NFR Project: 'The Thin Man' (1934)

 

NFR Project: ‘The Thin Man’

Dir: W.S. Van Dyke

Scr: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich

Pho: James Wong Howe

Ed: Robert J. Kern

Premiere: May 25, 1934

91 min.

Wouldn’t you like to be rich, witty, in love, good-looking, awfully good at solving murders, and always slightly drunk? Thus the appeal of Nick and Nora Charles.

The movie is derived from the novel of the same year by the great American detective writer Dashiell Hammett; it is his last completed novel. MGM paid Hammett $21,000 for the movie rights, made this movie in 14 days, and reaped the harvest of a six-film series starring the charming couple.

Prohibition is over, and everyone, it seems, is having cocktails, especially Nick. We are in New York. Nick is a former police detective, and Nora is his heiress wife. She’s a knockout, and quick of thought and comic observation. He’s cynical but bemused – he’s seen it all. She wants to see him in action at his old position. He politely refuses, until the daughter of an old friend comes to him for help.

Now, Nick is not the Thin Man; that is a term for one of the suspects in a string of murders surrounding the disappearance of inventor Clyde Winant. Winant’s daughter Dorothy (Maureen O’Sullivan, fresh from playing Jane in the Tarzan movies) wants to find him. Meanwhile, Winant is implicated in the killings. It is up to Nick, with the unwelcome help of Nora, to solve the case.

The mystery part of this comedy-drama is fairly played, with a handful of suspects who are churned through by Nick, and a sufficient number of clues as to make the murderer deductible. That being said, the plot really takes a backseat to whatever magical thing that happens when William Powell and Myrna Loy are on screen together as Nick and Nora.

What is the source of their charm? They were both able to bring an urbane subtlety to their lines. They are not shocked by anything, imperturbable in the face of danger. Life is like a game with them, with points scored for acerbic put-downs and mocking double-takes. They clearly enjoy each others’ company. They represent a happy ideal of marriage in which both partners fulfill each other, play off each other like players on a team, like actors on stage. They are performing their relationship, constantly. (Their offspring, fittingly, is their dog Asta.)

The script, which adheres closely to the book, is dead-on funny, full of quips and double takes. Nick and Nora seem to live on another level altogether, one devoted to gaiety and laughter, no matter what the circumstances. The contrast between their moneyed comfort and the hard-edged world Nick came from provides a ready source of humor.

The direction by Woody Van Dyke is unassuming and to the point, steadily advancing the script without any authorial input. The images are ravishing thanks to cinematographer James Wong Howe. It is, all in all, a cocktail of mystery and comedy that’s pretty potent. Wouldn’t we like a couple of hours imagining ourselves in their place, dripping with wit and infused with gin?

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Twentieth Century.