The Thin Man Movie Review & Film Summary (1934) | Roger Ebert Tweet William Powell is to dialogue as Fred Astaire is to dance. His delivery is so droll and insinuating, so knowing and innocent at the same time, that it hardly matters what he's saying. That's certainly the case in "The Thin Man" (1934), a murder mystery in which the murder and the mystery are insignificant compared to the personal styles of the actors. Powell and Myrna Loy co-star as Nick and Nora Charles, a retired detective and his rich wife, playfully in love and both always a little drunk. Advertisement Nick Charles drinks steadily throughout the movie, with the kind of capacity and wit that real drunks fondly hope to master. When we first see him, he's teaching a bartender how to mix drinks ("Have rhythm in your shaking ... a dry martini, you always shake to waltz time"). Nora enters and he hands her a drink. She asks how much he's had. "This will make six martinis," he says. She orders five more, to keep up.

Powell plays the character with a lyrical alcoholic slur that waxes and wanes but never topples either way into inebriation or sobriety. The drinks are the lubricant for dialogue of elegant wit and wicked timing, used by a character who is decadent on the surface but fundamentally brave and brilliant. After Nick and Nora face down an armed intruder in their apartment one night, they read about it in the morning papers. "I was shot twice in theTribune," Nick observes. "I read you were shot five times in the tabloids," says Nora. "It's not true," says Nick. "He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids." After a prologue set three months earlier, most of the movie takes place over the holiday season, including cocktail parties on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and the exposure of the killer at a dinner party sometime around New Years' Eve.

The movie is based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett, one of the fathers of noir, and it does technically provide clues, suspects and a solution to a series of murders, but in tone and intent it's more like an all-dialogue version of an Astaire and Rogers musical, with elegant people in luxury hotel penthouses and no hint of the Depression anywhere in sight. Advertisement "The Thin Man" was one of the most popular films of 1934, inspired five sequels, and was nominated for four Oscars (best picture, actor, direction and screenplay). Yet it was made as an inexpensive B-picture. Powell and Loy had been successful together earlier the same year in "Manhattan Melodrama" (the last film John Dillinger ever saw), and were quickly cast by MGM in this crime comedy that was filmed, incredibly, in only two weeks. The quick shooting schedule was possible because there are very few sets and negligible exteriors, because there is much dialogue and little action, and because the director, W. S. Van Dyke, was known for sticking to a schedule.

That "The Thin Man" cost so little and looks so good is possibly because the interiors are simple and elegant, and the black and white photography flatters the loungewear and formalwear worn by a great-looking cast (which in addition to Powell and Loy, included Maureen O'Sullivan and a young Cesar Romero ). And there is a kind of grace in the way the 6-foot Powell hovers protectively over the 5-6 Loy (or sometimes simply leans as if blown in her direction). Although Dashiell Hammett was known for hard-boiled fiction, and John Huston's 1941 film of Hammett's The Maltese Falcon was one of the first examples of film noir, "The Thin Man" is essentially a drawing-room comedy with dead bodies. The plot is so preposterous that no reasonable viewer can follow it, and the movie makes little effort to require that it be followed. Nick Charles typically stands in the midst of inexplicable events with a drink in his hand, nodding wisely as if he understands everything and is not about to share. When a reporter asks him, "Can't you tell us anything about the case?" Nick replies: "Yes.

It's putting me way behind in my drinking." Briefly, the film involves the mysterious disappearance of an inventor (Edward Ellis); the concern of his daughter (O'Sullivan), who is an old friend of Nick and Nora; the greed of the inventor's ex-wife (Minna Goimbell); the even greater greed of her gold-digging husband (Romero); the suspicious motives of the inventor's mistress (Natalie Moorhead), and various other thugs, gunsels, cops, reporters and the untiring cast of partygoers who turn up nightly at the Charles' suite for free drinks. Advertisement One of the movie's charms is the playfulness with which Nick and Nora treat each other, and life. During one ostensibly serious scene, Nick pretends to find a piece of lint on her blouse, and then flicks her on the nose when she looks down; she jabs him in the side; he pretends to be about to sock her, and then they both try to put on serious faces. On Christmas morning, Nick tests the new air-rifle he got as a present by firing at the balloons on their Christmas tree.

