Release CalendarTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV News
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily Entertainment GuideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsCannes Film FestivalStar WarsAsian Pacific American Heritage MonthSummer Watch GuideSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

The Thin Man

  • 1934
  • TV-PG
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
7.9/10
34K
YOUR RATING
The Thin Man (1934)
Theatrical Trailer from MGM
Play trailer3:16
2 Videos
99+ Photos
Cozy MysteryScrewball ComedyWhodunnitComedyCrimeMysteryRomance

Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.Former detective Nick Charles and his wealthy wife Nora investigate a murder case, mostly for the fun of it.

  • Director
    • W.S. Van Dyke
  • Writers
    • Albert Hackett
    • Frances Goodrich
    • Dashiell Hammett
  • Stars
    • William Powell
    • Myrna Loy
    • Maureen O'Sullivan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.9/10
    34K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • W.S. Van Dyke
    • Writers
      • Albert Hackett
      • Frances Goodrich
      • Dashiell Hammett
    • Stars
      • William Powell
      • Myrna Loy
      • Maureen O'Sullivan
    • 187User reviews
    • 92Critic reviews
    • 86Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 4 Oscars
      • 6 wins & 4 nominations total

    Videos2

    The Thin Man
    Trailer 3:16
    The Thin Man
    Uggie, Toto, & Award-Winning Movie Dogs
    Clip 3:31
    Uggie, Toto, & Award-Winning Movie Dogs
    Uggie, Toto, & Award-Winning Movie Dogs
    Clip 3:31
    Uggie, Toto, & Award-Winning Movie Dogs

    Photos266

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 258
    View Poster

    Top cast69

    Edit
    William Powell
    William Powell
    • Nick Charles
    Myrna Loy
    Myrna Loy
    • Nora Charles
    Maureen O'Sullivan
    Maureen O'Sullivan
    • Dorothy Wynant
    Nat Pendleton
    Nat Pendleton
    • Lt. John Guild
    Minna Gombell
    Minna Gombell
    • Mimi Jorgenson
    Porter Hall
    Porter Hall
    • Herbert MacCaulay
    Henry Wadsworth
    Henry Wadsworth
    • Tommy
    William Henry
    William Henry
    • Gilbert Wynant
    Harold Huber
    Harold Huber
    • Nunheim
    Cesar Romero
    Cesar Romero
    • Chris Jorgenson
    Natalie Moorhead
    Natalie Moorhead
    • Julia Wolf
    Edward Brophy
    Edward Brophy
    • Morelli
    Edward Ellis
    Edward Ellis
    • Clyde Wynant
    Cyril Thornton
    • Tanner
    Asta
    Asta
    • Asta
    • (uncredited)
    Will Aubrey
    Will Aubrey
    • Minor Role
    • (uncredited)
    William Augustin
    William Augustin
    • Wynant's Butler
    • (uncredited)
    Polly Bailey
    • Janitress
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • W.S. Van Dyke
    • Writers
      • Albert Hackett
      • Frances Goodrich
      • Dashiell Hammett
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews187

    7.933.8K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    8blanche-2

    The first of the series, and one of the best

    "The Thin Man" introduces film audiences to the Dashiell Hammett characters Nick and Nora Charles, portrayed by one of the great screen couples, William Powell and Myrna Loy. MGM was very surprised when the film, for which they had no ambitious plans, became a huge hit and even garnered four Oscar nominations.

    This Nick and Nora have very little to do with Hammett's Nick and Nora, and it's just as well. William Powell and Myrna Loy created a lively, fun, loving couple that's all their own. The two actors worked better together than probably any other team - they're the non-dancing Astaire and Rogers. Loy's entrance into this film - she's dragged by Asta into a bar while she's balancing Christmas gifts and ends up flat on her face - is one of the best. Nick is pretty much smashed through most of the movie - people drank a lot more in those days. Powell manages to be elegant, funny, smart, warm, and do slapstick - sometimes all at the same time. Asta has a helluva time keeping up with them.

