The Thin Man (Keepcase)
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Movie Reviews of The Thin Man (Keepcase)
Movie Review: Great character study. Blah mystery.
Summary: 4 Stars
The Thin Man (W. S. van Dyke, 1934)
I first saw The Thin Man about a decade ago, when I was as much of a lush as Nick and Nora Charles, and at the time I was relatively unimpressed with it; if you take it just for the sake of its plot, it's a modest little mystery flick without much going for it, and it contains one of the things that drives me to madness in mystery films--that scene at the end where the detective gathers everyone into a room and then announces that the murder is in this very room, and starts talking about how he unraveled the mystery. Man, I hate that. It's the good-guy version of the evil genius pausing to explain to the hero how he's going to conquer the world, giving the hero time to escape and brain the evil genius with a piece of handy electrical equipment, thus saving the planet. This time around, however, my mind is a touch clearer, and I get that van Dyke was probably as annoyed with that particular Agatha Christie trope as I am; he plays with it, subverts it in a way that takes it dangerously close to genius, though I can't find it in myself to consider that last scene any less annoying now than I did then. I also missed a lot of what contemporary audiences saw as the charm of the film, which is the interplay between Nick and Nora Charles themselves. I attribute this to what most sober people are well aware of--it's always funner to laugh at the drunk guy than to actually be the drunk guy. Unless, of course, you're Nick Charles, the epitome of the debonair drunk.
The action opens with eccentric inventor Claude Wynant (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang's Edward Ellis) packing up and heading off to a conference, promising his winsome daughter Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan, who will, embarrassingly, probably be remembered for playing Jane in Johnny Weissmuller's many, many Tarzan movies) and her earnest fiance Tommy (Mark of the Vampire's Henry Wadsworth) that he'll be back in time for the wedding. The wedding rolls around, and Wynant's nowhere to be found. Time goes by, and still no one's seen Wynant. Then his girlfriend, Julia Wolf (Heart of Arizona's Natalie Moorehead) turns up dead, and there's evidence linking Wynant to the murder. Soon after, Wynant's ex-wife Mimi's new husband goes missing. Dorothy begs Nick Charles (William Powell), a retired detective now living the good life as a playboy with his socialite wife Nora (Myrna Loy), to prove his old friend Claude's innocence. Nick initially refuses, but after much badgering from his wife, he takes the case, solving it in roughly the time it would take you to make a sandwich if you got up and left the room at that point.
Van Dyke directed almost one hundred films during his career (including the first of Weissmuller's Tarzan films and two of the five Thin Man sequels), but this was his only Best Director Oscar nomination for a movie he was actually credited with directing. (He was uncredited on the film that earned him his second Best Director nomination, ironically--1936's San Francisco. It is equally ironic that in both cases, he lost to Frank Capra.) Given the weakness of the plot, either you have to give the Academy even less credit than you normally should, or there's something else going on here. A quick look through van Dyke's movies contemporary to this may give it away; Manhattan Melodrama, Broadway Melody of 1936, etc. Van Dyke as a mystery director? Preposterous, and the film bears that out. Van Dyke as a chronicler of glitzy New York social life? Now you're onto something. Think of him as the thirties version of anyone who casts Paris Hilton in a movie, and you've hit the nail on the head. The difference, of course, is that van Dyke here hires actors, and very good ones, to play socialites instead of the other way around. It's his portrayals of Nick and Nora's daily life that make this movie worth watching; the chemistry between them is as real as it is for actual married couples who happen to be filthy rich and constantly drunk. (Or, at least, one assumes, having never actually lived on the Main Line.) Myrna Loy, the striking beauty (perhaps second only to Lillian Gish) with the wicked acting chops, may be the finest American actress to have never garnered a single Academy Award nomination; it doesn't matter how bad the movie, Myrna Loy brought her A game to the table. Ironically, Powell, who was nominated for Best Actor three times (here, My Man Godfrey, and Life with Father), was never better than when interacting onscreen with Loy. As a mystery film, it's a failure; as a character study of Nick and Nora Charles, it's delightful. *** ½
Movie Review: A Christmas Mystery
Summary: 4 Stars
Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis) is planning to go into seclusion for a few months. He'll be back in New York in time for his daughter's Christmas wedding. But before he disappears, he discovers that someone has been stealing from him. Figuring out who it is, he sets out to confront the thief before he leaves town.
