James Hitchcock Nick Charles, a retired private detective, is pressed back into service by Dorothy Wynant, a young woman worried by the disappearance of her businessman father Clyde. The case starts out as a simple missing person inquiry, but when Wynant's former secretary and mistress, Julia Wolf, is found dead, it becomes a murder. The police believe that Wynant is the obvious suspect, but Nick is not convinced. The mystery is eventually solved at a classic Agatha Christie-style dinner party at which all the suspects are present. The "Thin Man" of the title is Clyde Wynant; the fact that he is thin rather than fat turns out to be an important plot point, although I will not say what its significance is as that would be to give away too much of the ending. Audiences, however, frequently assumed that Nick himself was the "Thin Man", and five sequels were made between 1936 and 1947, all with the words "Thin Man" in the title. The film was made in 1934, just before the Production Code came into force. (Had it been made a bit later, the Hays Office might have taken exception to the fact that the hard-drinking Nick is seldom seem without a glass in his hand). Although it involves a murder case it is much lighter and more comedic in tone than the films noirs which were to dominate the crime genre in the American cinema a few years later. Nick's wife Nora, who helps her husband solve the mystery, is as important a character as he is, and their light-hearted bantering exchanges are a notable feature of the film. The third member of their team is their wire-haired fox terrier Asta, who frequently steals the scene from both Nick and Nora, although it is said that Asta, real name Skippy, was not as engaging away from the cameras as he appears on screen. (He is said to have bitten Myrna Loy in one encounter). The characters were originally invented in a novel by Dashiell Hammett, who based them upon his own difficult relationship with Lillian Hellman. The screenplay was written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, themselves a married couple. The film stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora. Neither would have been the first choice of the studio, MGM, but the director W. S. Van Dyke persuaded the studio bosses that they were right for the roles. Van Dyke's instinct was a happy one, because it is the chemistry between these two which is largely responsible for lifting "The Thin Man" out of the category of "run-of-the-mill whodunit and turning it into a stylishly entertaining classic, still fondly remembered today more than eighty years after it was made. 8/10

JohnHowardReid In 1934, there were only seven or eight people on the vast Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer lot, whom Mayer permitted to walk into his office any time of the day or night, without an appointment. These privileged few included his secretary, Ida Koverman; his executive producer, Irving G. Thalberg, and Thalberg's wife, Norma Shearer; film editor, Margaret Booth; and director, Woody Van Dyke. One day, Van Dyke approached Mayer with his idea of teaming Powell and Loy in "The Thin Man". Although he strongly disapproved of Van Dyke's suggestion – in fact he told him to his face that the whole idea of casting Powell and Loy was "insane" – Mayer compromised (as he often did in his dealings with "favorite sons"). Extracting a promise from Van Dyke that he would complete the whole picture in just 3 weeks, Mayer reluctantly gave him the go-ahead.Woody's first problem was to find a cameraman sufficiently speedy yet masterfully skillful to photograph an "A" picture in an unheard- of eighteen working days. Fellow-director Jack Conway recommended James Wong Howe."Van Dyke didn't cheat on his commitment to Mayer by working overtime on the picture," Wong Howe recalled in a 1969 interview. "He'd come in at nine. At twelve, we'd break for lunch. Back at one. Then leave at five. Van Dyke was a real expert. He'd rehearse the players and often as not, shoot just one take."The picture actually starts with a shadow effect – and very dramatic too – as the flickering shadow of the Thin Man is eerily cast on the wall of his warehouse as he works on some new invention. As colorfully played by Edward Ellis, the title character dominates the first quarter-hour or so of the action. He's not a nice man at all. Grumpy, short-tempered, dominating, cruel, sadistic – yet his daughter likes him. When he fails to turn up for a promised Christmas re-union, the action really starts, for at this point the film finally introduces us to Nora and Nick, both engaged in their favorite pastime – drinking.Prohibition had recently been repealed in the USA, so audiences were not accustomed to seeing people openly drinking on the screen in lush surroundings. Drinking was associated with gangsters, speakeasies and dives.Oh yes, the mystery side's very engrossing too. Impossible to pick the killer, though a few clues are fairly thrown our way. And there's one chilling sequence in a deserted warehouse which will raise goose bumps on even the most jaded flesh.Like some contemporary Warner Bros pictures, the script is very critical of the police. Nat Pendleton (usually cast as a moronic clown) plays the police inspector as not exactly dumb but certainly three or four shades removed from the sort of competence we might expect.The most telling scene occurs when Nick suggests to serio-comic crook Joe Morelli (played by Ed Brophy who specialized in aggressive but stupid henchmen) that he should ask the police some questions. "Me, walk into the police station and start asking questions?" Morelli snarls. "They'd like that – right down to the end of their blackjacks." – A prophecy fulfilled less than a minute later when a uniformed cop walks up to the now helpless little thug and, for no particular reason, smashes him in the face.The Thin Man was nominated for four of the prestigious annual awards voted by members of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Best Picture, Best Actor (William Powell), Best Director (Woody Van Dyke), and Best Adapted Screenplay (husband and wife team, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett). The movie also scored at the domestic box-office with a rentals gross of $1.2 million (which made it the 5th most popular release of the year).

DKosty123 Everyone seems to fit in the cast for this movie and it is a pretty large cast. William Powell and Myrna Loy as Mr and Mrs Nick Charles come to New York for a vacation and literally get dragged into a murder case.All the characters that drag them in seem to have problems of their own. What is amazing is how many plots and sub plots are in the script for a relatively short film and yet how things are sorted out by the end.Being the time it is, the plot is about an odd inventor who vanishes and then over 3 months is blamed for killing several people even though no one has seen them. This thin man (Nick Charles) is literally dragged into this and his curious wife Nora keeps getting her nose into it by accident.The ending is the classic dinner party where all the suspects are gathered by Charles and served fish. Things get tense and pretty formal until the solution presents itself. The film is complicated, stylish, and well made for this era. The cast is top notch and the pacing are perfect. For anyone who wants to go back to 1934, this is a great example of how well made a mystery film could be made from Dashiell Hammett's book.

bigverybadtom Based on the Dashiell Hammett novel, Nick Charles is a retired detective who is asked to investigate a case of a rich, eccentric inventor who failed to return from an announced trip. Living the high life thanks to his heiress wife Nora, Nick initially refuses, but he is slowly drawn in, thanks to the encouragement of his wife who wants to be a detective too, as well as an invasion of his apartment by a suspect, and pressures from both the police and the man's family.The movie is played for laughs, which is good as banter between husband and wife, as well as the other characters, works well. Yet the movie has serious parts such as graphic killings, and the serious aspects of the movie are downplayed. The movie could have had both the comedy and the tension that would have come with a more serious treatment of the story.