{"id":6796,"date":"2010-02-06T14:31:24","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T22:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=6796"},"modified":"2010-02-06T22:43:14","modified_gmt":"2010-02-07T06:43:14","slug":"the-thin-man-w-s-van-dyke-1934-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=6796","title":{"rendered":"The Thin Man (W.S.Van Dyke, 1934): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed on Turner Classics.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Thin Man<\/em><\/a> was the first in a series of murder mysteries to spawn\u00a0five sequels over a thirteen year period.\u00a0 It stars William Powell and\u00a0Myna Loy as the fun-loving Nick and Nora Charles.\u00a0 Nick is a former police detective and Nora a wealthy railroad heiress, whom he married for her money – or\u00a0so he says.<\/p>\n

When a\u00a0former friend\u00a0goes missing and becomes\u00a0the lead suspect in a murder investigation, Nick is coaxed back\u00a0into sleuthing, first by his wife\u00a0and then by police LT.\u00a0 John Guild (Nat Pendleton), who\u00a0tells Charles\u00a0that “we’d rather have you working for us than against\u00a0us.”<\/p>\n

This film has many of the characteristic elements that make up a successful screwball comedy,\u00a0such as the low-class but\u00a0wealthy elite,\u00a0mugs from the street,\u00a0 fast-talking tomatoes,\u00a0a lot of yelling and carrying-on, and a bit of slapstick thrown in – Nick attempts to backhand his wife, as she makes faces at him, all in the presence of a third party.<\/p>\n

Among the many\u00a0colorful characters are\u00a0Mimi Jorgenson (Minna Gombell), who constantly attempts\u00a0to shake-down her ex-husband for more money, or\u00a0Marion (Gertrude Short),\u00a0Nunheim’s squeeze, who\u00a0quips to her two-timing man that she “doesn’t like crooks who are stoolpigeons.”<\/p>\n

One important character that shares equal screen time with Nick and Nora is Asta (Skippy), the couple’s beloved Wire-Haired Fox Terrier.\u00a0 Van Dyke gives us a\u00a0glimpse of Asta’s importance as a lead character, when he appears on screen before Myrna Loy, and actually upstages the actress\u00a0by pulling on\u00a0his lead so hard she falls flat on her face.<\/p>\n

Filmed during the depression era, many screwball comedies expose the elite as having no class and mugs from the street as just\u00a0ordinary joes.\u00a0 The mystery culminates at an elegant dinner party,\u00a0hosted by the Charles’ with all\u00a0of the\u00a0lead suspects present.\u00a0 \u00a0In the midst of unforgettable cheap\u00a0dialogue and a gun being fired off, Nick gets his man.<\/p>\n

Although it wasn’t the first, this film brought Myrna Loy out of her vampy roles and was such a successful pairing with William Powell, that she went on to make a slew of films with him.\u00a0 As a screen couple they are lovable, charming and romantic.\u00a0 In a repertoire of films to watch, this one is a must-see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed on Turner Classics. The Thin Man was the first in a series of murder mysteries to spawn\u00a0five sequels over a thirteen year period.\u00a0 It stars William Powell and\u00a0Myna Loy as the fun-loving Nick and Nora Charles.\u00a0 Nick is a former police detective and Nora a wealthy railroad heiress, whom he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-tv-programming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6796\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}