Merkel (best-friend comic relief, though not so much comic but more, um, less dramatic I guess), that kept me interested and engaged in the film. There is also, I should admit, a courtroom climax that even in its midst of... is there another word for melodramatic (?) surprises does make for entertaining viewing as far as how the script makes its quick turns. A movie like Evelyn Prentice, with its relatively cute scenes of father-mother-daughter interactions (those are actually some of the best, showing the warmth that Powell could have acting with children, Loy too) and the sort of stagy but fine moments of will-they-won't-they infidelity, that reminds me of the axiom that a fair script can be made into a good movie with good actors.If you like Powell, and particularly if you love Loy, this shows them doing good, honest dramatic performances and interactions *despite* the constraints of the material. It also makes for a helluva surreal viewing if you watch it on the same night as, say, one of the Thin Man flicks.

This movie had in it the elements that made the Thin Man a smash. The film crackles when Myrna and William Powell are on the screen. And it almost looks like a Thin Man movie with a lot of supporting actors from the series appearing in this movie. The movie is about a woman married to a successful and neglectful attorney and implies he may have had an affair with his client when he was out of town. During this time a barfly somehow is able to manipulate our heroine Myrna into spending sometime with him for teas, walks then try to blackmail her when she breaks it off. Someone else is blamed and for the rest of movie Myrna has a guilty conscious yet our heroine in the end does the right thing she thinks but in a pre M Night twist which i will not disclose all turns out. This movie was a bit slow and yes i had a hard time believing that a sophisticated lady would fall for such a douchebag but Myrna and Bill were awesome as usual. Not thin man quality but better than most.

William Powell and Myrna Loy made fourteen films together; "Evelyn Prentice" was their third, released in 1934. Powell plays John Prentice, a busy attorney who isn't spending enough time with his wife Evelyn (Loy) and child; he drifts into an affair with a needy client (Rosalind Russell) whom he has successfully defended in a manslaughter case. Evelyn is being wooed by a so-called poet (Harvey Stephens) who in truth has blackmail in mind. When he presents Evelyn with incriminating letters (though she hasn't had an affair with him, the letters are suggestive), a struggle ensues, and he winds up dead. His girlfriend (Isabel Jewell) is accused.The acting helps what has now become a familiar story. Myrna Loy is absolutely gorgeous and sympathetic as a lonely wife resisting the attentions of another man; and you know that Powell, despite his philandering, cares for her deeply. Una Merkel is delightful as Evelyn's friend.Powell and Loy worked so easily together and by all accounts enjoyed their collaborations, keeping up their friendship even after Powell retired. They're always a joy to watch.