The Thin Man Goes Down As Smooth As Ever
By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Dec 8, 2011 8:40PM
They were a perfect couple. Intelligent, cool, sophisticated, romantic, bringing the party with them wherever they went, never taking themselves too seriously, and (almost by accident) solving crimes. The husband and wife team portrayed by Myrna Loy and William Powell in 1934's The Thin Man endures as one our favorite cinematic creations. Nick (played by Powell) is a sometime-detective who pleasantly idles away his early retirement with his wealthy firecracker of a wife, Nora (Loy). Tapping on a seemingly inexhaustible supply of cocktails and wit, the two flirt and tease their way through any situation with aplomb, watched over by their wire-haired fox terrier Asta. It cannot be denied: when we grow up, we want to be Nick and Nora Charles.
Crafted from Dashiell Hammett's final novel as an urbane riff on the ubiquitous hard-boiled detective scenarios of the era, The Thin Man's effervescent magic was like the ideal cocktail: bracing, balanced, light, and seeming to leave you, however implausibly, a bit smarter after having consumed it. The recipe depended on
an undeniable chemistry between its stars, who were fresh from their performance together in Manhattan Melodrama (the movie that Myrna Loy superfan John Dillinger was watching at the Biograph Theater that fated night). Neither can the light hand of the mixologist, W.S. Van Dyke, be overestimated: "One Take Woody" filmed the whole thing in 16 days, giving the bristling dialog no chance to get watered down.
One side effect of an excellent cocktail is the immediate desire for another. The Thin Man raked it in at the box office, snagged four Oscar nominations, and sent MGM immediately scrambling for the next round. The first two sequels, After the Thin Man and Another Thin Man, lose very little of the punch, and the final three installments offer perfectly enjoyable, if increasingly predictable and sitcom-ish refreshment.
You might not think of them first as holiday entertainment (although I'll leave it to Nora to say what we're sometimes secretly feeling about the season), but the first film does take place over Christmas and New Years. Beginning this Saturday, the Music Box will offer a perfectly-timed chance to watch the entire series during its weekend matinee time slots through January. The opportunity to take in the whole evolution of screen icons which Dave Kehr called models for the evolving American couple" as the "unsettled '30s shifted into the conservative postwar years" doesn't come around all that often, and you might want to bone up on your Thin Man lore before Johnny Depp and Hollywood take another crack at it.
The Thin Man plays Saturday, December 10, and Sunday, December 11, at 11:30 a.m., with its five sequels showing weekends through January. A complete Schedule is available on the Music Box website.