Nick throws a dinner party for all of the suspects, with plainclothes cops as waiters, and Nora tells one of them: "Waiter, will you serve the nuts? I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts?" The movie's only real skullduggery comes when Nick goes on a midnight prowl through the inventor's laboratory, and even then the real sleuthing is done by Asta (Skippy), the couple's high-spirited terrier. Nick and Nora included him in all of their activities, and Asta became one of the most famous movie dogs of his time, in part through his ability to shield his eyes with his paws when life grew too disturbing to contemplate. Assuming as we must that "The Thin Man" is not about a series of murders and their solution (that entire mechanism would be described by Hitchcock as the MacGuffin), what is it about? It is about personal style. About living life as a kind of artwork. Of the early lives of Nick and Nora we learn little, except that he was once a famous San Francisco detective and retired after marrying Nora.

As Nick explains vaguely to a friend, her father left her a small-gauge railroad and "oh, a lot of other things," and he looks after them. As a consequence, Nick and Nora have a lot of money and spent their time traveling, seeing old friends, making new ones, and drinking pretty much all day long. Advertisement At one point in the film, when Nora wakens Nick in the middle of the night, he immediately pours himself a drink and one for her, and then as she leaves the room he greedily drinks from her glass. They are alcoholics in any realistic definition of the term, but not in the terms of the movie, because their drinking has no particular effect on themselves or the plot. It is simply a behavior, like smoking, that gives them something to do with their hands, something to talk about, and an excuse to move around the room. Even when Nora appears with an ice bag on her head, it looks more like clowning than like a hangover.

Myrna Loy was a delightful foil to Powell, but in this film she is essentially just his playmate; Powell dominates the picture with his deep, rich voice, his gliding, subtly unsteady physical movements, and his little mustache that he hopes makes him look more grownup than he feels. For audiences in the middle of the Depression, "The Thin Man," like the Astaire and Rogers musicals it visually resembles, was pure escapism: Beautiful people in expensive surroundings make small talk all the day long, without a care in the world, and even murder is only an amusing diversion. Powell's career began on the stage in 1912. He worked in silent films from 1922 and in talkies from their birth until 1955, when his last role was " Doc " in "Mister Roberts." He was nominated for best actor for this film, the wonderful " My Man Godfrey " (1937) and "Life with Father" (1947). But he never won an Oscar. Powell lived until 1984, when he was 92, and was fit and active until toward the end.

All through the 1960s and 1970s his fans urged the Motion Picture Academy to give him an Oscar for lifetime achievement, but the Academy never did. To see "The Thin Man" is to watch him embodying a personal style that could have been honored, but could never be imitated. Advertisement View All Critic Reviews (34) Audience Reviews for The Thin Man A husband/wife detective tandem work to solve a series of murders. The thirties style of slap-dash, madcap overlapping dialogue highlights the excellent performances of this very strong film. Comparing this film to the mysteries of today proves how much harder screenwriters of the old days had to work and how much more language was valued. Every line of this film is so witty and sharp, and William Powell and Myrna Loy never seem like people you know, but they always seem like people you wish you knew. The mystery, originally penned by Dashiell Hammett, is not terribly predictable, but it's solvable, which is the way mysteries should be. Overall, I enjoyed this film immensely, and it made me long to hear more dialogue from this era.

Jim Hunter Super Reviewer Glorious, Joyous dinner date with murder and laughter hand in hand. Powell and Loy are one charming couple. Pierluigi Puccini Super Reviewer Some friends gave me the complete Thin Man series for Christmas, and I have to say after several viewings of all six that the pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy is one of those matches made in Hollywood Heaven. There are few teams that leap to mind as being better suited to each other; their screen energy is a beautiful phenomenon to behold. Powell is already on my very select all-time favorite actors list, and I'm thinking that Loy is going up there right after I finish writing these comments. What I find most interesting about the critical comments is not that almost everyone agrees that Powell and Loy are great, but that the series is short on story, flimsy of narrative, lacking in substance -- and one critic goes to far as to say that each successive film is weaker than the one before. Sorry, I have to disagree. I think the stories are interesting, cleverly conceived, and well written.

