Shadow of the Thin Man ** (1941, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Donna Reed, Barry Nelson, Stella Adler – Classic Movie Review 3683

MGM’s 1941 fourth instalment in their comedy murder mysteries series, Shadow of the Thin Man, is still enjoyable but just misses being a light and breezy success. The problem here is the screen-writing team quit and Dashiell Hammett refused involvement.

W S Van Dyke II again directs MGM’s 1941 fourth movie instalment of The Thin Man comedy murder mysteries series, Shadow of the Thin Man, which, though still enjoyable, just misses being a light and breezy success this time.

The problem here is that the husband and wife screen-writing team of Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, who wrote the first three Thin Man scripts, refused to write another one and quit. Instead, the script is written by Harry Kurnitz and Irving Brecher, and it is based on a story by Harry Kurnitz, not on any work by The Thin Man author Dashiell Hammett, as the three previous films were. Hammett had experienced difficulties with working on the previous films and decided to be uninvolved in the production or the next and last two films in the series.

But Shadow of the Thin Man still contains ample helpings of most attractive ingredients: nonchalant repartee between William Powell and Myrna Loy as the scintillating and somewhat sloshed sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, dry Martinis, a wild wrestling match, a day at a merry-go-round, and a restaurant brawl, plus of course the cute antics of Asta the dog.

Racetrack gambling provides the background, and Powell and Loy’s delightful Nick and Nora investigating the case of a murdered jockey accused of throwing a race provides the plot, while their son Nick Jr (Richard Hall) is now old enough to figure in the comic subplot.

Also in the cast are Barry Nelson, Donna Reed, Sam Levene, Alan Baxter, Dickie Hall, Loring Smith, Joseph Anthony, Henry O’Neill, Stella Adler, Lou Lubin, Louis Beavers and James Flavin.

It is one of three films in which the acting teacher Stella Adler appears. Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City in 1949.

It was immensely popular again, earning $2,301,000 globally and making a profit of $769,000, against a cost of $821,000.

Frances Goodrich recalled: ‘They press you awfully hard. When they started talking about another Thin Man, we started throwing up and crying into our typewriters. We had the nervous breakdown together. We said “let’s get out of here” and we quit.’

MGM filmed exteriors un 22 June 1941 in Berkeley, California, with Golden Gate Fields racetrack, which first opened 1 February 1941, as Greenway Park. Nick and Nora Charles get pulled over for speeding on the upper deck of the the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge.

It was released in the US on 21 November 1941 two weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Loy did make another film for three years (The Thin Man Goes Home in 1945) as she left Hollywood for New York and volunteered for the war effort with the Red Cross to assist the director of military and naval welfare.

The next episode: The Thin Man Goes Home (1945).

The six Thin Man movies are: The Thin Man (1934), After the Thin Man (1936), Another Thin Man (1939), Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home (1945) and Song of the Thin Man (1947).

The cast are William Powell as Nick Charles, Myrna Loy as Nora Charles, Barry Nelson as Paul Clarke, Louise Beavers as Stella, Donna Reed as Molly, Sam Levene as Lieutenant Abrams, Alan Baxter as Whitey Barrow, Henry O’Neill as Major Jason I Sculley, Stella Adler as Claire Porter (aka Clara Peters), Loring Smith as Link Stephens, Joseph Anthony as Fred Macy, Will Wright as Nervous Ticket Seller Maguire, Sid Melton as Fingers, Adeline De Walt Reynolds as Barrow’s landlady, Tor Johnson as wrestler Jack the Ripper, Frankie Burke as Jockey at the races, Joe Oakie as Spider Webb, Lou Lubin as Rainbow Benny, and Richard Hall as Nick Jr.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3683

Check out more reviews on derekwinnert.com