Tweet Existence of Early Myrna Loy films?

Does anyone know what Myrna Loy silent films and early talkies (1928-1930) still exist?

By my count I definitively know these silents exist:

The Jazz Singer
Don Juan
Ben Hur
So This Is Paris?
When A Man Loves
Noah's Ark
A Girl In Every Port (Though she wasn't in the print I saw, what gives?)
Pretty Ladies

while The Third Degree, Bitter Apples, Ham & Eggs At The Front and The Caveman all have votes on imdb. I've heard conflicting reports on The Exquisite Sinner.

As for her early talkies I know everything 1931-onward exists as well as:

The Black Watch
Desert Song
Song of Songs (her section at least)
Renegades
Under A Texas Moon
Rogue of the Rio Grande
The Squall
Truth About Youth

while Evidence and The Great Divide have votes on imdb.

So is there an expert out there who can flesh out my list of existing Myrna films?

P.S. I realize many lost films have votes on imdb, hence my seperating the ones whose existance I'm skeptical about.

A list of all WB silents known to survive as of 1999 is available here.

Aside from the titles you listed, the following of Myrna's WB titles are known to exist:

The Caveman (run at Capitolfest in 2006)
The Third Degree (LOC)
The Heart of Maryland
A Sailor's Sweetheart
The Girl from Chicago (MOMA)
If I Were Single (LOC)

If anyone else can provide missing archival data for the above, please do! The Midnight Taxi may exist at the British Film Institute; see this thread.

Among her early talkies, Evidence, Cameo Kirby, Isle of Escape, Bride of the Regiment, and Jazz Cinderella are all presumed lost (see this useful post). Jazz Cinderella was a Chesterfield production, so there is a somewhat greater chance that it might have been copied to 16mm or that someone held on to a print, since smaller companies weren't nearly as strict about having prints returned.

-Harold

Thanks for the response,

Jazz Cinderella is one of the films on my must-see list, I mean Myrna as a villainous socialite named Mildred Vane(!), what's not to love?

As for A Girl In Every Port, is there another print that exists? Or is her part lost forever?

I have a fragment for Isle of Escape 30 WARNR. Myrna is not in it, however. May be shipping it off soon to an archive.

The CAVEMAN was run at Slapsticon last summer.

Bob

The Great Divide definitely exists.

Yes I now have a copy of The Great Divide, it's a pretty decent 1929 talkie, with a fair bit of outdoor photography. Poor Myrna gets stuck playing a less than virtuous Mexican girl and is the best thing about the film.

Very cool find Darren!

I have a fragment for Isle of Escape 30 WARNR. Myrna is not in it, however. May be shipping it off soon to an archive.

Strange this topic comes up, as I was reading a book on her films last week, you the generic "Films of Myrna Loy" type book, I forgot the author. But it should still be on the shelf of the college library I saw it at.

Darren
ISLE OF ESCAPE, is one of the films Im curious about. It's an ''island picture'' starring Monte Blue(he made several of these in the 20s, not just WHITE SHADOWS IN THE SOUTH SEAS). It's one of two or more pictures with Blue and Loy and so Darren you imply that it is basically a lost film except for your fragment?

It's one of two or more pictures with Blue and Loy and so Darren you imply that it is basically a lost film except for your fragment?

That is what they tell me. Its a sound on disc film. The sound survives but not the picture. Except for this.

Oddly, the print is murky looking.

The sound on disc Vitaphone footage markers are 477 - 536.

59+ foot fragment = around 40 seconds.

[silentfilm]

Here's Betty Compson (who looks really different as a blonde) and Monte Blue in a still that I have from Isle of Escape.

Darren
thank you Darren for your posting of some frames from ISLE OF ESCAPE. A still of Monte and Myrna standing on a beach is in Blum's "Pictorial History of the Talkies". The scene in the sixth frame down, with an old lady looking or shouting up at something, I think the actress is Rose Dione , underappreciated in silent films.

SilentFilmModerator
that's a great still from the film. Monte still looks like the Matthew Lloyd character from "White Shadows....", even though there are two years in between the productions.

The scene in the sixth frame down, with an old lady looking or shouting up at something, I think the actress is Rose Dione , underappreciated in silent films.

No, that's Nena Quartaro, one of those obscure actresses I've been researching for decades and know way too much about. She and Rose Dione did also appear together in the 1928 feature THE RED MARK.

The scene in the sixth frame down, with an old lady looking or shouting up at something, I think the actress is Rose Dione , underappreciated in silent films.

No, that's Nena Quartaro, one of those obscure actresses I've been researching for decades and know way too much about. She and Rose Dione did also appear together in the 1928 feature THE RED MARK.

no Rich, the older woman in the pic, white/grey hair, that's Rose Dione Im almost sure. I believe you're talking about the younger woman. Stats on Nena have her born in 1908, she would've been only 22 years old in 1930.

It's still sad that this poor film ISLE OF ESCAPE, was allowed to disintegrate. always sad when a film from the classic golden age is lost to nitrate ravages.

