Book Review: BECOMING NICK & NORA

 

BECOMING NICK & NORA: THE THIN MAN and the Films of William Powell and Myrna Loy, is a fairly recent volume dealing with one of the greatest onscreen couples in Hollywood history. 

William Powell & Myrna Loy appeared together in feature films an astounding 14 different times. Powell & Loy will always be known as Nick and Nora Charles from THE THIN MAN series, but their chemistry together was so great they were teamed up in many other types of movies. Author Rob Kozlowski examines the Powell-Loy pairing and delves into why the duo worked so well with each other. (One main reason--they were so effortlessly natural in their interactions many moviegoers of the 1930s and 1940s took it for granted that they actually were a romantic couple in real life....which they weren't.) 

Kozlowski also provides a mini-bio for both Powell and Loy, charting their struggles to make it as movie actors in the silent era of the 1920s, and how they both achieved success in the early 1930s. Powell spent most of his time in silents cast as a villain, while Loy was constantly given roles as a foreign exotic type. The talkies enhanced the duo's careers, and after the major splash of THE THIN MAN, Powell & Loy stayed big stars for years afterward. 

BECOMING NICK & NORA is less than 250 pages long, but Rob Kozlowski provides plenty of concise insight and analysis as he covers all of the features Powell & Loy co-starred in, and their individual triumphs as well. The author knows his Hollywood history, and he is able to present it in a basic, matter of fact way (you don't need to be a hardcore film geek to enjoy this book). One of the perceptive points Kozlowski makes is that Powell & Loy benefited greatly from the Hollywood studio system--because the film companies of the time cranked out so many features, Powell & Loy got plenty of opportunity to define and hone their respective screen personas. 

Kozlowski also discusses the duo's private lives when applicable, but the main focus is on the pair's acting careers--this isn't (thankfully) a gossip-filled tome. The author doesn't give kudos to everything that the two performers did--he believes that THE THIN MAN series started to wane in the 1940s, and he's not a fan of LIFE WITH FATHER, one of William Powell's biggest hits. A few stills of Powell & Loy are sprinkled throughout the book. 

I greatly enjoyed reading this book, and finding out the author's opinions on various films starring Powell & Loy and his look at how the various studios dealt with the two of them. If anything, I wish this book was even more detailed than it is. (I noticed the author did not cover Powell in NEVADA or Loy in STAMBOUL QUEST, mainly because I've written blog posts on those features.) Rob Kozlowski is certainly conversant in 1930s Hollywood history, and I hope it is a subject he chooses to revisit in further volumes.