Myrna Loy Movies

Myrna Loy made movies for seven decades...from 1925 to 1980.
Myrna Loy made movies for seven decades…from 1925 to 1980.

Want to know the best Myrna Loy (1905-1993) movies?  How about the worst Myrna Loy movies?  Curious about Myrna box office grosses or which Myrna Loy movie picked up the most Oscar® nominations? Need to know which Myrna Loy movie got the best reviews from critics and audiences and which got the worst reviews? Well you have come to the right place….because we have all of that information.

At the suggestion of Robwrite, I began researching Myrna Loy’s career about two months ago for this movie page. My knowledge of Myrna Loy was pretty much limited to… she had been in the successful Thin Man series and had appeared in a couple of Cary Grant movies. Other than those two things, I did not really think there was much to really know about Myrna Loy’s career…..boy was I wrong.

“Myrna Loy was one of cinema’s brightest stars. Beautiful, talented, warm, witty, wise and urbane, she swept all before her with a startling succession of box-office hits that lasted from 1932 until 1941, when wartime commitments overtook her career. Adored by moviegoers, Myrna was crowned “Queen of Hollywood” in 1938, with twenty million fans casting their votes in the largest poll of its kind ever conducted. Spencer Tracy was besotted with her, Valentino and Barrymore smitten and President Roosevelt obsessed, whilst Miss Loy had to push Gable off her front-step for “getting fresh”! Her extraordinary profile also supplied plastic surgeons with the most requested image of the 1930s, despite Myrna never having gone under the knife. Loy also managed to royally piss off Hitler by speaking out against his treatment of Jews and, with Chaplin, had the distinction of heading his blacklist”.

“Yet, somehow, Myrna Loy – at her peak more popular than Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn combined – seems almost forgotten. Whether this can be attributed to her gracious acting style (allowing her leading men to dominate), the lack of scandal in her private life, or the relative scarcity of her films in this country, I’m not sure, but it is a situation that deserves to be rectified”. The previous two paragraphs come from the Myrna Loy forum at Empire.com by Rick 7.

Her IMDb page shows 138 acting credits from 1925-1982. This page will rank Myrna Loy movies from Best to Worst in six different sortable columns of information. Television shows, shorts, cameos and movies and many of her early silent movies were not included in the rankings.

Myrna Loy and William Powell....and do not forget Asta the dog.... in one the best movie series ever...The Thin Man movies...Loy and Powell appeared in 14 movies together
Myrna Loy and William Powell….and do not forget Asta the dog…. in one the best movie series ever…The Thin Man movies…Loy and Powell appeared in 14 movies together

Myrna Loy Movies Ranked In Chronological Order With Ultimate Movie Rankings Score (1 to 5 UMR Tickets) *Best combo of box office, reviews and awards.

Myrna Loy Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table

The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.

  • Sort Myrna Loy movies by co-stars of her movies
  • Sort Myrna Loy movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
  • Sort Myrna Loy movies by domestic yearly box office rank
  • Sort Myrna Loy movies by how they were received by critics and audiences.  60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
  • Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each Myrna Loy movie received.
  • Sort Myrna Loy movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score.  UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
  • Use the sort and search button to make this a very interactive page.  For example type in William Powell to see 13 Powell/Loy movies….or type Clark Gable in the search box to bring up all of the Gable/Loy movies….or type in….I think you get the idea.

Stats and Possibly Interesting Things From The Above Myrna LoyTable

  1. Twenty-nine Myrna Loy movies crossed the magical $100 million domestic gross mark.  That is a percentage of 41.42% of her movies listed. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) was her biggest box office hit.
  2. An average Myrna Loy movie grosses $118.70 million in adjusted box office gross.
  3. Using RottenTomatoes.com’s 60% fresh meter.  52 of Myrna Loy’s movies are rated as good movies…or 74.28% of her movies.  After The Thin Man (1936) was her highest rated movie while Parnell (1937) was her lowest rated movie.
  4. Fifteen Myrna Loy movies received at least one Oscar® nomination in any category…..or 21.42% of her movies.
  5. Five Myrna Loy movies won at least one Oscar® in any category…..or 7.14% of her movies.
  6. An average Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score is 40.00. 49 Myrna Loy movies scored higher than that average….or 70.00% of her movies.  The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) got the the highest UMR Score while Just Tell Me What You Want (1980) got the lowest UMR Score.
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy in 1935's Wings in the Dark...one of three Grant/Loy movies
Cary Grant and Myrna Loy in 1935’s Wings in the Dark…one of three Grant/Loy movies

Possibly Interesting Facts About Myrna Loy

1. Loy had 80 screen credits before finally becoming a star with the release of the low budget surprise hit….1934’s The Thin Man. This UMR page looks at her career from 1933-1980, with a few of her pre-1933 releases.

