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The Universal Appeal of the Thin Man MoviesThe 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 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 Thin Man - a much heralded and
critically acclaimed film - is certainly worth a look, but it's not quite the classic it's been made out to be. Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy), a couple of drunks, are assigned to discover who murdered an inventor. Nick used to be a famous detective but has since given up the racket after coming into a large amount of money. His wife, who is curious about what it takes to solve such a crime, soon cajoles him into taking the case. The duo drink and kid each other, all the while staying on top of the whole affair. The Thin Man is generally entertaining, but not much more than that. Perhaps when it was first released, the film was seen as risque (due to the frank way Nick and Nora relate to each other, and their rampant quaffing of anything that contains alcohol), but now it just seems tame. Having said that, Powell and Loy are fantastic. The story is good, too, and features a mystery so complex it makes an average episode of Law and Order look simplistic by comparison.
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 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, Nick Charles, Jr.
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), d. W.S. Van Dyke
The Thin Man Goes Home (1944), 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 the 70s-80s shows McMillan and Wife (1971-1977) on NBC with Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James, and Hart to Hart (1979-1984) on ABC with Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers. Woody Allen's part-homage film Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) starred its director and Diane Keaton as the Liptons, modeled after the Charles couple.
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.]
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