    A very pretty Maureen O'Sullivan costars as a young woman whose father is missing and then is suspected of killing his ex-wife - that's for starters. He seems to be on a killing spree. Though Charles hasn't been involved in detective work in four years, she begs him to help her. After a visit from the police in the middle of the night, Nora asks Nick, "Are you going to take her case?" "Take it?" Nick asks, reaching for the booze. "I'm in it!"

    Highly recommended for first-class chemistry, wit, humor, a good mystery, and overall enjoyment.
    9hitchcockthelegend

    Waiter, will you serve the nuts? ... I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts?

    The Thin Man is directed by W. S. Van Dyke and co-written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich. It is based on the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name. Starring are William Powell and Myrna Loy, with support coming from Maureen O'Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Porter Hall and Skippy as Astra the dog. William Axt scores the music and James Wong Howe is the cinematographer.

    Plot finds Powell and Loy as married couple, Nick and Nora Charles, he is a retired detective, she a good time heiress. Planning to finally settle down, their life is upturned when Nick is called back into detective work due to a friend's disappearance and the possibility he was also involved in a murder. Murder, malarkey and mirth are about to become the order of the day.

    It was the big surprise hit of 1934. Afforded only a tiny budget because studio head honcho Louis B. Mayer thought it was dud material, and he ordered for it to be completed in under three weeks time! Film made stars out of Powell and Loy and coined an impressive $2 million at the box office. Also birthing a franchise (5 film sequels and a radio and television series would follow), it's a film that has irresistible charm leaping out from every frame. It's easy to see even now why a mid 1930's audience could take so warmly to such an appealing motion picture.

    From the off the film was in good hands, Dyke (One-Take Woody as he was sometimes known) was an unfussy director with a keen eye for pacing and casting, both of which are things that shine through in this production. There's also considerable talent in the writing, both in the source material and with the script writers. Hammett based his witty bantering couple on himself and his relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman, this was ideal material for Hackett and Goodrich, themselves a happily married couple fondly thought of in the cut and thrust world of Hollywood. As a couple they would go on to write It's a Wonderful Life for Frank Capra and win the Pulitzer Prize for their play The Diary of Anne Frank.

    It stands out as a film of note because it successfully marries a murder mystery story with a screwball comedy spin, this was something new and exciting. While the believable relationship between Powell and Loy was also a breath of fresh air - a married couple deeply in love, devoted, funny, boozey and bouncing off of each other with witty repartee. It can never be overstated just how good Powell and Loy are here, true enough they are given an absolutely zinging script to work from, but the level of comedy, both in visual ticks and delivery of lines, is extraordinarily high.

    Small budget and a small shoot, but everything else about The Thin Man is big. Big laughs, big mystery and big love, all bundled up into a joyous bit of classic cinema. 9/10
    Kieran_Kenney

    'The Thin Man' is still as fast-paced, stylish, sexy and hilarious as it ever was

    Where to begin? I guess I'll start off by saying that this is one of my favorite films of all time. I first saw it on TV years ago (I was probably eleven or twelve) and I still totally love it. Every time I see it, I feel like I get more out of it. I feel like I see AND hear more than I did before.

    The story goes that creepy Clyde Wynant (wonderful character actor Edward Ellis) wants to give some bonds to his daughter Dorothy (Maureen O'Sullivan) as a wedding present. But his mistress Julia (Natalie Moorhead) has gotten rid of them. When Julia turns up murdered, Wynant is the obvious suspect, but nobody can find him.

    Enter Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy), a detective and heiress, just recently married, and clearly very much in love. Nick finds himself pulled into the case, with everyone around him urging him into it. He's reluctant: it's his honeymoon after all. But sure enough he's persuaded to take the case, solves it and exposes the murderer at a climactic dinner party.

    Bill Powell and Myrna Loy have astounding chemistry. As husband and wife, they are equals, equally hard-drinking, equally witty, equally fun-loving. They have the same sense of adventure, the same stubbornness, the same competitiveness. In so many scenes, Powell will saw something in his playful, semi-childish, half-drunk sort of way, and Loy will respond with some fabulously delivered retort, in a manner that is almost like a world-wary mother saying to her child 'Now, now, Junior...' It's hard to describe exactly. If anything, I suppose you could say it's deceptively simple. It's one of those things you have to see for yourself.