2. During her early years…..Loy appeared in the first ever European/American co-production…1925’s Ben-Hur…..she appeared in the first movie to use a movie score…..1926’s Don Juan…..she appeared in the first talkie….1927’s The Jazz Singer……and she appeared in the first ever filmed operetta….1929’s The Desert Song.

3. Myrna Loy appeared in over 120 movies, but never received an Oscar® nomination or a Golden Globe® nomination for any of her acting roles. She did receive an honorary Oscar® for career achievement in 1991.

4. In 1921, Loy posed for Harry Winebrenner’s statue titled “Spiritual,” which remained in front of Venice High School throughout the 20th century and can be seen in the opening scenes of the 1978 film Grease.

5. Gangster John Dillinger was shot to death after leaving a screening of the 1934 film Manhattan Melodrama which starred Loy, Clark Gable and William Powell.

6. Loy and William Powell appeared in 14 movies together. 6 times they appeared as Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man movie series (1934-1947). When looking at the table above….8 of their movies finished in Loy’s Top Ten according to critics and audiences.

7. Check out the list of co-stars for Loy…..Clark Gable (7 movies), Cary Grant (3 movies), Warner Baxter (3 movies), Spencer Tracy (2 films), and with one film….James Stewart, Jack Lemmon, Paul Newman, Frederich March, Will Rogers, Charlton Heston, Tyrone Power, and of course Burt Reynolds.

8. The first part of her career was in silent movies…she was typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent…..her first film her character was called Vamp…..these roles kind of solidified her exotic non-America image…..which is strange as she was born and raised in Montana.

9. Loy’s big break? Loy attended a Hollywood party with director W.S. Dyke. At the party Dyke detected a wit and sense of humor that Loy’s films had not revealed. He then chose Loy for the Nora Charles role in The Thin Man. The success of The Thin Man changed how Hollywood viewed her, and her roles got bigger and better.

10. With the outbreak of World War II, she abandoned her acting career to focus on the war effort and worked closely with the Red Cross. She helped run a Naval Auxiliary Canteen and toured frequently to raise funds.

Check out Myrna Loy‘s career compared to current and classic actors.  Most 100 Million Dollar Movies of All-Time.

Not enough stats for you?….Then check out 37 Myrna Loy worldwide adjusted grosses

  • After the Thin Man (1936) $355.90 million in adjusted box office
  • Animal Kingdom (1932) $58.10 million in adjusted box office
  • Another Thin Man (1939) $267.40 million in adjusted box office
  • The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) $384.70 million in adjusted box office
  • The Bad Man (1930) $84.00 million in adjusted box office
  • The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) $859.60 million in adjusted box office
  • Bride of the Regiment (1930) $69.70 million in adjusted box office
  • The Desert Song (1929) $232.20 million in adjusted box office
  • Double Wedding (1937) $264.40 million in adjusted box office
  • Evelyn Prentice (1934) $122.30 million in adjusted box office
  • The Great Ziegfeld (1936) $525.20 million in adjusted box office
  • I Love You Again (1940) $185.30 million in adjusted box office
  • Isle of Escape (1930) $37.10 million in adjusted box office
  • Libeled Lady (1936) $306.00 million in adjusted box office
  • Love Crazy (1941) $200.70 million in adjusted box office
  • Lucky Night (1939) $130.20 million in adjusted box office
  • Manhattan Melodrama (1934) $129.00 million in adjusted box office
  • Man-Proof (1938) $136.90 million in adjusted box office
  • The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932) $68.30 million in adjusted box office
  • Men In White (1934) $152.20 million in adjusted box office
  • Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) $197.50 million in adjusted box office
  • New Morals For Old (1932) $36.60 Night Flight (1933) $112.30 million in adjusted box office
  • Noah’s Ark (1928) $191.00 million in adjusted box office
  • Parnell (1937) $204.70 million in adjusted box office
  • Pay As You Enter (1928) $11.30 million in adjusted box office
  • Petticoat Fever (1936) $121.90 million in adjusted box office
  • The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933) $97.20 million in adjusted box office
  • Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) $224.10 million in adjusted box office
  • The Show of Shows (1929) $209.90 million in adjusted box office
  • Song of the Thin Man (1947) $142.40 million in adjusted box office
  • Test Pilot (1938) $487.60 million in adjusted box office
  • The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) $193.90 million in adjusted box office
  • The Thin Man, The (1934) $159.90 million in adjusted box office
  • Too Hot To Handle (1938) $299.20 million in adjusted box office
  • The Truth About Youth (1930) $37.00 million in adjusted box office
  • Under a Texas Moon (1930) $107.50 million in adjusted box office
  • Whipshaw (1935) $97.60 million in adjusted box office
  • Wife vs Secretary (1936) $232.70 million in adjusted box office

