To Mary - with Love

"They say that movies should be more like life," says Myrna Loy in this movie. "I think life should be more like the movies." It's a sentiment every film buff can agree with. It's in a movie where Myrna Loy and Warner Baxter get married, even though it's apparent that Old Family Friend Ian Hunter loves her desperately. He takes up with Claire Trevor, who has a yen for Warner Baxter, only because he can't run away to join the French Foreign Legion -- it's a domestic drama in which Warner Baxter wants to make a lot of money in the Roaring Twenties, and cheats on Myrna occasionally, but they love each other nonetheless.

The movie makes an effort to tap into 1936's cynical nostalgia for the 1920s, with plenty of trappings of the era fading out as the story goes on into the modern age. At the start, with the wedding, the throuple are thrilled with pre-war champagne. Later, bartenders complain that with Repeal, they have to serve every mug. Baxter plays a small man trying to be big. It isn't quite his meat. The others are good, but in the end, it's a small story about small people. There is an actor, though, who rejoices in the name of Wedgwood Nowell, like the china you take out only for Christmas. He entered the movies in 1915, and appeared in almost 150 of them, often in uncredited roles. He also wrote the scores to some movies, and died in 1957, age 79.

With a running theme of Irving Berlin's tragic "Remember" song throughout To Mary, With Love, you'll be reaching for your handkerchief more than once throughout this movie. It's extremely sad, and just when you think it can't get sadder, it does. You've been warned.

Those who want a heartache, you'll see a love story about Myrna Loy and Warner Baxter having a few ups and far more downs. They are instantly attracted to one another, and while she's drawn to his energy, she doesn't quite know what she's getting into. Warner's friend, Ian Hunter, doesn't have razzamatazz energy, or the confidence to sweep her off her feet, but he also doesn't have mood swings, temper, and wandering eyes. Ian stands quietly in the background, unable to show her the faults of his friend.

While modern audiences will undoubtedly wish Myrna to leave Warner for good, back in 1936, that wasn't the initial reaction of women. On their wedding day, Warner actually flirts back when a brazen hussy (typecasting by Claire Trevor) shows her interest. Claire's character is atrocious - who would hit on a groom? - but Warner's interest is equally so. He breaks Myrna's heart over and over again, and the women in the audience are just as destroyed by the time the movie is only half finished. Watch at your own risk, folks. You'll see some good acting, and some very tragic characters, and a realistic, timeless story. It may be dated, but lots of women today still put up with similar behavior. It'll hit home for lots of people.

Memorable lines from movies are often attributed to the actor who delivered them rather than to the original writer. 'To Mary - With Love' actually had three credited writers so the oft-quoted observation that "Everybody says that the movies should be more like life; I think life should be more like the movies" - while it has even made it into dictionaries of quotations under the name of Myrna Loy herself (who certainly beautifully delivered it) - we'll probably never know exactly who originally came up with it.

Largely forgotten today, 'To Mary - With Love' provided Ms Loy with a rare opportunity to demonstrate just what a fine dramatic actress she could be when given the opportunity. Several scenes are included reminiscent of 'The Thin Man' (drunken parties, even Christmas festivities), but in a much darker context.

The action spans ten years - taking in the election of Mayor Walker, the Dempsey-Tunney fight, Lindbergh's arrival in New York, the Wall Street Crash and the repeal of prohibition - but none of the cast age and the fashions are those of 1935 throughout.

John Cromwell - who was later blacklisted - plainly relished the opportunity to expose the dark side of the American Dream; while the eventual fate of Ms Loy, who died childless and alone after four unhappy marriage to alpha males totally unworthy of her adds additional poignancy.