MGM didn’t have a lot of hope for this little film. It was based on a silly book about a married couple who solve cases. Leads William Powell and Myrna Loy weren’t considered the best bets for the story. Lucky for them and for us, director Woody Van Dyke won out, and this 1934 gem not only spawned five sequels over the following 13 years, but got a Best Picture nomination and, along with that year’s classic It Happened One Night, helped form a new genre that audiences have adored every since: the screwball comedy.
Now, there is a murder mystery in this film. I could go into it, but that’s not really the point. The fun here is the lovely banter between husband and wife Powell and Loy (playing Nick and Nora Charles). They’re quick, clever, funny; drink too much, slapstick a little, and have a perky little dog named Asta (a popular crossword clue). In its own way, this film is an early genre mash-up: take the procedural detective story and sprinkle it into a screwball comedy. I’ll admit the film takes a little while to get going, as it spends the first 15 minutes or so introducing you to the cast of characters who will be involved/suspected in the mystery. But once Loy and Powell arrive, the film is nothing but pure delight (the two of them were such a great pair, they starred in a total of 14 films together).
Here’s something I never realized. The five sequels - After the Thin Man (which I’ll be reviewing soon), Another Thin Man, Shadow of The Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home, and Song of The Thin Man - all reference the original film’s title, as if the slender gentleman in question is William Powell’s Nick Charles. That’s not the case. “The thin man” refers to a character involved in the mystery Nick’s trying to solve. However, as is usually the case with Hollywood, they wanted name recognition for the sequels, so they just kept on with it, incorrect though it was.
