Based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name, The Thin Man kicked off a series of six films featuring married couple Nick and Nora Charles, a former private detective and a wealthy heiress whose new life of leisure (including copious amounts of drinking) keeps getting interrupted by an annoying murder investigation. The whodunit plot is a bit laborious and uninvolving, but William Powell and Myrna Loy are so delightful together—slurrily sexy in the manner of the 1930s, when words and glances had to do all of the work—that it hardly matters. (And if you want to raise an eyebrow at their extravagance and alcohol consumption, don’t worry, their wire-haired fox terrier Asta is already doing it for you.) Directed by W.S. Van Dyke and photographed by the great James Wong Howe, although a promising, shadowy opening mostly gives way to perfunctory dialogue sequences.
(9/6/2024)
