The Thin Man Goes Home

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