They are so smartly written, in fact, that the writers have managed to let the plot play in the background so that we can all concentrate on the chemistry of Powell and Loy. Seriously, if I were looking for great literature, I'd turn to the book shelf and dig around for Shakespeare or something, but just like the live audience members back when this series played the theaters, I'm here to see Powell, Loy -- and Asta -- make their magic. And I definitely think that the last one, Song of the Thin Man, is just as magical as the first : ) Lanning : ) Super Reviewer The first movie in the best detective series, The Thin Man series. Powell and Loy are like peas in a pod, they work so well together. The movies are hilarious and fun to watch. Everyone with a sense of humor will love these movies. Aj V The Thin Man (1934) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) Background The Thin Man (1934) is the first installment of a popular series of films casting a sophisticated, glamorous, pleasure-seeking, and urbane husband-wife detective team (William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles). Director W.S.

Van Dyke had previously directed Manhattan Melodrama (1934), in which stars Powell and Loy had displayed their unique and charming chemistry in their first of 14 film pairings. The film's mystery story takes a back seat to the romantic screwball comedy, featuring the splendid, snappy and flirty banter between the rich, carefree married couple. They are known for sleuthing, solving murders, wisecracking one-liners, affectionate witticisms, delightful teasing and one-upmanship, alcoholic fun with plenty of martinis, a wire-haired terrier named Asta (actually named Skippy), and a loving relationship - often punctuated with quick kisses and slight hiccups. The story is taken from Dashiell Hammett's 1934 detective novel of the same name, with a married couple that was supposedly modeled on the author's relationship with longtime love and playwright Lillian Hellman. [This was Hammett's fifth and final novel, written following The Maltese Falcon and The Glass Key.] The 'thin man' is actually the murder victim in the novel and film, and only appeared in the initial film.

This low-budget MGM film, that was shot in less than three weeks (14 days) and earned over $2 million, is the best of the bunch. It launched a series of five more lucrative Thin Man movies (from 1936 to 1947), some of which had their screenplays also written by Dashiell Hammett. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich were responsible for co-writing the screenplays for the first three Thin Man films: After the Thin Man (1936), d. W.S. Van Dyke - a Best Picture nominee Another Thin Man (1939), d. W.S. Van Dyke; introduced a new character, Nicky Charles, Jr. Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), d. W.S. Van Dyke The Thin Man Goes Home (1945), d. Richard Thorpe The Song of the Thin Man (1947), d.

Edward Buzzell The husband and wife team (billed as "the happiest married couple in radio") was also broadcast on radio (by Pabst Blue Ribbon) for many years, with Claudia Morgan in the role of Nora, and a number of actors in Nick's role (Lester Damon, Les Tremayne, Joseph Curtin, and David Gothard). Each radio show ended with Nora's closing: "Good night, Nickeee..." The couple's popularity progressed into television, where Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk portrayed the pair for three seasons on NBC-TV in The Thin Man from 1957-1959, in 72 30-minute episodes.

Other husband/wife sleuthing comedies were also inspired, such as these 1970s-1980s shows: McMillan and Wife (1971-1977), on NBC, with Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James Hart to Hart (1979-1984), on ABC, with Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers Remington Steele (1982-1987), on NBC, with Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist Moonlighting (1985-1989), on ABC, with Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd Woody Allen's part-homage film Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) starred its director and Diane Keaton as the Liptons, modeled after the Charles couple. The couple was also memorably spoofed as Mr. and Mrs. Dick and Dora Charleston (cunningly played by David Niven and Maggie Smith) in Murder by Death (1976). A modernized remake of the original Thin Man film was planned by Warner Bros - to be directed by Rob Marshall and to star Johnny Depp as the tuxedoed, Prohibition-era sleuther solving a Manhattan murder mystery.

Although it was nominated in four categories for Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Actor (William Powell), Best Director (W. S. "Woody" Van Dyke), and Best Adapted Screenplay (husband-and-wife screenwriting partnership Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, also authors of Naughty Marietta (1935), It's A Wonderful Life (1946) , Easter Parade (1948), Father of the Bride (1950) , and The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)), it was up against stiff competition from the Oscar-sweeping film It Happened One Night (1934) , and went away empty-handed. [This film's first sequel, After the Thin Man (1936) was also a Best Picture nominee, and the first sequel ever nominated for Best Picture. The film also featured a surprise ending in which Nora revealed her impending motherhood - the third film in the series Another Thin Man (1939) would feature the debut of Nicky Charles, Jr. (William A.

