Love Crazy

Jack Conway's 1941 American comedy is one of the films William Powell and Myrna Loy made together. It is built on a happy marriage brought to the edge of divorce by the reappearance of an old flame and the interference of a mother-in-law; to delay the divorce, the husband starts behaving as though he has lost his mind. The engine is not logic but speed: misunderstandings pile on each other and every solution requires a new lie. The section in which Powell plays at insanity, and the scene afterwards in which he dresses as a woman, push at the limits of the period's comic conventions. Loy holds the balance by staying credible in the middle of the nonsense. Using mental illness as comic material sits uncomfortably now. Who it's for: viewers who like classic Hollywood comedy and the Powell and Loy pairing. Who it's not for: anyone troubled by jokes about mental health, or wanting a realistic story.