The scene in the sixth frame down, with an old lady looking or shouting up at something, I think the actress is Rose Dione , underappreciated in silent films.

No, that's Nena Quartaro, one of those obscure actresses I've been researching for decades and know way too much about. She and Rose Dione did also appear together in the 1928 feature THE RED MARK.

no Rich, the older woman in the pic, white/grey hair, that's Rose Dione Im almost sure. I believe you're talking about the younger woman. Stats on Nena have her born in 1908, she would've been only 22 years old in 1930. :)

Sorry, yes I meant the younger woman.

Here's Betty Compson (who looks really different as a blonde) and Monte Blue in a still that I have from Isle of Escape.

Hmmm... that looks suspiciously like the hut from Golden Dawn

Finally watched The Great Divide and thought is quite interesting. I really like Dorothy Mackaill and Myrna Loy was fun as Manuella. Was Ian Keith doing a John Gilbert impersonation?

Is "Noah's Ark"(1928) the first time that Myrna Loy spoke on screen?










_____________________________________________
"You said that irony was the shackles of youth."

UC Press now has an order page for the new Myrna Loy bio penned by Emily Leider, you can find it here: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520253209

Just watched Turn Back The Hours (1928) a couple days ago and I really enjoyed it. It's pretty well-worn story about a court-martialed marine (Walter Pidgeon) who flees to a nameless island and runs into trouble with a local villain (Sam Hardy) and also finds love with a local (Myrna Loy). There's nothing too new in it, but it's fun and brisk (it clocks in under an hour) and reveals Mr. Pidgeon to be appallingly handsome and give Myrna plenty of screen time. I think it is the only lead I've seen her in for a silent film and she does a fine job with it, showing an energetic presence on screen, and looking pretty darn great in the close-ups.

As it stands I have seen all of her extant silent films that are readily available, though I know of a few others that have been screened at various festivals, but I just plain don't have access to. Now to move on to the remaining 1930's films.

If anyone has any leads on the existence of any of her other films, please send 'em my way.

Here is a list of films that I'm either uncertain about the existence of, or simply have no access to:

What Price Beauty? (1925)
The Wanderer (1925)
Sporting Life (1925)
The Caveman (1926)
The Love Toy (1926)
Why Girls Go Back Home (1926)
The Gilded Highway (1926)
Exquisite Sinner (1926)
Across the Pacific (1926)
The Third Degree (1926)
Finger Prints (1927)
Bitter Apples (1927)
The Climbers (1927)
Simple Sis (1927)
The Heart of Maryland (1927)
A Sailor's Sweetheart (1927)
The Girl from Chicago (1927)
If I Were Single (1927)
Ham and Eggs at the Front (1927)
Beware of Married Men (1928)
The Crimson City (1928)
Pay as You Enter (1928)
State Street Sadie (1928)
Fancy Baggage (1929)
Hardboiled Rose (1929)
Evidence (1929)
Cameo Kirby (1930)
Isle of Escape (1930)
Cock o' the Walk (1930)
The Bride of the Regiment (1930)
Under A Texas Moon (1930)
The Jazz Cinderella (1930)
The Bad Man (1930)
Body and Soul (1931)
Hush Money (1931)
Skyline (1931)
The Woman in Room 13 (1932)
Scarlet River (1933)
That Dangerous Age (1949)

`What Price Beauty' is definitely on the presumed lost list. It would have been an interesting one too, if Natacha Rambova's production designs in other films are anything to go by.

I saw "Scarlet River" on AMC years ago in the 1990's and I believe it has been shown also on TCM.

Off-topic... but I just have to say that seeing Myrna Loy's hand/foot prints in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre a few days ago was awesome!

THE CRIMSON CITY exists. Fernando Martín Peña unearthed a complete print when he located METROPOLIS.

He has never exhibited the film in public because it is under Warner Bros. copyright.

UNDER A TEXAS MOON definitely exists- I saw it in Rome (NY). Myrna plays her usual temptress (Mexican this time) and looks most fetching in early Technicolor. It's a pretty good film too: in part it's tongue in cheek. The hero is accompanied by two guitar players who invariably start singing the theme song as he romances yet another beauty- but they're always interrupted before they can get to the chorus.

Great news about Crimson City existing, not so great about it not being shown. Hopefully it will see the light of day.

As for Under A Texas Moon, I definitely knew it existed and was actually pretty tempted to make the voyage from Montreal to Rome, NY last summer to see it. Hopefully it shows up in the Warner Archives or on TCM at some point. It's one of my most sought after films!

I recorded "Scarlett River" on an old VHS tape I still have from 1989. It was shown on the old Turner Broadcast Station. Loy is in a cameo scene in this one with Joel McCrea, both playing themselves. The film is a Tom Keene oater, not bad either, although this cameo scene spoiled the whole ambiance for me.

does anyone know the cinematographer on ISLE OF ESCAPE?