The Thin Man (1934)
Nick and Nora's Infinite Cast List
Ammunition, anyone, ammunition? No no, not bullets old boy: cocktails! You’ll want a nice drink by your side as we dive into this week’s topic for I’d Like to Blank The Academy: The Thin Man. Starring the prolific William Powell and a bunch of other folks who are quite famous, I’m sure, this comedic murder mystery is fun for the whole family! Unless your family happens to be Dorothy Wynant’s, in which case, have another drink dear.
Previews
What, if anything, did we know about this coming attraction before we watched it?
Ellen: Once more, I had never heard of this movie. I didn’t even know who William Powell was until we watched Mister Roberts (but boy his IMDb is lengthy!). I learned semi-recently that The Thin Man is the first in a franchise, so I’m very curious to see if this movie is as fun as it seems!
Tyler: Me too! We're always on the lookout for more franchises to watch1 so this could be a unique addition to our list. As far as the movie itself goes, I've also never heard of it, but Friend of the Newsletter/Martin family Kevin Weed told us over Fourth of July weekend (AKA “Shourth of July”) that there's a dog in it, so I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love it. Let's grab a drink and dive in.
Plots & Feelings
This one’s pretty self-explanatory.
Short Version (courtesy of IMDb): Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.
Long Version (modified from Wikipedia and formatted to fit your screen):
Clyde Wynant is operating a strange and complicated-looking machine2 in his New York City shop. He’s head-to-toe the eccentric inventor, fiddling with mysterious devices, absentmindedly firing his assistant and forgetting about it, the usual! He brightens considerably when his daughter Dorothy arrives to announce that she’s engaged to Tommy, whom she’s been dating for three whole months3. They’re to be married just after Christmas, and Clyde promises he’ll be back from his secret business trip by then. His lawyer Herbert MacCauley shows up with money in hand for the trip, and is not at all pleased that Clyde won’t say where he’s going. Clyde in turn is not pleased to find $50,000 worth of bonds4 missing from the office safe! He goes to confront his secretary/partial-reason-for-the-dissolution-of-his-marriage Julia Wolf, only to find she’s chatting with an ex-flame and current mobster. Clyde eventually threatens to call the police, prompting Julia to agree to return half the money, but she doesn’t have the rest. Clyde ominously says he has a pretty good idea of who does and disappears into the night.
Ellen: I feel vindicated that the Wikipedia summary felt the need to explicitly say that Clyde Wynant is the titular thin man, because it was not clear to this author!
Tyler: Given the existence of all the sequels with "Thin Man" in the title and my strong inkling that Clyde wasn’t long for this world, this confused me too. It's explained a little further in "Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?" below.
Months later on the night before Christmas Eve, retired detective Nick Charles is chatting with the bartenders of the Hotel Normandie, where he and his wealthy wife Nora are staying while they visit from San Francisco. Nora herself is soon dragged into the lobby by a very determined wire fox terrier named Asta, and they come upon Dorothy imploring Nick to look into her father’s apparent disappearance. Even though Nick once helped with a case of threats against Clyde, that was five years ago, and he instead suggests she talk with MacCauley. Nora’s very curious to see her husband at work, but is momentarily distracted by trying to take down six martinis to catch up with him, an excellent idea. Cut to the Charles’ suite the next day, where Nora is unsurprisingly deeply hungover. A wild lawyer appears! He’s in the middle of telling the couple that he thinks that Wynant’s ex-wife may be up to something when he receives a call saying the man is back!
At the residence formerly known as Wynant, Dorothy hangs up the phone, relieved to hear from Nick that her dad has returned! Her vulture of a mother (Mimi) has been hanging on every word, a true cartoon of a rich lady trying to squeeze more money out of her ex. Everyone else in the house is terrible too, from oddball momma’s boy Gilbert to the new husband Chris, who refuses to work and then complains about not having enough money. Mimi, wearing a giant boutonniere (like a full on hydrangea!) for some reason, decides to pay Julia a visit to demand some dough, only to find her dead on the floor! She returns home, but not empty-handed, having found a watch chain at the crime scene known to be Clyde’s. Gilbert is absolutely giddy at the thought of the murder and seems to sincerely hope his mother did it, because he is terrible. A quick scene also informs us that Clyde didn’t show up to the Plaza Hotel to meet MacCauley.
Tyler: We all agree that Gilbert is a future serial killer, right?
Ellen: Current.
Meanwhile, Nick and Nora are throwing a Christmas Eve rager in their hotel suite, where the booze is flowing and room service provides them with a “flock of sandwiches.” Reporters and criminals alike are dying to know if Nick is working the Wynant/Wolf case, and while Nora smoothly runs interference for him, she’d actually like to know herself why he hasn’t un-retired for such an interesting conundrum. Dorothy Wynant would actually like to know that too, for she’s also shown up at the party, terrified that her father may have killed Julia! It’s an absolute circus, because Mimi and Gilbert appear as well, the former demanding to know her ex-husband’s whereabouts and the latter being a weirdo per usual. Eventually the party winds down, and the couple goes to bed. Nora makes her case for the case, because she wants to see Nick work, and there’s no one else to help poor Dorothy. Hold that thought, Julia’s gangster boyfriend Joe Morelli has just barged in with a gun to swear he didn’t kill her! Hold that one too, because the police have also entered the chat and started searching without a warrant! The ensuing chaos results in Nick being grazed by a bullet.
