The Thin Man ***** (1934, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O’Sullivan) – Classic Movie Review 2262

Director W S Van Dyke’s sparkling 1934 comedy thriller The Thin Man is a bright, bubbly and witty version of the much darker-toned Dashiell Hammett classic detective novel renowned for its brilliantly told masterly mystery story. With no hints of film noir, the very different-flavoured movie has very different attractions. But it is spurred on to its own kind of success by the most vivacious star performance of William Powell and Myrna Loy, who are perfectly paired and form a great, much loved screen partnership in their second movie together, after Manhattan Melodrama (1934).

Powell and Loy are smashing fun as New York married sleuths Nick and Nora Charles, a leisure-class couple who enjoy copious drinking and flirtatious witty banter, on the trail (with their little dog Asta too, of course) of an inventor’s killer. Nick is a former police detective and Nora is his rich, playful heiress wife, and they join forces to investigate the murder case just for fun. 

Maureen O’Sullivan co-stars as Dorothy Wynant, the distraught daughter who asks Nick Charles to locate her missing father, Clyde Wynant, who is suspected of murdering her step-mother. He left on a planned trip some months before and she has not heard from him. Nora talks a reluctant Nick into becoming a sleuth again and helping Dorothy.

The star duo play so well together that it is easy to believe that they were actually married. The only complaint about the movie is that their characters, chemistry, performances and bantering overshadows the Hammett detective yarn, making it seem considerably lighter and thinner than it should be, and the plot resolution comes fast and perfunctory. Nevertheless, The Thin Man has hardly faded as entertainment, has now attained an all-time cult status and is still a benchmark for this kind of caper thriller.

With an expert eye on the widest popular box office, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s screenplay keeps it a commendably, brisk, fast-moving popular entertainment. But there’s still room for a much more faithful, at least in spirit, version to Hammett’s novel.

A short (just 93 minutes), uncomplicated movie, it was filmed in just two weeks by the notoriously fast shooting ‘One Take’ Van Dyke. There were four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Adapted Writing, but no wins.

The movie’s vast popularity led to five sequels: After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home and Song of the Thin Man (1947). There followed an admired 1957-58 TV series with Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk.

Still from the trailer for The Thin Man.

After this, Powell was for ever erroneously thought of as the Thin Man, but this character was actually the murder victim, Clyde Wynant, played by Edward Ellis, the man Charles is initially hired to find (Charles describes Wynant as a ‘thin man with white hair’).

MGM paid Dashiell Hammett $21,000 for the screen rights to his 1934 novel, drawing on his work as a Pinkerton detective in Butte, Montana, and his relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. Director Van Dyke asked married screen-writer Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich to use Hammett’s writing as a basis only, and to provide witty banter for Nick and Nora.

William Powell, Myrna Loy and Skippy (as Asta) in The Thin Man.

Also in the cast are Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall, Henry Wadsworth, Cesar Romero. Natalie Moorhead, Edward Brophy, Thomas Jackson, Creighton Hale. Ruth Channing and Clay Clement.

Maureen O’Sullivan complimented Powell’s charm and wit but said she did not enjoy making the film because her role was so small and the production was so rushed.

The Wire Fox Terrier dog Skippy played Asta in the first three Thin Man films. Skippy was later cast in the screwball comedy classics The Awful Truth (1937) and Bringing Up Baby (1938). Asta in Dashiell Hammett’s book The Thin Man was not a male Wire-Haired Fox Terrier, but a female Schnauzer.

William Powell, Myrna Loy and Skippy (as Asta) in The Thin Man.

In June 2012 Warner Bros decided to go slow on the plan to film The Thin Man, a re-adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel, set to star Johnny Depp as Nick Charles and to be directed by Rob Marshall from a screenplay by David Koepp.

William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984 was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films. Powell was Oscar nominated three times as Best Actor, for The Thin Man (1934), My Man Godfrey (1936) and Life with Father (1947), but he never won.

The cast are William Powell as Nick Charles, Myrna Loy as Nora Charles, Skippy as their dog Asta, Maureen O’Sullivan as Dorothy Wynant, Nat Pendleton as Lt. John Guild, Minna Gombell as Mimi Wynant Jorgenson, Porter Hall as Herbert MacCaulay, Henry Wadsworth as Tommy, William Henry as Gilbert Wynant, Harold Huber as Arthur Nunheim, Cesar Romero as Chris Jorgenson, Natalie Moorhead as Julia Wolf, Edward Brophy as Joe Morelli Edward Ellis as the ‘thin man’ Clyde Wynant, Cyril Thornton as Tanner.

Nat Pendleton played Lt. Guild again in Another Thin Man.

The film was shot with a budget of $226,408 and grossed $1,423,000, making a profit of $729,000. Even so Van Dyke needed to talk MGM bosses into it as they thought Powell was too old and straitlaced and Loy could only play exotic femme fatales.

The film was added to the US National Film Registry as culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant in 1997.

MGM filmed a brilliant trailer in which Nick Charles (Powell) is seen on the cover of The Thin Man novel and steps out to talk to fellow detective Philo Vance (also Powell) about his latest case. Charles says he hasn’t seen Vance since The Kennel Murder Case 1933) and tells him his latest case revolves around a ‘tall, thin man’ before showing clips of the film.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2262

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