Poulsen).] The Story As the film opens, an eccentric, tall, wealthy businessman/inventor named Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis) - the "thin man" of the film title, is in his inventor's workshop - viewed first as a silhouette cast on a wall. He is angered when his assistant interrupts him, and not knowing that his doting daughter Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan, better known as "Jane" from two Tarzan films) and future son-in-law Tommy (Henry Wadsworth) have arrived. When they announce their wedding plans to him, he tells his daughter that he is going into seclusion to work on an important new idea and invention (because there's "no peace, no quiet, everybody interrupting me"), and refuses to tell her his intended whereabouts. But he promises that he will return for her post-Christmas wedding (December 30th) to give her away. Wynant recently divorced his wife because of an affair he is having with his pretty blonde secretary/mistress Julia Wolf (Natalie Moorhead). He puts his mustached lawyer, Herbert MacCaulay (Porter Hall), in charge of his financial and business affairs while he plans to be away.

Just before he departs for his long sabbatical, Wynant visits his upstairs office and discovers $50,000 in government bonds missing from his safe. Intended as a wedding present for his daughter, he questions his clerk Tanner (Cyril Thornton) about their whereabouts. He immediately suspects his mistress-secretary has taken them. He storms into her apartment, where he surprises her in the company of another man [Joe Morelli (Edward S. Brophy)]. He accuses Julia of two-timing him, and pressures her to confess that she took the bonds and sold them (and he believes that she took advantage of his absentmindedness). In addition, he threatens her with embezzlement and threatens to turn her over to the police. Then, he learns that she has divided the bonds equally with an unnamed accomplice. Intercepting a strange telephone call (from a scar-faced man later identified as Nunheim), he suspects who has assisted her. In the next scene, three months later on Christmas Eve in a fancy restaurant, Dorothy dances with her fiancee and expresses how worried she is that she hasn't heard from her father.

At the nearby bar, a suave and glib Nick Charles (William Powell), a retired former sleuth, makes a memorable first appearance in the film. He illustrates to an assemblage of bartenders how to properly mix a batch of martinis, while moving rhythmically to the music: The important thing is the rhythm! Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time. Dorothy recognizes him ("as a real live detective" from years earlier) and introduces herself to him. Nick remembers her also, since her divorced father was a former client - as she explains to her fiancee: "He once worked on a case with my father." She tells Nick that she is worried that her father is nowhere to be found, and has failed to notify her. Nick suggests that she telephone her father's lawyer, MacCaulay, to find out if he has heard from Wynant. In the next memorable comedic scene, Nick's sophisticated and loving wife Nora (Myrna Loy) also makes a noisy and memorable entrance.

Heavily laden with Christmas packages, and dragged by their dog Asta on a leash, she ends up sprawled face-first on the floor as she enters the crowded restaurant. When asked to take the dog out of the restaurant by a waiter named Joe, Nick has a ready answer: Nick: Oh, it's all right, Joe. It's all right. It's my dog. And uh, my wife. Nora: Well, you might have mentioned me first on the billing. Nick: The dog's well-trained. He'll behave himself. Dorothy and Tommy are introduced to Nora before they leave. Nick invites them to look them up again, since they will be in town for a while. They have come to New York from California (where they have lived for four years) for the Christmas holidays to celebrate their newly-wedded bliss with drinking, partying, sleeping late, and shopping. [The film capitalizes on the recent repeal of Prohibition, although in the novel set before Prohibition's repeal, the couple had to drink bootlegged hootch.] The couple sit down to have a few drinks at a table in the bar area: Nora: (commenting on Dorothy's beauty) Pretty girl.

Nick: Yes, she's a very nice type. Nora: You got types? Nick: Only you, darling. Lanky brunettes with wicked jaws. It is obvious that Nick has been drinking heavily, and Nora wants to keep up with him: Nora: Say, how many drinks have you had? Nick: This will make six martinis. Nora (to waiter): All right. Will you bring me five more martinis, Leo? And line them right up here. Soon afterwards, the couple both suffer from severe hangovers in their hotel room: Nora: What hit me? The Thin Man (1934) – The Blonde at the Film The Thin Man (1934) via: #tcmarcp-140774-140773 Unless otherwise noted, all images are my own Do you have your cocktail shaker handy? The Thin Man (1934) is a truly delightful mystery-comedy chock full of snappy dialogue, fantastic stars, art deco sets, magnificent costumes, enough mystery to make it suspenseful, and enough alcohol to give you a sympathy hangover.

