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. Thank you….about to add another movie….as I found the box office information for her two more of her movies….1938’s If I Were King and 1930’s The Devil To Pay!

      Reply

  3. Yah! I’ve been waiting for this one, cogerson. I absolutely love Myrna Loy. She’s my all-time favorite actress! I developed a crush on her the first time I saw the “Thin Man”. She really is the Queen of Hollywood to me. I can’t believe she never got an oscar (except an honorary one) for all her amazing work.

    I was a fan of hers for years before I realized that she played sultry vamps in the early part of her career. When I saw her as Karloff’s evil daughter in “The Mask of Fu Manchu” I was amazed, until I found out that it was her speciality, pre-‘Thin Man’.

    She was a great dramatic actress but I preferred her in light comedies. My single favorite scene with her was when she was describing the room colors to the decorators in “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”. (You have to see the film to know what I mean.)

    Dillinger was such a big fan of hers that he came out of hiding to see her in “Manhattan Melodrama”, which is where he was shot and killed.

    Whoever’s gonna play Nora Charles in the “Thin Man” remake has some huge shoes to fill, and I can pretty much guarantee that whoever it is won’t match Myrna.

    I never get tired of watching her. She’s so pretty, likable and talented. There’ll never be another Myrna.

    Thanks a lot for doing this one, Cogerson. Voted way up!

    Rob

    Reply

    1. Glad you like the page….so do you think the Top 5 has any movies that should not be there….I just plug the numbers in and look at the end results….usually I have a good idea if the rankings make no sense….I would say Airport 75 is too high….but it made a ton of money…even with a audience score of 43%…speaking of Airport…..I wonder how people that were in the 1925 Ben-Hur movie got to make a movie with the 1959 Ben-Hur..Charlton Heston…..I can not imagine many…I actually do no what you mean about the scene in Mr. Blandings….a classic moment…..thanks for the suggestion of Myrna Loy….I had fun finding all the numbers.

      Reply

      1. “Airport” definitely isn’t representative of her best work but the most profitable films aren’t always the best ones. And “Airport” came late in her career, when admission prices were much higher than decades earlier.

        Her and Powell made such a great team, not only as Nick and Nora but in all the other films they made together. 14 all together–the public must have loved them, too. (Amazingly enough, 14 isn’t even the most pairings of an actor/actress. I think the 28 “Blondie” movies that Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton made together may be the record.)

        Rob

        Reply

        1. Hey Rob…I agree Airport 1975 is not her best work….when looking at the inflated box office numbers it is based on tickets sold vs actual box office receipts…which is why The Best Years of Our Lives is over 500 million with inflated gross….and only 11 million when you look at actual gross.

          Thanks for the trivia about the Blondie movies….I probably would not have thought of those movies when trying to answer SteveLensman’s question. Your suggested Loy page has already passed my latest hub(Hackman) in views….thanks for that..

          Reply

      2. Significance of Airport only made apparent to me years later from screen grabs on Poseidon’s Underworld – playing herself, Gloria Swanson wears ridiculous head gear to hide the stunt person sliding out the plane for her. But Myrna, Nora Charles decades on buried in the credits, not only does her own stunt work, she flashes a garter doing it – pushing 70! Lots of reasons to love Myrna, regardless of box office. Which is, after all, b.o. Or b.s.

        Reply

  4. How about Betty Grable, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Robert Taylor. A lot of Grables were in an anniversary issue of Variety (I think every first of year issue was one or maybe a special centennial one). They used to list4 million as the all-time champs but this one had 3 million and above and lot below pre 1945. A lot of stats are in a 30 page list in a 1995 book “Hollywood Power Stats” by Christopher Reynolds, published by Cineview Publishing.

    Reply

    1. Let’s see Tyrone Power is coming….Errol Flynn is done…just look in the index….I will have to add Betty Grable and Robert Taylor.

      Thanks for the book suggestion I will have to check that one out.

      Reply

  5. I live in Helena, MT and didnt’ know a whole lot about her. That’s pretty inexcusible since I lived across the street from the theatre that she converted from a prison that bears her name. Thank you for educating me on her.

    Reply

    2. Myrna’s lifelong interest in politics was inspired by her father, who died when she was 12 due to Spanish influenza – his 1st vote was for himself, youngest elected Montana official. Gary Cooper was a neighbor, think his dad was a judge, Cooper was British educated, so an educated cowboy. Myrna later worked for UNESCO, so self-educated.

      Reply

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