Movie of the Week IV

The Thin Man (1934)

I know it is redundant to say "I love this movie" since of course I do or why would I be writing about it and recommending it?...but I love this movie. Myrna Loy and William Powell are magic. They were in fourteen films together, including six in The Thin Man series, so you can bet there is something special there.

The Thin Man, the first of the six, Powell and Loy are Nick and Nora Charles. (Now “Nick and Nora” is a brand of pajamas and the title characters in the recent Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, but it was The Thin Man couple first.) The movies are mystery comedies with enough mystery to be thrilling and enough comedy to be funny. The first was released in 1934 and the last in 1947, although a radio show, TV series (starring Peter Lawford), and a Broadway musical that bombed continued the story.

Nick Charles (not the thin man of the title, that honor is reserved for the first murder victim) is a detective who has retired after marrying Nora, an heiress. (A running joke through the movie and the series is Nick's frank admission that he married Nora for her money. This rather cold thought is funny because it isn't true--they are a perfect match.) Even after his marriage and his subsequent retirement and entrance into polite society, Nick can’t seem to get away from sordid crimes, and Nora loves the excitement. Nick and Nora are a smooth but goofy pair. Impeccably dressed, oozing confidence, they are also not afraid to be silly. For Christmas, Nora gives Nick a BB gun, which he uses to shoot balloons off the Christmas tree until he shatters a window. Nora watches him with a wry expression as she luxuriates in the fur coat that she bought for herself.

Significantly, they were one of the first married couples to be portrayed positively in Hollywood. Up until The Thin Man, most characters were trying to get into or out of marriages, but Nick and Nora make marriage look like fun. A key moment in the film's depiction of marriage comes when a young woman runs to Nick for help. There is a party going on in the Charles' apartment so Nick takes the woman to the bedroom where it is quiet. Nora enters unexpectedly, just as the woman begins to weep against Nick's chest. It is a compromising position, as they say, but Nora doesn't "think the worst" or resort to a clichéd storming out. Nick makes a funny face at her over the girl in his arms, and Nora returns it and closes the door. The young woman looks up and immediately backs away from Nick, saying, "Oh! I'm sorry!" Nora replies, "Don't be silly" and hands her a drink. It is refreshing to see a couple in a movie not fall apart at every obvious seam.

This scene brings up another characteristic of these movies...they drink more cocktails than you will believe. My generation has a bad reputation with alcohol, but Nick and Nora Charles make us look like prohibitionists. There are cocktails in every scene--never mind the setting or the time of day. A reporter asks Nora if Nick is working on a case, and she says, "Yes, a case of scotch." Instead of a pitcher of water there is a filled cocktail shaker waiting on the Charles' bedside table every night.

Their incredible consumption of alcohol becomes a running joke through the films, like when Nora complains that Nick keeps “Going out, getting drunk” and then adds “Without me.” In one of the later films in the series, Nora even summons Nick back to their apartment from the park across the street by shaking his favorite cocktail in a silver shaker. Somehow, he hears it and comes home.

Now for a brief tangent about William Powell and Myrna Loy. Powell was not a typically handsome leading man. At least I don't think he is that typically handsome. He has a funny face and an even funnier mustache. In the very beginning of his career he played evil villains and scoundrels, but then he made a switch into romantic lead territory where he is fantastic. He is charming and debonair with a touch of roughness, which is perfect for the hardscrabble but recently refined Nick Charles character. Myrna Loy was first a dancer, and in her early career in silent films she played "Oriental" dancers. They put a lot of eye makeup on her, dressed her in "Oriental" costumes and bam! she was the exotic vixen. Rather different from the witty, self-assured Nora Charles and the other career women she played so well. Funny how these two actors morphed throughout their careers until they solidified their charming screen images.

The picture above shows Asta, the Charles' dog. Asta was the dog's real name, and it is pronounced with a faux British accent that all the high class people in these movies use. Aaa-stahh. Anyway, Asta also appeared in The Awful Truth (1937) with Irene Dunne and Cary Grant, and Bringing Up Baby (1938), also with Cary Grant but this time with Katharine Hepburn. If there is a terrier in a 1930s movie it is probably Asta.Asta has to share the screen with the Charles' offspring, Nick, Jr. He appears in the third film, and he isn't as much fun as the dog.

Watch for soon-to-be stars in the series; like Jimmy Stewart and Gloria DeHaven. Although all six movies are worth watching, I like the first three the most. The murder mystery of the first one is the most interesting and scary, I think. Later they become a little too convoluted. But then again, you don't watch these movies for the mystery plots. You watch them for Nick and Nora and the humor and the cocktails and Asta. At least, I do.