After the Thin Man by W.S. Van Dyke (1936)
24 July 2008The sequel to the hit Thinman is more of the same (Nick doesn’t want to do the detecting, but gets dragged in, Nora does detecting on her own, Nick figures out more, and then holds a dinner with all suspects to work it out, and point out the killer), but once again it isn’t so much the murder that matters as the interplay between Loy and Powell, and here once again this is genius. These two are perfect together, and you really see they care for each other! And Asta is always fun too. Another must see film!
Nick Charles (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy) return to San Francisco after their trip to New York on New Years Ever, just wanting to have some quite time together, but instead find a huge party held at their house in their honor, though they don’t even know who is throwing it before they get a call from Nora’s Aunt Katherine Forrest (Jessie Ralph) who insists they come over for dinner. When they arrive, it is complete Hell for Nick, as they call him Nicholas, and do all they can to insult him, but the real reason for the trip is revealed. It seems that Nora’s cousin Selma Landis (Elissa Landi) has had her husband Robert (Alan Marshall) disappear, and they want Nick to help. And it seems the Selma’s mental condition has started to deteriorate, so they have called in a psychologist Dr. Kammer (George Zucco). Also there is Selma’s ex-love David Graham (A very young James Stewart) who is there to comfort Selma. David tells Nick that Robert wasn’t really missing, and just wanted out on Selma, and has told David that if he paid him $25,000 he would leave and allow David to marry Selma.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…
Nick and Nora head to a Chinese nightclub to celebrate New Years Eve called Lichee, managed by an ex-con called Dancer (Joseph Caleeia) and his partner Lum Kee (William Law) whose brother Nick sent up years ago. Robert is at the club, and is always there because of the singer named Polly Byrnes (Dorothy McNulty also known as Penny Singleton) who he plans on getting the money and running away with, though in fact she is scamming him with Dancer.
Robert gets in touch with David and tells him he must have the money that night, and all David has are bonds that he can get on such short notice, but he goes and gives them, and a happy Robert goes home to get a change of clothes. Robert wakes Selma, and tells her he is leaving her, but Selma follows him with a gun. David also followed to check up on Selma, and he finds her standing over a dead Robert with a gun in her hand. He takes the gun, and disposes of it into the Ocean, telling her to go home and not tell anyone.
Nora wakes up and wakes Nick so he will cook her scrambled eggs, and someone throws a rock through the window on a rock, but Asta gets it, and eats the address on it. When they awaken in the morning Lieutenant Abrams (Sam Levene) comes to tell them he is out of leads, and they show him the note.
Nick goes to visit Polly’s ex-con husband Ralph West (Paul Fix)) who turns out to be the one pretending to be her brother Phil Barnes. Nick and Abrams find Phil murdered by the same gun that killed Robert, and they find a key to Polly’s apartment.
Nick goes to Polly’s apartment and gets in, while Nora isn’t so successful. Nick sees a whole in the ceiling and goes to check the apartment above, rented by an Anderson, and finds a microphone under the floor boards, and a ladder that will lead down to Polly’s apartment. Dancer shows up, and runs for it, and Nick pursues, but is shot at, and finds the body of the janitor Pedro dead in the basement.
Nick decides to gather everyone in Polly’s apartment and try and figure everything out. Dancer, Polly, Lum Kee, Dr. Kammer, Aunt Katherin, Selma and David all arrive. Nick lays out the story, with Anderson listening in at Polly’s and kkilling RObert over hatred and the others because they got in the way. It is finally revealed that Pedro was a gardener for Nora’s father, and he found the stuff in Anderson’s apartment and tried to call Nick, but was killed by Anderson.
And the killer is David, because he describes Anderson as he is now with a big white mustache, and not how he was then without a mustache as revealed by an old photo that Nora finds. David pulls a gun, but Lum Kee saves Nick and Selma who he hated for dumping, and wanted to kill. Lum Kee saved Nick because he hated his brother and stole his brothers girl when he went to jail.
It ends with Nick and Nora leaving San Fran on a train and Nick sees that Nora is knitting a baby booty.
••••
A great film, Powel and Loy are just awesome, and it is great to see Stewart playing against type and being the bad guy for once. A very enjoyable film. And if you haven’t seen it in a while, see it again!
Feedback
You must be logged in to post a comment.