Dashiell Hammett's best known work may be The Maltese Falcon, but his most successful work could well be The Thin Man. The 1933 novel The Thin Man led to the 1934 movie of the same name. The Thin Man (1934) would prove to be a hit at the box office and would lead to five sequels, a radio show, and still later a television show. The Thin Man (1934) was released on May 25 1934, so that the movie is now ninety years old.
Like the novel upon which it is based, The Thin Man (1934) is set at Christmastime. It centres on retired private detective Nick Charles, who is hired by Dorothy Wynant (Maureen O'Sullivan) to investigate the disappearance of her father, Clyde Wynant (Edward Ellis). Nick finds himself, sometimes unwillingly, assisted by his wife Nora (Myrna Loy), a socialite who finds Nick's detective work exciting. Also helping Nick is the Charles's wire terrier Asta (Skippy).
As mentioned earlier, The Thin Man (1934) was based on the novel of the same name. The novel's beginning go back to 1930, when Dashiell Hammett started a manuscript that he abandoned. In that original manuscript, the hero was a private eye called John Guild, who is searching for a missing scientist in a small community in San Francisco. The style of the manuscript was hard-boiled, much like his work for the pulp magazine Black Mask. When Dashiell Hammett returned to the book, he had decided to move away from the hard-boiled style. The West Coast setting was tossed out in a favour of Manhattan. John Guild was no longer the novel's protagonist (although Hammett kept the name for a homicide detective in the novel), but instead retired private detective Nick Charles and his socialite wife Nora. The project had gone from another hard-boiled work to a sophisticated comedy of manners. As to Nick and Nora, they were based on Dashielll Hammett himself and Lillian Hellman, with whom he was then in a relationship.
The Thin Man was published in a condensed form in the December 1933 issue of Redbook (which was not yet a women's magazine). It was in January 1934 that the book was published by Alfred A. Knopf. While Hammett never wrote a follow up to The Thin Man, the novel would not be the last time that people saw Nick and Nora Charles. It was nearly as soon as the novel was published that MGM bought the film rights for $21,000 (which would be $501,920.68 today).
MGM did not have to look far for a director for The Thin Man. Director W. S. Van Dyke was a fan of murder mysteries and conceived a film version of The Thin Man as soon as he learned MGM had bought the rights to the novel. It was W.S,. Van Dyke who was responsible for the inspired idea of casting William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. He had just directed the two actors in Manhattan Melodrama (1934). Despite this, MGM had their doubts about William Powell and Myrna Loy. MGM thought that William Powell might be too old and too strait laced to play Nick Charles. As to Myrna Loy, prior to The Thin Man she had primarily played "exotics" and femme fatales.
Producer Hunt Stromberg hired husband and wife team Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett to write the screenplay. W.S. Van Dyke's instructions to the screenwriters was to concentrate on the witty banter and Nick and Nora more than the murder mystery itself. While The Thin Man was made before the MPAA began more strictly enforcing the Production Code on July 1 1934, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett still had to clean up some of the book's content for the film adaptation.
MGM apparently regarded The Thin Man simply as another programmer. Not only did it only have a budget of $231,000, but it was shot over eighteen days. As it turned out, The Thin Man proved to be a roaring success. It was released on May 25 1934 to positive notices. Variety liked the film, noting, "What appears to have been the most successful part of the Hackett-Goorich team's adaptation is that they captured the spirit of the jovial, companionable relationship of the characters, Nick, retired detective, and Nora, his wife." Film Daily also gave a positive review, writing, "The screen seldom presents a more thoroughly interesting piece of entertainment than this adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's popular novel. The rapid fire dialogue is about the best heard since talkies, and it is delivered by Powell and Miss Loy to perfection." The New York Times included The Thin Man on their list of the ten best films of 1934 at the end of the year. Audiences loved The Thin Man as well. It made $1.4 million at the box office.
The success of The Thin Man would lead to five sequels, the first being After the Thin Man in 1936 and the last being Song of the Thin Man in 1947. The success of the "Thin Man" films would also lead to a radio show.The Adventures of the Thin Man debuted on NBC on July 2 1941. Les Damon was the original voice of Nick Charles, and was followed by Les Tremayne, Joseph Curtin David Gothard, and Bill Smith. Claudia Mrogan voiced Nora for the whole of the run. The radio show ultimately ran until September 1 1950. The success of the movies would also lead to a television series, The Thin Man, starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk. It ran for two seasons on NBC.
While The Thin Man is often counted among the greatest movies ever made, it is not often counted among the greatest Christmas movies ever made. Despite this, it is very much a Christmas movie. Nick makes reference to waiting for Nora to finish her Christmas shopping. The movie features a Christmas Eve party and the next day we get to see Nick and Nora celebrate Christmas morning together, with the two exchanging presents and giving Asta one. The Thin Man also takes place for nearly the whole of the Christmas season, starting not long before Christmas and climaxing on New Year's Eve.
Regardless of whether one thinks of The Thin Man as a Christmas movie, it is certainly one of the most influential films of all time. It established both William Powell and Myrna Loy as stars. It also started an entire franchise, that included movies, a radio show, and a TV show. It was added to the United States National Film Registry in 1997. Even today Nick and Nora Charles are still many people's favourite movie couple.
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