I'm a fan of The Thin Man (1934), starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, based on the hardboiled novel by Dashiell Hammett. This film blends mystery and elegance with a charm that only old Hollywood can deliver. The success of the The Thin Man led to five more movies that were filmed every two to three years, imparting a quality that's lacking from other sequels of yesteryear. My charmer had never seen any of the films and I had only seen the 1934 original and its follow-up, After The Thin Man (1936). The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) is the fifth in the series and is perhaps an odd point to pick it up, but, with the accessibility of Google, we watched this one first.
We enjoyed the movie, but I found Nick and Nora's inebriated banter while solving crimes in the first two movies more entertaining than in this film where the pair are on the wagon (his preferred drink being cider) and left to solve the crime completely sober. Even so, their chemistry is still apparent ten years after the original and their playful interaction delivers a raciness rarely seen in the day. I wondered as we neared the end of the movie with just a few minutes to go, if there was enough time to reveal the murderer, but Nick quickly puts all the pieces together nicely and points to the guilty party in a final showdown.
The Thin Man Goes Home reviews
Rogert Ebert: The Thin Man
DVD Review: The Compete Thin Man Collection
4 comments:
The drink stuff is funny, isn't it? Did people really drink that much then? How could they ever solve crimes?
Yeah, it made for some great laughs. But I agree, how did they ever solve a crime in that state?
I just watched The Thin Man for the first time today. Enjoyed it! I of course had read the novel years ago. The byplay between Powell and Loy was indeed fun to watch.
I liked it so well that I even put the other five into my queue on Netflix.
Randy Johnson
The first couple movies are the best but I enjoy the whole series. The banter between Powell and Loy is tops.
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