The Thin Man (1934) [Revisited]
That's hardly a dealbreaker, obviously, but I do think it's worth emphasizing it is a flaw that the most interesting aspects of the film are largely sidelined, either because of fidelity to the source material or the garden variety sexist outlook that women couldn't or shouldn't be involved in the excitement. Either way, it means Loy is really closer to a supporting character than equal lead, and we're left spending too much time with William Powell's Nick flying solo. To be fair, Nick's still a lot of fun - virtually everything in The Thin Man is fun - but he's not as good a character as Nora, Powell's exaggerated performance isn't as endearing as Loy's slightly more restrained take, and it means we're denied more time with the two of them onscreen together, which is really where the movie excels.
I also want to note that the movie isn't framed or shot in a particularly interesting or dynamic way. Aside from some decent use of shadowy sets in the last act, it's all kind of bland and flat - this more or less looks like what you'd expect from television shows in later decades. Again, not a dealbreaker: this was intended to highlight the stars and jokes, not the sets, and it succeeds where its counts.
I'm not going to dig as far into the plot as I usually do, mainly because the plot here is fairly superfluous. The movie exists as an excuse to have the leads play off genre tropes; this is closer to a parody of the detective genre than an installment in that genre. There's a mystery, but it never feels like Nick cares all that much about the stakes, so we don't either. We do, however, care whether he and Nora are having fun navigating the various twists and engaging with the side characters.
Of which there are a lot. The movie introduces no shortage of suspects, witnesses, and red herrings to complicate Nick's attempts to determine the whereabouts of a missing scientist, determine who's killing side characters, and - most importantly - get back to his leisurely life of drinking and partying with his rich wife, Nora, who's far more interested in the excitement until she realizes her husband's life might actually be in danger.
The missing scientist, incidentally, is the titular "thin man," a hint to the movie's main twist in which they find the skeletal remnants of what they assume is a fat man based on his clothes but which actually turns out to be the dead scientist himself. This probably should be a more distressing reveal, as the movie's most sympathetic character aside from Nick, Nora, and their dog is the scientist's daughter, who's present when Nick explains all this in order to draw out the actual killer at the end. Said killer is the scientist's lawyer, a fact I don't consider spoiling as the point of the scene is mostly that it doesn't matter.
Again, this is basically parody, with the implication being that the suspect list is so long the revelation feels as though the actual perpetrator was picked out of a hat by the writer, and Nick reacts accordingly. The joy of the movie comes from watching Nick and Nora play off the tropes, rather than embody them - this is essentially the Deadpool of its day. Even when the stakes are life-and-death, it's all in good fun.
The main reason I wanted to revisit this was to explore how the movie uses its holiday setting. A more serious version of this story would probably have leveraged this to contrast the violence and horror of the subject matter. It's a story in which a woman loses her father, numerous side characters are unfaithful, and others seem trapped in lives of crime. Stripped of tone, this could play out like the noirs of the following decade.
And interestingly enough, the movie does contrast the holidays against those tropes, just in a very different way to an opposite effect. Rather than highlight the violence, the Christmas setting exists to undercut it, playing on the farcical absurdity of what's going on. Everything from the leads' hedonistic lifestyle to a gangster holding them at gunpoint late on Christmas Eve is played for laughs. The movie already treats the genre elements as funny; the fact this is all going on during the holidays makes it funnier.
There's also a parallel between the drunken parties Nick and Nora are throwing and classic midwinter celebrations. You can trace that line all the way back to Saturnalia, of course, though it's just as relevant to modern practices.
I do find it interesting that the movie doesn't attempt any real narrative or thematic connection to the holidays, or at least none I could find. I haven't read the book this is based on, but in the movie Christmas seems to affect only tone.
Regardless, this one's absolutely worth tracking down. It's a classic for a reason - Powell and Loy really are magical together, and the jokes still land nine decades later. This is absolutely a movie I recommend watching - it's a great deal of fun.
But I still wish Loy had gotten more screentime.
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