Page "Myrna Loy" Paragraph 8

Loy's silent film roles were mainly those of vamps or femme fatales, and she frequently portrayed characters of Asian or Eurasian background in films such as Across the Pacific, A Girl in Every Port, The Crimson City, The Black Watch, and The Desert Song, which she later recalled "... kind of solidified my exotic non-American image.

" It took years for her to overcome this stereotype, and as late as 1932 she was cast as a villainous Eurasian half-breed in Thirteen Women.

She also played a sadistic Chinese princess in The Mask of Fu Manchu, opposite Boris Karloff.

Prior to that, she appeared in small roles in The Jazz Singer and a number of early lavish Technicolor musicals, including The Show of Shows, The Bride of the Regiment, and Under A Texas Moon.

As a result, she became associated with musical roles, and when they began to lose favor with the public, her career went into a slump.