After the Thin Man

Although this film was released in 1936, it is as entertaining and fresh today as ever, and is certainly much better than any of the over-long and over-produced movies that Hollywood produces today. This is the second in the excellent "Thin Man" series and the viewer can see that the series is really in full stride. The delightful cast of street types who are old friends and cronies of Nick's are a joy to watch. The interplay between William Powell and Myrna Loy has never been matched and is to be treasured. What a great surprise for me to see Penny Singelton, who later played "Blondie" in that long running series. Ms. Singelton sings and dances up a storm as a cabaret performer and she is an integral character in the plot of this engrossing "whodunnit". Another nice surprise for me was seeing Jimmy Stewart in one of his earlier roles. He definitely had leading man type looks. As per usual, Powell, as Nick Charles, unmasks the murderer in the climatic scene where all suspects, the police, and assorted others are present. In most movies, I tend to find pets rather annoying as they distract from the plot of the film. But, for me, Asta is the one exception to this thesis. He is so entertaining and no Thin Man movie would be complete without his antics. In summary, all I can say is that this is a SUPERB film. Catch it on Turner Classic Movies or find a video at your' favorite store or online retailer.

In this first sequel to the celebrated film "The Thin Man", detective Nick Charles, (Powell) his socialite wife Nora (Loy) and their beloved terrier Asta are on their way home to San Francisco after a long trip. Shortly after they arrive, Nora is invited to her wealthy aunt's house for dinner where she is told by her cousin Selma (Landi) that her husband Robert has run off (again) and she needs Nick to find him. When Nick and Nora find Robert at a local nightclub that very evening, they soon discover that he is wrapped up in a situation with some shady people; he is soliciting David (a really young Stewart), an ex-beau of Selma's who is still in love with her, for $25,000. In exchange for this $25,000 he will leave Selma's life forever, will run off with his girlfriend, a singer at the nightclub, and David can then step in. The plan promptly goes sour when Robert is shot and killed, leaving five suspects in his murder, including Selma herself. It is up to Nick and Nora to help the police solve the crime and clear Selma's name.

I thoroughly enjoyed "The Thin Man", and was absolutely charmed and delighted with this sequel. Nick and Nora Charles absolutely have to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest on screen couples in film history. Certainly, they take a back seat to the better known Hepburn/Tracy, Gable/Leigh, hell, even Curtis/Lemmon. But while the story itself in "After the Thin Man" was good, and strong enough to stand on its own merit, but the film itself is great because of Powell and Loy. Myrna Loy, one of my favorite classic film actresses, made a career out of being the non-plussed wife or object of affection to varying degrees of spastic leading men. (Particularly Cary Grant in "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House" and "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer", both films I would definitely recommend.) Loy's straight-faced elegance is perfection as Nora Charles, a young and beautiful wealthy socialite who married Nick, a detective from the wrong side of the tracks who loves liquor and ribald humor. Powell is hilarious and charming as Nick, and they own the characters so thoroughly, I can't fathom anyone else playing those roles.