    The rest of the cast is good. I particularly love Minna Gombell, Mynant's ex-wife Mimi, with her latin boyfriend (Cesar Romero) and her tight, shiny black dresses with white fur-lined princess sleeves. Slight, ernest and bespeckeled, William Henry turns in a riotous performance as Gilbert, Mimi and Clyde Wynant's son and Dorothy's brother. A Kinsey-lke figure, the role of Gilbert is one of those bookish, overly-analytical Hollywood stock characters who try to explain other character's subconscious reasons for their actions, and who give strangers peculiar looks at parties. Henry makes the character believable, and he stands out as one of the characters in the movie. Gerturde Short, in an uncredited role, gives a good performance as well. Her delivery of the "I don't like crooks, and if I did like'em..." line is unforgettable. (If you blink, you'll miss Tui Lorraine Bow, friend and step-mother of It Girl Clara Bow! Bert Roach of The Crowd has a small role as well.)

    For a modestly-budgeted, rapidly shot, b-level production, The Thin Man is a classy and stylish film. The clothes, assembled by the genial Dolly Tree, are great, and make this a must-see anyone even remotely interested in period fashions. The art deco sets are quite fine, if modest and at times a bit sparse. The editing is good, as is the fairly simplistic photography. Woody Van Dyke, the director, always worked fast, and Myrna Loy recalled that all the movies they worked together on were made at frantic pace. Part of the reason that The Thin Man moves so quickly is the fact that production was so hurried.

    The Thin Man gets a ten out of ten from me for being one of the best films ever produced, and one of my absolute favorites of all time.
    8FilmOtaku

    Classy, sassy fun

    W.S. Van Dyke's 1934 film "The Thin Man" stars Myrna Loy and William Powell as Nora and Nick Charles, upper class sleuths who unwittingly become caught up in the case of a missing friend and former client. Nick is a former detective who has been in retirement for the last four years, living the high life with Nora when Dorothy Wynant (Maureen O'Sullivan) implores with them to help find her father, who has been missing for three months. Throughout the investigation, Nick and Nora rarely are without a drink in their hands, are forever trading bons mots and getting themselves into comical situations; they even get their terrier Asta in on their investigation.

    "The Thin Man" is a great detective story that is enhanced by its classiness and humor. Powell is definitely the physical comedian of the pair, with Loy looking stunning and conveying so much with the looks she gives him. I honestly found myself guessing the outcome until the end, which culminates in a deliciously wonderful dinner party where all of the guests are suspects. It is stunning that this film was made in 1934, because it seems so ahead of its time; which is probably just one reason why it is so highly regarded and remains on many critics' lists. "The Thin Man" is so thoroughly enjoyable, and its stars (including Asta) are so engaging that I look forward to seeing more in the six-film series. Rent this one or catch it on Turner Classic Movies, like I did. It is well worth seeing, and surely an inspiration to many film genres ranging from screwball comedies to detective stories. A very strong 8/10.

    --Shelly
    10Calysta

    Puts modern movies to shame

    "The Thin Man", a deliciously superb mix that keeps getting richer becomes better with every single viewing. The first time I missed a bit of the murder plot, but repeated viewings just enhance the movie.

    It has started making me wanted to go out, get a terrier and call it Asta, drink too much for my own good and become a private eye detective. And move to New York. The lovable couple make it all look fun, and even if they do drink too much. Only after I have snapped out of admiration mode for the movie I remember that they were highly paid actors following a script in a hit film of 1934, and I'm living in the year 2000, cannot get a dog, am living in Sydney, and worst of all, I'm fourteen, so I can't drink or become a detective. Such is the modern manner of the movie. It is one of the very few films of its time that retains its freshness, intrigue and brilliant humour.

    William Powell and Myrna Loy are incredibly likeable, the wisecracking darlings of society who we all want to know. Their performances were both absolutely brilliant! Some of their antics are a good deal wilder than those we are used to, but in fear of being caught up in murder would keep me away from them, but not long enough. I don't believe there are any shallow characters at all. Thank goodness for "The Thin Man". One of the first to show an affectionate couple in love, I'm still scanning for the same in movies of the 50s.