It’s now considered a classic, but it was shot in only 12 days on a tiny budget, and it was not even classified as an “A” picture (the top tier of studio system releases that had the biggest budgets and were released into the swankiest picture palaces). The Thin Man was not supposed to be a hit, but it was so popular that it became the first in a series of six, yes six, Thin Man movies released between 1934 and 1947, all starring William Powell as Nick and Myrna Loy as Nora Charles. You can read my review of the second film, After The Thin Man, here . And for more on the series, check out Thoughts on The Thin Man: Essays on the Delightful Detective Work of Nick and Nora Charles , which includes an essay by yours truly! It’s a rare thing for one film to spawn so many sequels featuring the same characters played by the same actors, but thank goodness it happened! I blame the success of the Thin Man films on the incomparable duo of Powell and Loy. They worked together an amazing fourteen times because they are just that terrific side by side.

Remember the publicity blitz when Julia Roberts and Richard Gere reunited for Runaway Bride after Pretty Woman? Or Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail after Sleepless in Seattle? Hurray, you’ve made two films together. Pitiful in comparison to Loy and Powell. The Thin Man was Loy and Powell’s second outing after Manhattan Melodrama (1934), which was directed by The Thin Man director W.S. Van Dyke , who also went on to helm three other Thin Man movies. This film was based on a detective novel by hard-boiled author Dashiell Hammett, hence the book cover theme of the titles. Hammett also wrote The Maltese Falcon which was turned into a classic film noir starring Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade and Mary Astor as Brigid O’Shaughnessy. Hammett wrote The Glass Key, too, which was made into a movie starring Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd in 1942. But back to our film. It seems crazy, but originally MGM didn’t want William Powell and Myrna Loy to be Nick and Nora.

MGM thought that Powell was already too identified with another detective; he had played Philo Vance in four popular films in 1929-1933 (The Thin Man trailer actually opens with Powell being introduced as Philo Vance!) But director Van Dyke believed Powell would be perfect, and Powell himself was keen to play the part. Apparently he was excited to play a more normal guy with “friends in low places” instead of the high-class Vance. Van Dyke also had to lobby for Myrna Loy. Oddly enough, until this film, Loy had typically played “exotic” women or the “other woman,” acting in 80 films without becoming a star. Here she is playing a half-Asian vengeful murderess with Irene Dunne in Thirteen Women (1932). Loy wanted to play Nora because she didn’t get many comedies, and fortunately Van Dyke convinced MGM to let her do it. He liked the chemistry between Loy and Powell in Manhattan Melodrama (1934), and thought they’d be great as Nick and Nora.

Van Dyke brought his films in on time and on budget, so MGM let him have his stars, though they didn’t make it easy on him. MGM tried to keep Loy from playing Nora by casting her in another film, Stamboul Quest (1934), scheduled to start shooting three weeks after the first day of production on The Thin Man. But Van Dyke was super fast, and finished production on The Thin Man in only 12 days (or maybe up to 18, sources give different stories). Married screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were charged with turning Hammett’s novel into a script. They were known for writing sophisticated characters and witty, snappy dialogue, and Van Dyke wanted to tap their talent. He told them to focus on Nick and Nora’s relationship (asking for at least eight “marital” scenes between Loy and Powell) instead of the murder mystery. Well done, Van Dyke! What’s memorable and fantastic about this movie is Nick and Nora, not the whodunit-murder-plot. Fun fact: the same screenwriters were hired to write After The Thin Man , too.

Although Van Dyke was right to guide the script in that direction, it scared MGM. It made them nervous to have a murder mystery treated so lightly, they were concerned about Nick and Nora’s cocktail consumption, and worried about depicting such a sophisticated marriage…let’s dig into that. Nick Charles, (who is not the thin man of the title, that honor is reserved for the first murder victim) is a detective who has retired after marrying Nora, an heiress. A running joke through the series is that Nick only married Nora for her money. For instance, when Nora asks why Nick is reluctant to get involved in the case, he responds as appears above. This rather cold thought is funny because it isn’t true–they are a perfect match. Even after his marriage and his subsequent retirement and entrance into polite (high) society, Nick can’t seem to get away from sordid crimes and sordid people, and Nora loves the excitement. But we don’t even meet Nick and Nora until several minutes into the film. We start in a beautifully shot shadowy workshop where a thin man is doing something with a machine. It’s inventor Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis).

