TYRONE Power, who died 50 years ago at 44, has more of his movies available on DVD than practically any of his peers from Hollywood’s Golden Age.
Partly, it’s because he worked almost exclusively from 1937 to 1952 for 20th Century Fox, which has already released his classics, including “The Mark of Zorro,” “Jesse James,” “The Black Swan” and “In Old Chicago.”
It’s also because Power is more respected today – because of more ambitious roles in darker films like “Nightmare Alley” and “The Razor’s Edge” – than during his heyday in the ’30s and ’40s.
“He was just too beautiful,” says Jayne Meadows, one of his co-stars in “The Luck of the Irish,” one of 10 films released today as “The Tyrone Power Matinee Idol Collection.”
The films, mostly comedies, span his Fox career, beginning with his debut in the romantic drama “Ladies Dormitory.” The delightful screwball farce “Love Is News” (1937) casts Power as a sneaky reporter and Loretta Young as an heiress. Young also stars in “Café Metropole” (1937) – which includes two deleted musical numbers with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson – while Gene Tierney appears in “That Wonderful Urge,” a tepid 1948 remake of “Love Is News.”
Less fluffy is “Johnny Apollo” (1940), the first of seven films Power made with director Henry Hathaway. He plays an Ivy Leaguer who joins up with gangster Lloyd Nolan and his moll (Dorothy Lamour) after his stockbroker father (Edward Arnold) is jailed for embezzlement. Power is very good, but he gets some serious competition from Nolan and character actor Charles Grapewin – Uncle Henry in “The Wizard of Oz” – as Nolan’s boozing lawyer.
One of several patriotic films Power made before he enlisted for service in World War II, “This Above All” (1942) is that rare prestige movie of the era that holds up beautifully.
Directed with verve by Warner Bros. contractee Anatole Litvak (whose wonderful “Blues in the Night” came out on DVD last week), it’s based on a World War II best seller about a British deserter (Power) who learns about duty from the black sheep of an aristocratic family (a luminous Joan Fontaine) who’s joined the service.
Beautifully photographed by Arthur C. Miller with Oscar-winning art direction, “This Above All” looks as if it were shot yesterday.
More whimsical is “The Luck of the Irish” (1948), with Power for once as an Irish-American (which he was in real life, though he occasionally played Spaniards and East Asians) who becomes involved with a leprechaun (Cecil Kellaway). For the DVD release, Fox has restored sequences originally tinted green.
The other films are in black and white except for the charming “I’ll Never Forget You” (1951, also known as “The House in the Square”), which has lengthy sequences in Technicolor. This romantic fantasy, which co-stars Ann Blyth, casts Power as an American scientist in London who assumes the life of a 19th century ancestor. It’s based on a play by John L. Balderston that was filmed in 1933 with Leslie Howard as “Berkeley Square.”