Fast forward a few months, and daughter Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan) is getting worried. With the wedding only days away, Clyde is still gone. She runs into former private eye Nick Charles (William Powell) who is in New York for a vacation with his wife Nora (Myrna Loy). While he refuses to get involved in the case, the police and reporters think he is investigating. The stakes are raised when a murder takes place and a villain breaks into Nick and Nora's hotel room. Will Nick solve the case? Where is Clyde?
While I'm normally not a fan of older films, this one is such a classic I had to give it a chance. And I'm glad I did. The reason I shy away from old films is because I often feel like some key element hasn't been fully explained, which makes it hard to get into the movie. That happened a time or two here, but for the most part everything was fairly straight forward, at least as far as the backgrounds went.
I had pieces of the mystery figured out before the characters did, but I still enjoyed the story. The traditional, bring all the suspects together for a confrontation scene made the ending a little weak, however.
What makes this movie work is the Nick/Nora relationship. Their constant banter is hilarious. Those scenes were the highlight of the movie. And William Powell and Myrna Loy have the perfect chemistry to pull it off. Frankly, I wish Nora had been in even more of the movie. Even the constant drinking didn't turn me off to these characters.
As old films go, this is a good one. The mystery is light, but the laughs are real.
Movie Review: Witty banter, cigarettes and booze: what else do you want?
Summary: 4 Stars
Back in the days when a cigarette wasn't the cinematic equivalent of a black hat and when real men had scotch for breakfast, Nick and Nora Charles enthralled Depression-era America with their witty repartee, beautiful clothes, and glamorous parties. And with their idleness - they didn't work! All this wealth but no work! All they did was drink, sleep, throw parties and solve the occasional crime.
The book is clipped and breezy. Nick is economical in his words, not least because talking slows down his drinking. (Reporter: Say listen, is he working on a case? Nora Charles: Yes, he is. Reporter: What case? Nora Charles: A case of scotch. Pitch in and help him. ) There are frequent asides, the hard-boiled detective equivalent of `yadda, yadda, yadda,' to skim over the pleasantries and glad handing that consume so much dialog in books and movies.
"The Thin Man," like the movies that followed it, is heavy on style and that makes it a pleasant read. As a book its aims are modest, its execution is excellent, and you just enjoy the journey from mysterious murder to having everything neatly wrapped up, courtesy of your tour guide to both the under and over worlds of New York, Nick Charles.
"After The Thin Man" is the tenth best mystery/detective film set in San Francisco and the second best of the Thin Man series of movies (based on my analysis as a reader/watcher of San-Francisco based noir/detective books and movies).
Movie Review: The first private detective film to break through the sound barrier...
Summary: 3 Stars
"The Thin Man" had the advantage of being based on a successful book by Dashiel Hammett, who had himself been a private eye...
The audience did not have to bother about who murdered the butler with a sliver of ice in the locked library: they were asked to be interested in what was happening now, why it was happening and sometimes how it was happening... They could be just as concerned with the by-play between detective Nick Charles and his wife Nora (William Powell and Myrna Loy) as in wondering who did the murders...
For most of the film, in fact, the audience is led to believe that Winant, the missing inventor, is the murderer; only towards the end does Nick show that Winant has been dead a long time and someone else is doing the killing...
Another factor which made "The Thin Man" notable was that Nick and Nora were - well, almost - real people... Rich they might be: hard drinkers they certainly were... They were a married couple in the film, and they actually managed to appear to enjoy it, making gentle fun of one another in every scene they played...
"The Thin Man" pointed the way, with such success that five follow-ups were made, culminating in "Song of the Thin Man" in 1947.
Most of "The Thin Man" films were predictable but they were historically important for introducing sophistication and witty repartee into the private eye film... Their biggest asset was that they were escapist pictures made for a Depression-weary audience... The Thin Man pictures took the audience away from grim reality simply by ignoring it...
Movie Review: Encourages alcoholism.
Summary: 2 Stars
William Powell and Myrna Loy, the actors playing the husband and wife, are likeable with some playful banter.
However, William Powell plays a detective who is an alcoholic, stumbling around, always with a drink in hand, but miraculously sobers up at key moments. I did not like the film's promotion of alcoholism.
The respected businessman has a mistress, and his mistress is sleeping around with a couple of other guys. I did not like this theme either.
The businessman regularly goes out of town, and does not tell anyone where he is going or for how long. Thus, the script-writer too conveniently sets this guy up for easy murder.
The idea of husband and wife detectives is a good one, and the actors were likeable, but I was disappointed in the script, and have thrown this DVD away.