Much is made of "chemistry", and the chemistry between our two main characters is electric. The material they had to work with certainly helped in the success of this film. Hammett's story works as a good base, with Goodrich & Hackett punching up the script. Toward the beginning of the film, there is a scene where Nick and Nora are returning to their San Francisco mansion, completely exhausted and pledging to sleep for a month. When they open their door, however, they find their house filled with a couple of hundred people; apparently, friends of theirs were throwing them a surprise welcome home party, only no one there recognizes them as the guests of honor, so they non-chalantly begin to dance with everyone else until they are finally noticed by their servants. Describing the situation doesn't do it justice, but it is just one example of the many charming scenes contained in this film. "After the Thin Man" also has some hilarious lines, and while a lot of the appeal is in the delivery, dialogue like a scene between Nick and Nora, who are waiting to be let in to her aunt's house, (Nick and her aunt have a mutual dislike for one another) when Nora asks, "What ARE you muttering to yourself?" Nick replies, "I'm just trying to get all of the bad words out of my mind." And then later, when reintroducing her husband to her aunt, Nora says, "You remember my husband, Nick…" her aunt replies with "Hello, NicholASS." (And proceeds to call him that the entire film.) Even Asta has a subplot in this film; when they arrive home in the beginning of the film, he runs back to the kennel to see Mrs. Asta. Apparently Mrs. Asta has had a litter of puppies, and when they all come out black and white (with one fully black one) even though the Astas are fully white, he finds out that the culprit is a black dog from down the street. The two scenes involving this little side story are truly funny and fitting of a dog that has reached iconic status. (At least in the crossword puzzle world – his name is a clue in at least one crossword puzzle I do a week!) "After the Thin Man" has some corny moments, but they are few and so minor compared to the relative greatness of the rest of the film, that I don't think I could truly single them out easily. (At least not with seeming needlessly picky) I would truly recommend this film series to anyone who enjoys classic films – I so thoroughly enjoyed this film that I plan to check out the rest of the sequels in the near future. The snappy & clever dialogue, great performances and good story truly make "After the Thin Man" a worthy sequel to its great predecessor. 8/10 --Shelly

The Thin Man series.........a lifestyle which probably never really existed but wasn't it fun? Lots of money, booze and murder all wrapped up in a neat little package. Nick and Nora, looking sophisticated, solving everyone's problems while consuming a case of various spirits, and loving each other dearly. What a life!!

This second entry in the series really holds up well.....usually sequels are much weaker but not so here. The supporting cast is great with the exception of Penny Singleton (Dorothy McNulty at this point in her career and before she went on to play Blondie). She is like fingernails on a blackboard.....that voice!!! And look for her dance number when she almost falls backward after slamming into the side of the stage! I found her very irritating. Elissa Landi is a little bit over the top as well but she is so attractive that it doesn't matter much. Jessie Ralph is the prototype of the battle axe from hell and Joseph Calliea is his usual suave, oily crook. Then there is James Stewart, before his days of stardom......you have to look twice to be sure that it is the same man. We are so ingrained in his later stuttering, hesitant persona that it is difficult to recognize him......and he was quite handsome!

But of course it is William Powell and Myrna Loy that carry the show as the charming sophisticates whose repartee is brisk and surprisingly modern. There was never a better light comedy team on film (well, maybe Tracy and Hepburn). Thank heavens they are captured on film forever.

Watch this film....you'll love it. Plus there is the added bonus of seeing San Francisco in the 30's.....and don't forget Asta!!!!

'The Thin Man' still stands out as a brilliant film, witty, suspenseful, very well made and directed with great performances and chemistry between the two stars William Powell and Myrna Loy. It was followed five sequels 'After the Thin Man', 'Another Thin Man', 'Shadow of the Thin Man', 'The Thin Man Goes Home' and 'Song of the Thin Man'. None of them disgrace it or are bad, in fact all of them are well worth watching, while not quite equalling or surpassing it.

'After the Thin Man' is the first of them and is a contender for the best. It is on the slight side perhaps and some may find it slow. Not me though, it transfixed me from the start and never let go. There is little to fault with 'After the Thin Man', though for my tastes Dorothy McNulty (aka Penny Singleton) overdoes it and doesn't amuse as much as ought. That though is nit-picking. There is so much to like here, all of the fun, suspense and charm of 'The Thin Man' is present and everything that was so great about that film is here too with the full impact not being lost.

It's a good-looking film, especially with some of the best photography of the series. Being both elegant and moody. The sets are simple but not too simplistic and certainly not unattractive. The costumes and fashions are even more elegant than the photography, and have always been one of the consistently striking elements of the films. Loy looks absolutely fabulous here, what she wears suits her so well and the camera clearly loves it. The music is suitably jaunty while not being inappropriately so, and the film is directed at a lively pace.

Script still continues to have hilarious and witty dialogue, with a good deal of sophistication and charm. The comic banter is light and never heavy and the physical comedy is endearingly silly without going over the top or childish. The story is never hard to follow and always engages, actually found that the slightness didn't matter that much. It also continues to have some of the best suspense of the series and there are some genuine surprises, including a nice minor twist involving James Stewart in an early role and an ending that one doesn't see coming.

