A Reel Retro Review: THE THIN MAN (1933)

With no new films to review for the foreseeable future, Reel Speak will randomly review a classic film from the TCM library every week. Not just for the sake of filling time, but to hopefully introduce some overlooked and perhaps forgotten screen gems from the past to those of us who may be unfamiliar or unawares of their existence. 

In the last 20 years, the term “franchise” has been heard a lot in cinema. Any collection of related films that share the same universe or marketed as a series gets that label, with the last 5-10 years dominated by STAR WARS, MARVEL, and THE FAST & THE FURIOUS. Franchises dominate cinema these days, and most people think it’s a new thing…but the concept has been there from the start, with one of the earliest examples starting in 1933 with the whodunit film, THE THIN MAN. 

Nick (William Powell), and his wife Nora (Myrna Loy), are a famous husband-and-wife detective duo who are called out of semi-retirement to investigate the disappearance of a businessman who may be related to a string of murders…

With names like Holmes, Chan, and Marlowe…detective stories have always made for good cinema. Like any other whodunit film, THE THIN MAN has a mystery to unravel, but what separates this story from the other famous sleuths is that the couple of Nick and Nora, when we first meet them, have no interest in pursuing the case. In the early goings, Nick and Nora are enjoying their status as minor celebrities, enjoying lavish parties in high society where they both knock down martini after martini. When the case of the missing man comes knocking on their door, they are un-interested (there’s even a great line about the case getting in the way of their drinking), and even after circumstances eventually force them into the mystery they seem to take it on just to get it over with. 

It’s a layered mystery with several family members going after an inheritance and dead bodies being found everywhere…with clueless police detectives jumping to the wrong conclusion. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke and based on the novel of the same name, the film takes many twists and turns on its way to the final revelation of the mystery…which comes by way of a dinner party hosted by Nick and Nora with the intention of cornering the killer. It’s wonderfully written and a challenge for arm-chair sleuths to figure out, and it’s also a joy to see 1933 people solving mysteries with their own deductive reasoning and not relying on technology. 

William Powell and Myrna Loy are a joy on screen, with sharp banter between them and one-liners coming at us faster than a machine gun can spit out. The great Cesar Romero, thirty years before his turn as The Joker, makes an appearance as one of many suspects. 

With a strong mystery and a ton of fun to be had in the solving, THE THIN MAN is a delight and never bores. For whodunit lovers that need a break from the old names of Holmes and Chan…there is no better way than Nick and Nora. 

BOTTOM LINE: See it 

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Reel Facts: THE THIN MAN would be nominated for Best Picture and spawn five sequels, with the first coming in 1936 and the last in 1947. It would also inspire a TV series that would run from 1957 to 1959.