Ellen: Two small bits in the party scene that I really enjoyed were Nick wordlessly stealing Gilbert’s hat off his head and walking out, and Nora telling reporters asking if Nick was working on a case that he was working on “a case of Scotch, you’d better go and help him!”
Christmas morning finds the Charleses enjoying each other’s gifts, as well as a letter from Clyde telling Nick to take the case and communicate through MacCauley. Nick finally decides he’s tired of being pushed around and takes the case. Time for a team-up, baby! He and Detective Guild start gumshoe-ing about town, ending up at the apartment of Nunheim, a frequent police source. He was yet another of Julia’s admirers, and he politely excuses himself from questioning to yeet himself out the fire escape. Nunheim stops at a payphone to demand of an unknown person an additional $5,000 for continuing to play dumb. When he goes to collect, he receives four bullets instead, from the same gun that killed Julia! Back at Mimi’s house, she’s panicking and offering to say who did it all, plus proof in the form of the watch chain. Like mother like daughter, Dorothy is also panicking, but instead about the thought of murder being in her blood.
Tyler: It was about now that I realized I was struggling to keep track of all of the characters and how they’re connected to the others. I know it’s basically a requirement for a murder mystery (to drum up the potential suspect list), but the number of white men running around in this movie is too damn high!
On a hunch and despite Nora’s fear, Nick takes Asta on a casual little walk … right to Cylde’s shop. Asta does some top notch detecting and finds a hollow spot in the floor, which Nick discovers houses a skeleton dressed in a full suit. The police arrive and dig up the body, and everyone assumes it’s the man who threatened Clyde years ago based on the initials on the belt buckle. A nationwide manhunt for Clyde ensues, and reporters come to the hotel suite and take pictures of the whole family, including Asta. After they leave, Nick reveals he thinks the body was in fact Clyde’s! The killer put a fat man’s clothing on a thin man’s body, and the x-ray revealed that the body had shrapnel in its shin right where Clyde did. He devises a plan to catch the killer in the booziest way possible: with an elegant dinner party!
The dinner party is about to start, complete with gruff cops dressed as servers and a guest list largely marched in by law enforcement, though they all still adhered to the dress code. Some food is served, and Nick gets to work with his Adrian Monk “here’s what happened” moment. He explains the bit about the shrapnel in the body found in the shop, and theorizes that the real culprit had been embezzling from Clyde all along. The murderer then took care of Julia, because she knew about Clyde’s murder, followed by Nunheim, who knew about Julia’s!5 Nick also reveals that Mimi also knows, and he tells her she shouldn’t be protecting the killer because if she was never legally remarried to Chris (she wasn’t), then she’s still entitled to half of Clyde’s considerable estate. At this, the killer stands and pulls a gun on Nick, and it’s MacCauley! Nick punches him square in the face before he can shoot. The movie ends with Nick, Nora, Tommy, and Dorothy on a luxury train out to sunny California, laughing, drinking, and cuddling with Asta.
Ellen: I had the thought midway through the movie of “wow, they’re really not stereotyping the lawyer at all; seems like a good dude!” So, yeah, I’m a sucker.
Tyler: As you know, I went on an Agatha Christie kick during the worst of the pandemic, so I loved this climactic dinner party reveal with all of the suspects around. More like Agatha Whiskey am I right?
Ellen: AGATHA WHISKEY!
Intermission
Even though ILTBTA is free, please indulge us further and enjoy this quick “advertisement.”
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Wiki-Wiki-Whaaat?
Love a good Wikipedia rabbit hole in search of some fun facts? Us too.
The Thin Man’s Wikipedia page has some interesting facts and anecdotes that we recommend you read through, but here are a few of our favorites:
The Thin Man is based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The book was originally released in the December 1933 issue of Redbook magazine then as a standalone book in January 1934. Amazingly, MGM bought the rights and produced the movie adaptation just six months after the initial publication, releasing the film on May 25, 1934.
Ellen: Honestly this makes more sense to me, because the opening credits are over a picture of book cover, as if to say “hey, you’ve been seeing this around in bookshops, but now you don’t have to read it!”
The quick turnaround time was presumably aided by the fact that the cinematographer who shot the film apparently didn’t like shooting retakes if he didn’t have to. The one scene that required several retakes was the climactic dinner party scene, during which star William Powell complained about not understanding the complicated plot he was explaining over the course of many lines.
Tyler: I’m glad I’m not the only one who was slightly confused trying to keep track of all that.
Ellen: It’s not the best sign of your writing that even the actors don’t get it.
The titular "Thin Man" moniker was thought by many viewers to refer to Nick Charles (not Clyde Wynant) and, after a time, it was used in the titles of the five sequels it spawned as if referring to Charles, which totally isn’t confusing at all.
