The Thin Man (Film)

The Thin Man. Writ. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. Dir. W. S. Van Dyke. With William Powell and Myrna Loy. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1934.

This film is based on the excellent Dashiell Hammett book of the same title. It was so popular MGM made five sequels from 1936 to 1947: After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man. The writers changed, but most of the films were directed by W. S. Van Dyke and all of them starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as the charming couple, Nick and Nora Charles.

It is the charm of the Charles’ that makes the movies such a pleasure to watch. The characters have great chemistry Hammett’s book; Powell and Loy bring it to the screen. Part of their charm comes from their witty banter. I think part of it comes from the happy marriage of the couple. They delight in each other, tolerate each other’s weaknesses and gently push each other to be better. And though they fit traditional gender roles, as you would expect at the time the films were made, and it is clear that Nick is a professional detective and Nora an amateur, they seem more equal than most fictional couples in today’s films and television.



As a series, the films handle the couple in another unusual way. They age. They age naturally. In the first pair if films, as in the book, Nora is a young heiress and Nick older and worldlier. In the middle pair of films, they’re parents of a young son. By the last film, they’re an established couple and even Nora can’t follow the slang of the hipster characters.

The chemistry between Powell and Loy is great. Some other quality actors appear in the films as well, like Maureen O’Sullivan in The Thin Man. The sequels include performances from James Stewart and Keenan Wynn. Some uncredited (and not as great) appearances include Shemp Howard and a guy who I think might be Tor Johnson.

The crime solving in The Thin Man sticks close to the book, but adapted to work well on film. As crime stories, the sequels vary in quality, complexity and suspense. If you’re looking for a great mystery, you may want to look elsewhere. Crime solving is the backbone of the plots of these films, but the plots are largely an excuse to watch Nick and Nora do their thing.

(Thanks, Roger, for loaning me the box set of these films on DVD.)