Soon his daughter Dorothy (pronounced in that 1930s way: “Door-OH-Thee” and played by Maureen O’Sullivan ) arrives to announce her engagement and to ask her father to walk her down the aisle. She’s wearing some sort of fur coat that intentionally looks ratty and moth-eaten (monkey or something weird?) and a cunning cap with what appears to be a shower curtain ring on top. We learn that Clyde and Mimi (Dorothy’s mother) had a nasty divorce, and that things can get rather complicated in the family. This about sums it up: Dorothy tells her father the wedding is on December 30, and he promises to be there. Then Dorothy and her fiancé leave the workshop, passing Clyde’s lawyer MacCauley ( Porter Hall ) on his way in. Turns out that Clyde is heading out of town on secret inventor business, and he has a few last-minute instructions for MacCauley. He also wants to get some bonds he’s been saving up for Dorothy, but when he opens the safe they are gone! The first crime of the film! Clyde heads to his girlfriend Julia Wolf’s (Natalie Moorhead) apartment.

She used to be his secretary, and that’s what precipitated his divorce…He thinks she stole the $50,000 bonds that Clyde had been saving. To make a bad situation worse, when he arrives in her apartment there’s another man there…Uh oh. As you can see from Julia’s apartment, the set design is spare and art deco, and everyone has a gleaming white telephone. I suspect one reason it’s so clean and streamlined is because this was not a big-budget film, and it was shot very quickly. There wasn’t a lot of time to go wild with art direction, but the simple lines and furniture work. (It’s a nice palate cleanser after Minnelli’s visual party in Meet Me in St. Louis .) Julia admits that she took the bonds, and Clyde is absolutely furious. It is pretty ballsy for a mistress/girlfriend to steal money that her boyfriend was saving for his kid. Julia knows she messed up big, and she’s terrified of what Clyde will do. I’m mostly intrigued by how she gets her hair so white-blonde and perfectly marcelled. Clyde leaves–his tall, thin shadow leading the way into the night….fade to black.

We move from this melancholy scene to one of Christmas merriment in a gleaming art-deco bar. Van Dyke shot films fast, but he still does interesting things (the shadows are lovely, for instance) and I am rather fond of this shot: it starts under the piano and swoops up, up, and above the dancing revelers. under the piano and there’s Nick Charles at the bar! We see Dorothy and her fiancé, and learn that Clyde has disappeared even though he was supposed to be back by now. We continue swooping through the crowd to Mr. Nick Charles at the bar. It’s a wonderful first meeting. He’s giving the bartenders a lesson: Dorothy spots him and remembers that he was the detective who helped her father years ago when Clyde was receiving death threats. She tells him her father has disappeared, and Nick suggests she call his lawyer. This gets Dorothy out of the way for one of the best entrances in all of movies. Look out, it’s Nora Charles, arms full of Christmas presents, being pulled into the bar by Asta the terrier: She goes flying onto the floor in a magnificent prat-fall. She’s helped up by waiters while her husband watches, amused.

“It’s you!” Nora exclaims, and says that Asta pulled her into every “gin mill” on the block in search of Nick. “Yes, I had him out this morning,” responds her cheeky husband. You may recognize Asta from The Awful Truth , After The Thin Man , and Bringing Up Baby . He’s an amazing dog-actor. His name was originally Skippy, but in the movie it’s Asta, pronounced with a faux British accent that all the high-class people in these movies use: “Aaa-stahh.” After this movie his name was changed to Asta permanently–so long, Skippy! right via: #tcmarcp-149776-149772 Nick and Nora were one of the first married couples to be portrayed positively in Hollywood. Up until The Thin Man, most characters were trying to get into or out of marriages, but Nick and Nora make marriage look like fun.

