The Thin Man (1934)

      Myrna Loy and William Powell and Asta

'The Thin Man' is an American detective film comedy made in 1934, directed by W.S.Van Dyke, and starring Myrna Loy and William Powell, as the sophisticated married couple who solve crimes whilst enjoying themselves by drinking and engaging in witty repartee.

The chemistry between Myrna Loy and William Powell was so potent in the 1934 film 'Manhattan Melodrama' that its director, W.S.Van Dyke, cast the two again in the same year and they went on to appear together in fourteen movies. As Nick and Nora Charles, they are unique in the history of cinema. The first popular husband and wife detective team, they not only love each other, they actually like each other too without being insipid, disrespectful, or dull. The movie made a star of the popular Asta, who was actually several dogs,and also redefined the career of Myrna Loy, who is cast perfectly as the Depression era socialite heroine.

The movie received 4 Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture, Best Actor, (William Powell), Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay (husband-and-wife team Frances Goodrich and Albert Hacket) but won none in the year that 'It Happened One Night' swept the board. The film was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1997, having been deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Search Amazon for 'The Thin Man '

'The Thin Man's plot has many twists and turns. Nick Charles is officially a retired detective but he takes a personal interest in the disappearance of a crotchety inventor - the 'thin man' of the title. His body is found clutching his watch chain and his daughter, Dorothy, (Maureen O'Sullivan), is Nick's long-time acquaintance. The inventor's safety is thrown further into doubt when complications arise involving his suspicious mistress, grasping ex-wife, and her money-hungry husband (Cesar Romero). With the addition of multifarious mobsters, cops, and molls, it seems the whole criminal world turns up at the Charles's luxurious hotel suite at one time or another. The movie ends entertainingly when Nick invites all the suspects to have dinner with Nora and him and resolves the case in classic fashion, disclosing the real criminal.

Trying to make sense of the story gets in the way of what is genuinely important - the snappy banter full of covetable lines between the rich, sophisticated Nora and her sharp lush of a husband. Disarming an unwanted guest one night, the incident is reported in the morning news. "I was shot twice in the 'Tribune", says Nick, "I read you were shot five times in the tabloids," says Nora. "It's not true, he didn't come anywhere near my tabloids." Said with cast-off ease, the lines are funny without jumping out as such. Nick may seem like an alcoholic, but he springs back and forth from relaxed giddiness to active sobriety in the wink of an eye. The couple's prodigious boozing seems to have little effect on their actions; it's more of an elegant prop - a vital element for a country just coming out of the Great Depression.

Taken from a novel written in the same year by Dashiell Hammett, a former Pinkerton detective, Nick and Nora were supposedly modeled on Hammett's relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. Shot in 14 days on a low budget and intended as a B movie, this sparkling screwball detective story not surprisingly spawned five sequels:
After the Thin Man (1936)
Another Thin Man (1939)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Song of the Thin Man (1947)

As well as a radio and television series, the movie was the inspiration behind TV shows such as McMillan and Wife and Hart to Hart. It was also cleverly parodied in the 1976 spoof 'Murder by Death' with the husband and wife roles taken by David Niven and Maggie Smith.