The Thin Man by W.S. Van Dyke (1934)
23 July 2008The first film in this lovely film series starring the lovely Myrna Loy, and the hysterical William Powell. This film started a series of films, though this film was adapted from a novel by Dashiell Hammett, in fact he wrote no sequels, so they were all written just based on the characters, which does account for why the mystery is always different, the stories are all the same (Nick Charles doesn’t want to get on a case, but does, Nora does some detectiving of her own, Nick figures some more, then brings everyone together, and talks it out and solves the crime, with someone there, who tries to turn against him), still the characters as created in this film are so great that you can want no more than to watch more and more of them. The fact that the couple are such horrendous lushes, and obviously love each other so much is a great draw, as is the dog Aster, who always has really cute little sequences. These films are fantastic, and even if you saw them years ago, seeing them again will certainly be a pleasure.
The film starts with a man called Clyde Wynant (William Henry) a bit of an absent minded professor talking to his daughter Dorothy (Maureen O’Sullivan) who tells him she is going to be married, and asks him to be at the wedding, even though it will be awkward for her mother Mimi (Minna Gombell). Clyde then talks to his lawyer Clyde MacCaulay (Porter Hall), and tells him he will be leaving for a while, and will not be contactable, though will be in touch through his secretary and girlfriend Julia Wolf (Natalie Moorhead), who he confronts before he leaves about stealing $50,000 in bonds with her mobster boyfriend Joe Morelli (Edward Brophy). Dorothy with her fiancee Chris Jorgenson (Cesar Romero) goes to see an old family friend, an ex-detective named Nick Charles (William Powell). Nick was an A Plus Detective, who is known far and wide, but he recently married a rich socialite Nora (Myrna Loy) and has given up detecting, living off her money, and drinking and socializing. Nora though is fascinated by the detective work, and wants Nick to take the case, and slowly pushes him into it.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…
First Joe Morelli comes and breaks into their hotel room, and Nick ends up getting shot, though not badly injured, and Nick finally starts investigating.
Nick learns that Clyde hasn’t been seen in 3 months, and his lawyer MacCauley has been giving large sums of money to Julia for him, and she claims to have been acting under his orders.
Clyde had been divorced from Mimi because of Julia, and she had remarried a drifter named Chris Jorgenson (Cesar Romero) and wants to try and get more money out of her ex. Other than her daughter she also has an very strange son, who is always reading and doesn’t know how to interact with people, this is Gilbert (William Henry).
Mimi goes to see Julia to try and get some money, but finds Julia dead, and a bracelet of Clyde’s in her hand, which she takes and is going to hide, but Dorothy sees it, and Nick gets it eventually.
Nick goes out with his dog Aster, and sneaks into Clyde’s shop, where finds the bookkeeper Tanner (Cyril Thornton) an ex con he once arrested, but finds something better a dead body, in the clothes of a fat person buried under the floor. The Police determine itwas a man named Rosengreen who had a run in with Clyde before (which was how Nick knew him) and who disappeared, so they put out on an APB on Clyde, the Thin Man.
Nick then hosts a dinner party, where all the guests are escorted by police, and who act as wait staff. The Wynant;s come, Jorgenson and his actual wife, Joe Morelli and girlfriend, Tanner and MacCauley. Nick reveals that the skeleton was in fact Clude, who was put in the other clothes to throw off the police, and that the murdered conspired with Julia to steal all his money.
The killer though that Mimi and Julia were going to work together, so he killed Julia, and got Mimi to give a fake testimony about meeting Clyde in exchange for money.
Nick points out that since Jorgenson was never divorced when he married her, that she still would get all of Clyde’s money, and Mimi tells that it was MacCauley, he tries to shoot his way out, but is caught.
Nick and Nora are then on the train with Dorothy and her new husband Tommy, on their honeymoon, and Nick and Nora head back to their peaceful life back in San Francisco.
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A classic, and the caper doesn’t really matter, it is the interplay between Myrna Loy and William Powell that makes this movie so special, and what makes the sequels so enjoyable as well. This is a must see!
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