Their romance is not the conflict in the film, so you don’t have to mess with typical worries like “will Nick stray with Dorothy?” or “will Nora doubt Nick and become consumed by jealousy?” Instead we get amazing verbal and non-verbal exchanges like this one when MacCauley visits the Charles’ hotel suite. It’s one of my favorite moments: Nora drank too many martinis (even she can’t keep up with Nick) and tied on an ice pack to ease her aching head. She forgets about her makeshift fascinator and comes out to meet MacCauley. Nick teases her about it, she pokes him as he swills yet another drink, he pretends to retaliate, and Nora giggles. Then he pulls her close when MacCauley hangs up the phone: LOVE IT. The movie is full of moments like that, and I’ll definitely share my favorites as we continue through. MacCauley gets a phone call informing him that Clyde is back in New York, so he calls Dorothy with the good news. Dorothy is relieved, but Mimi is still frantic, though not for Clyde’s safety.

Mimi (Minna Gombel), Clyde’s ex-wife, has married a loser named Chris ( Cesar Romero ). Mimi relies on alimony payments from Clyde, so when he disappears the money dries up. Chris is upset about this, but at least he has a star-studded mirror in which to voice his disappointment to Mimi. Mimi, (who looks an awful lot like Julia Wolf and shares her liking for platinum waves…) takes the drastic step of calling Julia to see if she can talk with her (i.e. get some money). Please notice the diamond buttons trickling down the back of Mimi’s black satin “house dress” with fur-trimmed sleeves and a modest train. Julia agrees to see Mimi, but when Mimi arrives at her husband’s girlfriend’s apartment (awkward!) she finds something grisly…Julia dead on the floor. She takes something from Julia’s hand before calling the police…it’s her ex-husband’s watch chain! Thus begins the murder-mystery! Naturally, Clyde is the prime suspect in Julia’s murder. Dorothy is devastated, especially when her mother shows her what she found clasped in Julia’s dead hand.

It’s nice of Van Dyke to enliven a fairly visually dull shot with such distinct shadows: It’s a tense moment, but I’m distracted by the giant dried flower bunch at Mimi’s lapel. It looks an awful lot like Carole Lombard ‘s and Astrid Allwyn’s in Hands Across the Table from 1935. Must have been all the rage! Anyway, now Mimi and Dorothy are sure that Clyde murdered Julia. Meanwhile, Nick and Nora are throwing a raucous Christmas Eve party. Nora puts on her best striped, floaty dress and her massive diamond cuffs and helps Nick serve copious cocktails. The guests are mainly Nick’s friends from before he married Nora, so there are a lot of petty criminals, drunks, boxers, and ex-cons. The Thin Man Nora is amusingly exasperated by the company but secretly thrilled. Soon their party is crashed by reporters, policemen, and Dorothy Wynant. She’s come to confess to Julia’s murder in order to save her father, but Nick sees through it immediately.

He offers a shoulder to cry on, but just then Nora walks in…It is a compromising position, as they say, but Nora doesn’t “think the worst” or resort to a clichéd storming out. Nick makes a funny face at her over the girl in his arms, and Nora returns it and closes the door. Dorothy immediately backs away from Nick, saying, “Oh! I’m sorry!” but Nora replies, “Don’t be silly” and hands her a drink. Isn’t that so refreshing? Then Mimi arrives, followed by Dorothy’s brother (William Henry). Do notice Nick glug-glugging his drink (a typical pose for him) and Nora’s layered, striped confection. It looks incongruous next to the other women in furs, but she pulls it off. Everyone is sure that Nick is back to his old detecting ways, and the Wynants beg him to help. But Nick keeps refusing, and when a reporter asks Nora if Nick is working on a case, she answers, “Yes, a case of scotch. Pitch in and help him!” Finally the party disperses. Nick and Nora (in a charming fur-trimmed medieval nightgown and robe) climb into their twin beds.

Poor Nick tries to go to sleep, but dear Nora wants to chat (a situation replicated in almost all the sequels). Fortunately, Nick has a small bar in the bedroom, so he’s able to get a night-drink. Adorably peevish Nora asks what he got her for Christmas, leading to another of my favorite moments: Their tidy domestic scene (one expects Nick and Nora to make some cracks about the silliness of the twin-bed situation) is interrupted by a crook ( Edward Brophy ). Never fear: Nick is a good detective and a dummy with a gun is no match for him, though Nick is slightly wounded. You can watch the scene here . The next morning we have another of those “marital scenes” around the Christmas tree. Nora gave Nick a BB gun, which he uses to shoot balloons off of the Christmas tree, Annie Oakley-esque, from the sofa, until he misses and shatters a window. Nora watches him with a wry expression as she luxuriates in her gift, a fur coat “from Nick” that she bought for herself. Watch it here, please!

