Hilarious, witty and smart. Hollywood’s popular big screen couple of the 1930’s and 40’s, William Powell and Myrna Loy are spectacular together in the 1934 American comic detective film “The Thin Man” . Over 75-years later and “The Thin Man” continues to be a fun and entertaining film! Just wonderful!
Image courtesy of © 1934 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
TITLE: The Thin Man (part of The Complete Thin Man Collection)
DURATION: 83 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, Original Aspect Ratio – 1.33 , 4 X 3 FULL FRAME, Mono – English, Mono 1.0 – French, Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
COMPANY: Warner Bros.
RELEASED: August 7, 2007
Based on the original novel by Dashiell Hammett
Directed by W.S. Van Dyke
Screenplay by Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich
Produced by Hunt Stromberg
Music by William Axt
Cinematography by James Wong Howe
Edited by Robert Kern
Art direction by Cedric Gibbons
Starring:
William Powell as Nick
Myrna Loy as Nora
Maureen O’Sullivan as Dorothy
Nat Pendleton as Guild
Minna Gombell as Mimi
Porter Hall as MacCaulay
Henry Wadsworth as Tommy
William Henry as Gilbert
Harold Huber as Nunheim
Cesar Romero as Chris
Natalie Moorhead as Julia Wolf
Edward Brophy as Morelli
Edward Ellis as Wynant
Cyril Thornton as Tanner
Nick and Nora Charles cordially invite you to bring your own alibi to The Thin Man, the jaunty whodunit that made William Powell and Myrna Loy the champagne elite of sleuthing. Bantering in the boudoir, enjoying walks with beloved dog Asta or matching each other highball for highball and clue for clue, they combined screwball romance with mystery. The resulting triumph nabbed four Academy AwardO nominations* (including Best Picture) and spawned five sequels. Credit W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke for recognizing that Powell and Loy were ideal together and for getting the studio’s okay by promising to shoot this splendid adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s novel in three weeks. He took 12 days. They didn’t call him “One-Take Woody” for nothing.
In 1934, cinema goers were treated to the American comic detective film known as The Thin Man starring William Powell (“Ziegfeld Follies”, “My Man Godfrey”, “Manhattan Melodrama”) and Myrna Loy (“Manhattan Melodrama”, “The Great Ziegfeld”, “The Best Years of Our Lives”).
The film is an adaptation of the popular detective novel by Dashiel Hammett (which would be his last novel) and the film would inspire five more sequels (which have been collected in a DVD box set titled “The Complete Thin Man Collection”) and also inspired the 1950’s “Thin Man” television series. The film is ranked #32 for the American Film Institutes 100 Laughs and was added to the US National Film Registry in 1997 having been deemed as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
The film starts off with Dorothy Wynant (played by Maureen O’Sullivan, Jane in the “Tarzan” films) and her fiance Tommy (played by Henry Wadsworth) visiting her father, the inventor Mr. Wynant (played by Edward Ellis, “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang”, “The Ninth Guest”, “The Texas Rangers”) to talk about her engagement and that the couple will be marrying right after Christmas and that her mother wants a big church wedding. She would go through with it if her father gives her away. Mr. Wynant agrees but tells her that he has to leave on business because he is working on a top secret invention but will be back before her wedding. Tommy is impressed by Mr. Wynant’s plant and to find out that he created a smelting process for copper, gold and silver and Dorothy shows her fiance her father’s chain featuring the gold, silver and copper ore.
While Dorothy and her fiance leave, Mr. Wynant’s lawyer MacCauley (played by Porter Hall) shows up in order to bring his $1,000 and tries to find out where he is going. But Mr. Wynant makes sure that where he is going is private. When Wynant goes to visit his office and look in the safe, he plans to give bonds that he has saved for his daughter as a wedding present but they are all missing.
Wynant then goes to visit his secretary Julia Wolf (played by Natalie Moorhead, “Hook, Line and Sinker” and “Parlor, Bedroom and “Bath”), who he had a relationship with. He demands his bonds back because it was a present for his daughter. Wynant is upset that Julia took $50,000 of his money and Julia complains that she has had enough of him giving money to family members that don’t care about him, giving to an ex-wife that doesn’t care about him and that she has dedicated his whole life to him. Julia tells him that she can only give him $25,000 and Wynant wants to know what happened to the other half and believes that if it’s missing, she must have been working with someone else in stealing the money. He tells her before he leaves her residence that he has a good idea of what happened and Julia is worried to what Wynant may do.
Fast forward to Christmas Eve and Dorothy is worried about her father because he has not come as he promised. She fears that something may have happened.
Dorothy runs into Nick Charles (Powell) and tells her that she remembers the detective stories about him and tells him that her father has disappeared. Nick advises her to contact his lawyer MacCauley. We are then introduced to Nick’s wife Nora (Loy) and their dog Asta. We see how the couple like to exchange comedic banters with each other but also love to drink a lot of alcohol.