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229 thoughts on “Myrna Loy Movies”

  1. SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE DOG THAT DIDN’T BARK IN THE NIGHT
    (From 1884 short story The Adventure of the Silver Blaze)

    When a Scotland Yard detective challenges him with ‘The dog did nothing in the night-time’, Holmes replies, ‘That was the curious incident’. And naturally, the implication of that dog failing to bark was that it revealed to Holmes the real truth of matters

    THE 50 GREATEST SCREEN PERSONS IN HISTORY OF THE CINEMA

    Included are those persons considered for one reason or another to have made the most significant contributions in bringing originality to film making and taking it progressively forward.
    They are ranked in order of perceived greatness. Performers asterisked are also on the celebrated AFI 50 male and female Legends Lists

    1/Marlon Brando *
    2/Robert DeNiro
    3/Al Pacino
    4/Martin Scorsese (Dir)
    5/Katherine Hepburn *
    6/Steven Spielberg (Dir)
    7/Dustin Hoffman
    8/Elizabeth Taylor *
    9/Bruce Lee
    10/Marilyn Monroe *
    11/Jack Nicholson
    12/Gene Hackman
    13/Steve McQueen
    14/James Dean *
    15/Richard Burton
    16/Robert Mitchum *
    17/Federico Fellini (Dir)
    18/Walt Disney (Prod)
    19/Ingrid Bergman *
    20/Jack Lemmon
    21/Clint Eastwood (Dir, Act)
    22/Johnny Depp
    23/Alec Guinness
    24/Bette Davis *
    25/Spencer Tracy *
    26/Denzel Washington
    27/John Wayne *
    28/Judy Garland *
    29/George Clooney (Prod, act)
    30/Woody Allen (Prod, act.
    31/S Kubrick (Dir, Prod)
    32/Harrison Ford
    33/Vivien Leigh *
    34/James Stewart *
    35/Alfred Hitchcock (Dir, Prod)
    36/Julia Robert
    37/Akira Kurosawa (Dir)
    38/Robert Redford
    39/Julie Andrews
    40/Sean Connery
    41/Ingmar Bergman (Dir)
    42/Billy Wilder (Dir)
    43/Humphrey Bogart *
    44/Meryl Streep
    45/Orson Welles (Prod, Act) *
    46/Grace Kelly *
    47/Paul Newman
    48/David Lean (Fir, Prod)
    49/Audrey Hepburn *
    50/Michael Caine

    Reply

  3. Cogerson lead-in above. “Yet, somehow, Myrna ———–seems almost forgotten.”
    [“Out out brief candle’ William Shakespeare from the famous Macjoel soliloquy].

    The UMR Thin Woman Anthem

    Forgotten you?
    Well, if forgetting
    Be thinking all the day
    How long hours drag since you left me
    (Days seem years with you away.)

    Or hearing thro’ all the strange babble
    Of voices, now grave, now gay,
    Only your voice;
    Can this be forgetting?
    Yet I have forgotten, you say.

    Forgotten you?
    Well, if forgetting
    Be reading each face that I see
    With eyes that mark never a feature,
    Save yours as you last looked at me

    Or counting each moment with longing,
    Till the one when I’ll see you again.
    If this be forgetting, you’re right, dear,
    And I have forgotten you then.

    Forgotten you?
    Well, if forgetting
    be yearning with all my heart,
    With a longing, half pain and half rapture,
    For the time when we never shall part.

    If the wild wish to see you and hear you,
    To be held in your arms again,
    If this be forgetting, you’re right, dear,
    And I have forgotten you then.

    Eugene Cowles and Mary Kavanagh, “Forgotten” (1894).

    Reply

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