Asta got a toy fire hydrant for Christmas: I’m going to be careful about spoilers now because it is, after all, a mystery…So here goes: Nick is persuaded to help the police, and it turns out he’s a very good detective.

After some comical/mysterious situations, including an encounter with a stool pigeon’s disenchanted girl: Nora’s realization that Nick’s return to detective-work might be dangerous: That awkward moment when Dorothy’s brother shows up with a scarf cut from her bedspread: Nick’s nighttime wanderings with his trusty guard dog…(see below for images of filming the scene and a still), which gives us a look at 1934’s CSI techniques (the policeman handle everything, throw things aside, and pocket various pieces of evidence, while Asta cavorts all over the crime scene: Adaptation of the week: The Thin Man (1934) | Film | The Guardian Adaptation of the week Friday 25 June 2004 19.56 EDT First published on Friday 25 June 2004 19.56 EDT Share on Messenger Close Author: Dashiell Hammett (1894-1961) was born in Maryland, and in 1915 joined the Pinkerton's detective agency. In 1923 he began selling detective stories to Black Mask magazine, and in 1929 published his first novel, Red Harvest.

Its success - and that of his subsequent novels, The Dain Curse (1929) and The Maltese Falcon (1930) - saw Hammett take the Hollywood dollar and accept a scriptwriting contract from Paramount. There he met Lillian Hellman (then a script reader for MGM) and their relationship quickly became legendary. Hammett's erratic, heavy-drinking lifestyle, as much as screenplay commitments, meant that The Thin Man, his next novel, took longer to complete. His literary output subsequently dried up and Hammett threw his energy into political activities. In the McCarthy era Hammett stood bail for communist party members, and was imprisoned for six months in 1951 after four of them skipped the country. He died in 1961. Story: The Thin Man is clearly a thinly veiled portrait of Hammett and Hellman's own relationship. Nick Charles (né Charalambides) is a retired Pinkerton's man; his wife Nora a "lanky brunette with a wicked jaw". The "thin man" of the title is scientist Clyde Wynant, whose secretary Julia Wolf is found murdered in the opening pages.

Through acquaintance with Wynant's daughter Dorothy, and lawyer Herbert Macaulay, Charles is drawn into the case. Wynant never actually appears; the reason becomes clear when Macaulay is unmasked as the murderer, having also killed Wynant before the narrative begins. The meat of the novel is, however, devoted to the Charles' unconventional relationship, with the sarcastic Nora her husband's equal when it comes to one-liners as well as matching his alcoholic intake. Film-makers: WS Van Dyke (1889-1943) was a vaudeville performer in childhood, before getting involved in cinema in its early days. He was an assistant director on DW Griffith's Intolerance (1916), before becoming a reliable contract director at MGM, where he earned the nickname "One-Take Willie". He committed suicide in 1943. Husband and wife team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich wrote the screenplay, which put them in the top Hollywood bracket - later credits include It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Father of the Bride (1950).

William Powell was a veteran of silent movies who never achieved stardom until the switch to sound; Myrna Loy had started as a silent-movie vamp before joining Powell at MGM in Manhattan Melodrama (1934). How book and film compare: Van Dyke reportedly instructed Hackett and Goodrich to concentrate on the central characters' repartee and slim down the novel's convoluted plot. Most of the peripheral characters are retained, but in much sketchier detail. The film's most radical departures, though, are a prologue in which Wynant actually appears (he never does in the book) and Nick Charles's solo discovery of Wynant's body, followed by a conventional dinner-party unmasking of the villain. Inspirations and influences: With its two fast-talking leads, The Thin Man is a pacesetting example of screwball comedy. The film also turned Hammett into a literary icon, leading to a string of adaptations.

The Huston-Bogart Maltese Falcon came out in 1941, and Kurosawa reworked Red Harvest into Yojimbo (1961) - itself reworked by Sergio Leone as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) - thereby cementing Hammett's place in popular culture.

Question: In 1934, who wrote 'The Thin Man'?
Answer: Dashiell Hammett