Evelyn Prentice

This is an absorbing, intelligent picture, bolstered by sensitive performances and adept handling of an adult story. Its fundamentals may be overly familiar, and perhaps a bit too much plot gets in the way of believable, touching characterizations. But you will care about the main characters, whose weaknesses and oversights lead them to the brink of ruin - even if (in a questionable decision by the film makers) they are given the trappings of art deco luxuries, instead of being brought closer to a lifestyle familiar to the audience.

Powell and Loy, alone and together, are fine, as always. Credit Isabel Jewell with a low-key, yet emotionally-charged performance. Jessie Ralph is excellent is one extended scene in which she babbles and equivocates as the tension builds to a quiet frenzy. Una Merkel softens her familiar screen mannerisms to play the character, rather than vice versa.

Not a well-known film, "Evelyn Prentice" is most definitely worth your while.

In EVELYN PRENTICE, I saw the importance of family and the real meaning of "'til death do us part," from the standard marriage vows. Work comes between John and Evelyn Prentice (William Powell and Myrna Loy). A sweet-talker comes between John and Evelyn Prince. Their daughter Dorothy brings them together, as does love.

As simple as this sounds, as possibly hokey, it mattered in 1935, and it made for a good movie. It matters in the 21st Century, as well, and the movie is still good.

The villain in this film is portrayed as totally devoid of value, his killing beneficial to the human race. Vigilante justice is an uneasy concept, but it works. The sleazy sweet-talker is shot, and John Prentice is the best attorney around.

If you like Powell and Loy beyond the Thin Man series, and there are several great ones, you'll enjoy this. Powell's character is a sophisticated as ever, Loy's as fantastically intelligent.

My wife and I enjoyed this film.

Lenore Coffee was a prolific screenwriter whose specialty was the "women's picture," and she writes a honey of one here. William Powell is a too-busy lawyer who's dallying with client Rosalind Russell and who neglects his family (and boy, can I identify with that), to the point where good wife Loy is momentarily distracted by a lounge-lizard poet with a busy black book. Disastrous complications ensue. William Howard's direction is workmanlike at best, but Coffee keeps the fireworks popping. She balances things expertly between smart, sassy dialog and courtroom melodramatics, and she can write persuasively for tart-tongued best friends (a soignee Una Merkel), wide-eyed daughters (a relatively unannoying Cora Sue Collins), wronged women (a heavy-lidded Isabel Jewell), and a supporting cast of New York sophisticates. The windup is a little fast and the idyllic fadeout not entirely convincing, but in these days of overheated trials and yellow Murdoch journalism, it's not entirely implausible, either. A very fast and smart comedy-drama, and I didn't mind the absence of the Nick and Nora personas, or Asta, one bit.

Despite the presence of stars Myrna Loy and William Powell (not to mention Rosalind Russell in her brief film debut), supporting player Isabel Jewell's performance is easily the most memorable in this drama. Powell plays a prominent lawyer, and Jewell plays a potential client, one who can't afford his serves as much as the glamorous socialite played by Russell. The legendary Loy has some fine scenes, but she really isn't given much of a chance to change her somber demeanor throughout the picture. There isn't really much action in this film, just a few well-placed confrontations and plot devices to keep up a modest amount of suspense, plenty enough to hold ones interest in a short running time. Films of this era didn't have to rely on spectacle or sensation to be good, and this is one example.

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.