DVD of the Week
#15 - The Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke II, 1934)The Thin Man is a wonderful comedy-mystery from Hollywood's Golden Age. Its singular magic lies in a spot of face-pulling.
Gentleman detective Nick Charles (William Powell) has been hunting a killer. Without warning, the chief suspect's daughter (Maureen O'Sullivan) turns up in his apartment.
During a Christmas party.
In tears.
With a revolver.
He takes her into the bathroom. The young brunette collapses in his arms... and in walks his wife (Myrna Loy).
Cue the inevitable blow-up, with the rest of the film spent in recrimination and regret? Of course not. He pulls a face, she wrinkles her nose, and the danger's over. It's wonderful.
The Thin Man, a sparkling adaptation of Dashiel Hammett's novel, was shot in 13 days by Woody "One Shot" Van Dyke, the director famed for his aversion to second takes.
Its premise is simple. Soused sleuths Nick and Nora Charles track a murderer, trading jokes as the bodies pile up around them. Along for the ride are a thick-witted police inspector (Nat Pendleton), the Charles' wire-terrier, Asta (as himself) and a gallery of suspects, from shadowy hoods to a Freudian scholar.
The joy is in the execution. For the first time, audiences were presented with a modern take on matrimony: a happily married couple with an endless tolerance for one another's foibles, who matched one another drink for drink - whilst dabbling in detective work. They couldn't get enough of it.
The Loy-Powell combo is irressistible. The spark between them more like alchemy than chemistry. And the script is lethal: a non-stop barrage of zingers, with a wealth of warmth at the bottom.
Nora's from high society, Nick wants to nosy around a warehouse at night.
"I think it's a dirty trick to bring me all the way to New York just to make a widow of me," she says.
"You wouldn't be a widow long," Powell counters.
"You bet I wouldn't," she bites back.
"Not with all your money," he replies.
Van Dyke's direction, meanwhile, is crisp, fast, unobtrusive, and bang on the money.
Of all the films I've seen, this is the one I return to most often when I need a bit of a lift. And it hasn't failed yet.
The Thin Man is the epitome - and the apex - of studio excellence, a blissful, carefree excursion from that most glorious of dream factories, MGM, touched with gold dust from first frame to finish. I can't think of a movie that's half as much fun.
The Thin Man is available on Region 2 DVD, and as part of the six-disc Thin Man Collection, which includes the exceptional sequel After the Thin Man, and four lesser movies.DVD of the Week archive:
#1 - Let's Get Lost (Bruce Weber, 1988)
#2 - Charley Varrick (Don Siegel, 1973)
#3 - The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1934)
#4 - The Raven (Lew Landers, 1935)
#5 - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1943)
#6 - Written and Directed by Preston Sturges (Preston Sturges, 1940-44)
#7 – The Crying Game (Neil Jordan, 1992)#8 - Top Hat (Mark Sandrich, 1935)#9 - Cache (Michael Haneke, 2005)#10 - No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (Martin Scorsese, 2005)#11 - Hannah and Her Sisters (Woody Allen, 1986)#12 – A Star Is Born (George Cukor, 1954)#13 - Lady on a Train (Charles David, 1945)#14 - Just Like Heaven (Mark Waters, 2005)