    W.S Dyke is of course not one of the most remembered directors of his time, but for this alone he could be considered a great director. He was not Alfred Hitchcock, but he successfully combined high comedy, crime and thrills into one film. No wonder the major film studios were hot after this property. And Dyke didn't have to rely on the excruciatingly hilarious elements of slapstick. A married couple and a dog was all that was needed. Such a simple thing to emphasise on, and how well it worked! Could there be a more stolen plot of today?

    Unfortunately, MGM, despite creating one of the best teamings of the era by putting the platonic Powell and Loy together, released this film in 1934. A nominee for Best Picture, Actor and Director, among other things, it was Capra's "It Happened One Night" that made history by becoming the first film in history to sweep the five major categories at the Oscars. If it had been released in 1933, it would have beaten the now forgotten "Calvacade", in 1935 it may have swept some Oscars up against "Mutiny on the Bounty". I wonder why Loy was not nominated. The film simply could not have been done without her.

    Powell and Loy went on to make many movies together. Asta, appeared again as George in the 1938 slapstick masterpiece "Bringing Up Baby".

    Although we need some good movies now, no one should even think contemplate for a split second on a remake. There is no way justice could be done to this film. It is a comic masterpiece that continually tricks the viewers, and without a doubt, one of the very best and brightest movies of the 1930s.

    I hope I can watch the other "Thin Man" movies. I will definitely be reading the book. The film ended half an hour ago, but I already feel like going back for a second helping.

    Rating: 10/10

    More like this

    After the Thin Man
    7.6
    After the Thin Man
    Another Thin Man
    7.3
    Another Thin Man
    Shadow of the Thin Man
    7.2
    Shadow of the Thin Man
    The Thin Man Goes Home
    7.3
    The Thin Man Goes Home
    Song of the Thin Man
    6.9
    Song of the Thin Man
    My Man Godfrey
    7.9
    My Man Godfrey
    Libeled Lady
    7.8
    Libeled Lady
    Sullivan's Travels
    7.9
    Sullivan's Travels
    Bringing Up Baby
    7.8
    Bringing Up Baby
    Suing the Devil
    4.1
    Suing the Devil
    The Philadelphia Story
    7.8
    The Philadelphia Story
    His Girl Friday
    7.8
    His Girl Friday

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      William Powell spoke of how much he loved working with Myrna Loy because of her naturalness, her professionalism, and her lack of any kind of "diva" temperament. "When we did a scene together, we forgot about technique, camera angles, and microphones. We weren't acting. We were just two people in perfect harmony," he said. "Myrna, unlike some actresses who think only of themselves, has the happy faculty of being able to listen while the other fellow says his lines. She has the give and take of acting that brings out the best."
    • Goofs
      When Nick and the coroner look at the body through the Fluoroscope, the bullet, and a piece of shrapnel, appear as bright white. The Fluoroscope uses X-rays except it is viewed on a screen instead of film. Dense objects, such as bones, appear dark, as it appears in the movie. The bullet and shrapnel should then be even darker as it blocks even more of the X-rays. However, this would not have shown up well in the movies, so they were made bright white so the viewers could see them easily.
    • Quotes

      Nora Charles: Waiter, will you serve the nuts? I mean, will you serve the guests the nuts?

    • Crazy credits
      Opening credits are shown with the original novel by Dashiell Hammett in the background.
    • Alternate versions
      There is an Italian edition of this film on DVD, distributed by DNA srl, "L'AMANTE SCONOSCIUTA (1934) + THE THIN MAN (L'uomo ombra, 1934)" (2 Films on a single DVD), re-edited with the contribution of film historian Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available for streaming on some platforms.
    • Connections
      Featured in Hollywood: The Fabulous Era (1962)
    • Soundtracks
      Jingle Bells
      (1857) (uncredited)

      Music by James Pierpont

      Background music at Nick and Nora's party

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ17

    • How long is The Thin Man?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 25, 1934 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • La cena de los acusados
    • Filming locations
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
      • Cosmopolitan Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $226,408 (estimated)
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 31 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Related news

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    The Thin Man (1934)
    Top Gap
    By what name was The Thin Man (1934) officially released in India in Hindi?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb app
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb app
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb app
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.