Powell and Loy are on top form here, especially Powell who has more to do and clearly has a great time being charming and suave. Loy is glamour personified and the easy-going and magnetic chemistry between her and Powell is what makes the film, and the whole 'The Thin Man' series for that matter, work so well, for me it is one of film's most legendary partnerships. The rest of the cast fare well and who cannot help endear to Asta?

Overall, great film and complements the first film beautifully. 9/10

Very few sequels ever live up to the film that started the entire franchise--AFTER THE THIN MAN, second in a series of six films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Detective Nick Charles and his inquisitive, charming wife Nora, is one of those that just about manages it. It brings back the characters we've gotten to know in the first film, THE THIN MAN, and subjects them to even more wacky criminal hijinks.

This time, Nick (Powell) and Nora (Loy) return to San Francisco just in time for a surprise New Year's Eve party (at which no one recognises them, ironically enough!). However, Nora's dour Aunt Katherine (Jessie Ralph) spoils Nick's plans to spend New Year's Eve blissfully alone--and most likely inebriated--by inviting the couple to her house to help Nora's cousin Selma (Elissa Landi). Selma's husband Robert (Alan Marshal) has been missing for days, off with Polly Byrnes (Penny Singleton), a nightclub entertainer at the Lychee Club owned by Dancer (Joseph Calleia). David Graham, Selma's erstwhile but painfully rejected fiance, still apparently holds a torch for Selma, and Robert gleefully blackmails David in return for a promise to leave his own wife. Little does Robert know that he is very much part of a web of intrigue, about to be cheated himself by Polly and Dancer, and he inevitably ends up as the murder case for the rest of the film.

The great part about this film is that the murder case actually does keep one in suspense, even if one knows the identity of the murderer before watching the film for the first time, as I did. It keeps you guessing about why and where, and the entire cast of supporting characters, as in the first Thin Man film, are shrouded in mystery and suspicion. It could be anyone of them, and in a trademark revelation scene at the very end, Nick gathers the whole assembly of players to catch the murderer red-handed, as it were.

Throw this cleverly-written murder mystery in with a healthy heaping of literate dialogue, thrown out only as William Powell and Myrna Loy can, and you get a classy film that hints at crime, love, sex, power and hatred without ever needing to resort to cheaper tricks. It's great to meet these characters again: Nick, constantly inebriated and the epitome of gentlemanly cool as usual (witness the scene in which Dancer causes a blackout and a great deal of loud scuffling and gunshots are heard in the darkness--Nick is calmly making a phone call under the table, amidst all the chaos); Nora, the charming, understanding modern wife who's game for anything that Nick can dream up (unless, of course, he locks her into the bathroom to prevent her from tagging along)... and of course, Asta, who we discover has his own family (made up of Mrs. Asta and the cutest puppies one can imagine) that he's trying very hard to protect.

As with the previous Thin Man film, however, AFTER THE THIN MAN combines a great mystery story with a very real portrayal of the marriage everyone wished they had. It's no small wonder that menfolk in the 1930s used to form 'Men Must Marry Myrna' Clubs--she's able to stand up to her man whenever necessary, and even when she's chattering through the night evidently hungering for Nick's scrambled eggs, Myrna Loy's Nora Charles is one of the cutest female characters ever created. One of the best scenes would undeniably be when Nick realises he's kissed someone else on the stroke of midnight, so goes on a quest for Nora. He finds her and she asks him if he has any New Year's complaints or resolutions; he does have a complaint and gravely informs her of it. She nods seriously in agreement and says, "Must scold. Must nag. Mustn't be too pretty in the mornings." I won't spoil the ending of the film, but Nora's own revelation to Nick as they take the train back to New York is also as touching and sweet as can be imagined.

If you're up for a good romance story, or a good murder mystery, or better yet, a combination of the two, you really couldn't go wrong with this second installment in the Thin Man series. Try your best to get your hands on the first film, but AFTER THE THIN MAN is truly a sequel that does the original film and the franchise to follow proud.