According to Myrna Loy, who played Nora Charles, the actors were not allowed to interact with the canine actor Skippy (who played Asta) because his trainers thought it would break his concentration. Skippy would go on to play Asta in the next two Thin Man movies.
Despite the success of both the book and film, The Thin Man book was Dashiell Hammett’s final novel. Following service in the Army during World War II (despite being a 48 year old Communist who had tuberculosis), Hammett was a political activist whose beliefs caused him to be blacklisted and start a downward spiral until his death in 1961. Each of his five novels are highly celebrated, including the book that inspired our next Honorable Mention …
Honorable Mentions
What other movies should you be watching?
The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 movie that will keep you guessing until the very end. Starring Humphrey Bogart (of Casablanca, a previous Honorable Mention, fame) as a private detective investigating a jewel-encrusted falcon statue, The Maltese Falcon is considered by critics as one of the first film noirs as well as one of the best movies of all time. For what it’s worth, it is also considered a great movie by these two non-professional movie critics.
While only slightly more current than our current ILTBTA topic, if you liked the whodunit mystery nature of The Thin Man, we think you’ll really enjoy The Maltese Falcon. It’s available to stream for free with an HBO Max subscription, or for $3.99 from all of the usual streaming suspects.
Oscar NomNomNomz
Since we all know a movie is nothing without the food and drink it incorporates.
It’s now time to award the Oscar for Best Snacktor in a Supporting Role6. And the nomnomnominees are:
Six martinis
"Ammunition" (high balls and cocktails)
“A whole flock” of room service sandwiches
And the Oscar goes to … the six martinis! Unfortunately, Nick and Nora are belligerently demanding even more drinks, so we will accept this award on the martinis’ behalf for their safety.
Fill In The Blank
How did we really feel about The Academy nominating this?
Ellen: I’d like to line up six martinis for the Academy and see how they do! I had such a fun time with this movie. It’s a whodunit with all the fixins, and it’s no wonder they went back for more. They made me care about Nick, Nora, and Dorothy while still managing to keep the tone pretty light! In fact, at times it was a little too light, with a hearty dose of characters hiding their feelings behind that elegant, old Hollywood laissez-faire quipping. Nick and Nora were a properly cute couple who gave each other guff but were a team at the end of the day, and that’s pretty much the dream!
Tyler: I’d like to give the Academy a treat and tell it it’s a good boy! I thoroughly enjoyed The Thin Man, and not just because it featured a dog cracking the case wide open. I love a good whodunit, and this had such a delightfully/unusually light tone for a murder mystery, which typically have a self-serious tone that can be a bit much (looking at you Chinatown). The lightheartedness is no doubt due in large part to the fantastic chemistry between the two stars, as evidenced by their playful pre-Code banter and (gasp!) sexual chemistry.
Granted, the black-and-white nature of it made it tough for me to differentiate between the litany of characters (hence this post’s subtitle), not to mention straight up see what’s happening in a couple dark scenes, but I can’t exactly blame a movie from the 30s for not being in color.
Let The Credits Roll
Thanks for reading! Some quick housekeeping as you exit the theatre:
If you have plots and feelings of your own (on the movie or ILTBTA in general), feel free to comment on the post or simply reply to the email. If you liked reading this: tell your friends! If you hated reading this: tell your friends how much you hated it by forwarding it to them!
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If you’d like to start a wild Best Picture journey of your own, feel free to download a copy of The Spreadsheet. Bonus: checking off the boxes is oddly satisfying.
Post-Credits Scene
Get a sneak peek at the next ILTBTA installment.
Grab a pool cue and some chalk, because our next ILTBTA movie is 1961’s The Hustler, a dramatic look into the world of professional pool hustling. Starring Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, and Piper Laurie, The Hustler is available to rent for $3.99 from all of your favorite corporate conglomerates masquerading as streaming services.
Until then:
Narrator: Your ILTBTA authors are not joking. To date, we’ve watched the following franchises together: Fast & Furious, Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, Jurassic Park/World, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, Ocean's Eleven, Austin Powers, and half of the James Bond movies. They often provide a much less serious (and, frankly, more fun) cinematic experience than the Best Picture noms.
Sounds like my ex-wife!
Here’s hoping Gabby and Rachel find similar expedited happiness.
That’s equivalent to just over a million dollars in today’s money! Finally some harmless inflation news.
Big There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly vibes.
Results tabulated and certified by the accountants at Ernst & Yum™.
Hello movie fans.......great review of the Thin Man. Not a favorite of mine but you guys did a great job. I am really looking forward on your take on The Hustler, one of my all-time favorites. Outstanding performance from George C. Scott, Paul, an especially "The Great One" (look it up) Jackie Gleason. From the moment he walks up the steps (at exactly 8:00) to when he puts his coat on as the credits roll, he is tied (with Joe Martin)for second place as the coolest man around.
Eddie......"guess I didn't leave you much"....
Fats..........."you left enough"
Later on........
Bert........"if it didn't happen in St.Louis, it would have happened some where else, that's the kind of dame she was.........
Fats........"you better pay him,Eddie
Dark, gritty and black and white. Does not get much better. Not a happy movie. I recommend watching a vintage Bugs Bunny cartoon right after. Looking forward to your review.