MacCauley then visits Nick Charles home and wanting to know if he is working as a detective (sleuthing for Dorothy) and we learn that Nick has not been a detective for four years and since Nora’s father (a very wealthy man) has passed away, he oversees some of the business and the two are doing well financially. MacCauley receives a call that Wynant is apparently is doing well and is back in town.
We then see how things are at Mr. Wynant’s ex-wife’s home. Dorothy learns her father is well but her mother Mimi (played by Minna Gombell) wants to know where he is, so she can collect money from him (she exhausted the money from the settlement). We learn that Dorothy’s mother Mimi is now Mimi Jorgenson and married to a man named Chris (played by Cesar Romero, “Batman”, “Zorro”, “If a Man has Answers”). Dorothy has a brother named Gilbert (played by William Henry) who is a mama’s boy (where Dorothy is much closer to her father) and the family literally lives off the money that Mr. Wynant has given to Mimi.
Mimi tells her husband that she will talk to her ex-husband’s girlfriend, Julia in order to get some money assuming that Mr. Wynant has been giving his money to her. We then see a mysterious man lurking in the area. When Mimi goes to visit Julia in her room, she sees a dead Mimi and calls the police. We then see a few people who could be possible suspects to Julia Wolf’s murder and several people and witnesses being questioned by police.
As police plan to question Mimi at her residence, she goes to hide something in her safe. Dorothy wonders what it is and Mimi explains that when she found Julia’s body, she was grasping onto Mr. Wynant’s ore chain.
At a Christmas party that Nick and Nora is holding, Nick hears the police discussing the murder of Julia Wolf and Dorothy comes to the party to talk to Nick and claims that she is responsible for Julia Wolf’s death. Of course, Nick knows she is lying and he is now intrigued about this whole case. For Nora, she is intrigued by how people know of Nick’s involvement as a detective and that she wants to see him in action. Thus Nick is pulled into finding out who killed Julia Wolf.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“The Thin Man” is featured in black and white (1:33 aspect ratio) in standard 4×3 full frame.  The film actually looks quite incredible with only the occasional dust and scratches showing up from time-to-time but the blacks are nice and deep. grays and whites are well-defined and picture quality on DVD is quite solid for a film that is 75 years old.
As for audio, the audio is presented in Dolby Digital monaural (English and French). The film is center channel driven, audio is clear and understandable but for those with modern receivers can set their audio for audio on all channels for a more immersive soundtrack.
Subtitles are in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Thin Man” comes with the theatrical trailers for all six “Thin Man” films and text listing of William Powell and Myrna Loy’s film career.
“The Thin Man” has always intrigued me because I’ve read about it for so long but have never watched it. But with all six films released in a DVD box set (which I purchased new for $24), with its low price, “The Complete Thin Man Collection” was a steal and definitely a must-buy!
I’ve read about how William Powell and Myrna Loy were a fantastic onscreen couple and after watching the first film “The Thin Man”, the two are just fantastic together. Although, there was no romance between the two outside of the film, onscreen the two had wonderful chemistry and the amount of jokes and the husband and wife banter in the film was just fun and hilarious. I often wonder if some of the things they did on screen (jokes and making faces) were improvised or if director W.S. Van Dyke had this all planned out in the beginning.
But for me, what captivated me was the chemistry from the two major talent but also Myrna Loy. I truly believe that she is one actress that is under-rated but so talented. I’ve read that in the 1920’s, the parts she most played where vixen type of roles during the silent film era and that it was “The Thin Man” that really brought her to prominence as an actress. She has this natural beauty and comedic quirk that I found so wonderful and again, the way she and William Powell clicked, was quite amazing and like many people back throughout the past seven decades, I found myself captivated towards their wonderful performance together.
Overall, the film was an entertaining film, especially to find out that the adaptation of Dashiell Hammet’s novel only took three weeks to film and I suppose that is the strength of the director W.S. Van Dyke. For me, the film didn’t seemed rush, everything came together quite well in terms of pacing, editing and also the overall screenplay and it helps to have two talents that make things quite believable and fun to watch.
I have five more films yet to watch in the box set and I’ve read and heard many times that the sequels do not quite meet the level of this first film but as mentioned, getting all six films in one box set for under $25 (note: prices for this box set have fluctuated throughout the year but I purchased this at that low price before Christmas) is fantastic plus you get another DVD featuring documentaries on both William Powell and Myrna Loy plus classic comedy, mystery and musical shorts, two radio dramas, vintage cartoons and also the TV series pilot. Picture quality was pretty solid for this DVD and for the most part, you’re getting your bang for the buck with this box set.
If you are a fan of “The Thin Man” or like myself, have been curious about the film and wanted to see this magic onscreen between William Powell and Myrna Loy, this film and “The Complete Thin Man Collection” is highly recommended!