***Dashiell Hammett’s Nick And Nora Charles To The Rescue- Yet Another Thin Man
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Another Thin Man, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Asta, very roughly based on Dashiell Hammett’s original crime detection story, 1939
The following paragraphs are taken from a recent review of the Dashiell Hammetts’s crime detection novel The Thin Man which the original source for the successful series of films starring William Powell, Myrna Loy and Asta, including the film under review, Another Thin Man.
“Dashiell Hammett, along with Raymond Chandler, reinvented the detective genre in the 1930's and 1940's. They moved the genre away from the amateurish and simple parlor detectives that had previously dominated the genre to hard-boiled action characters who knew what was what and didn't mind taking a beating to get the bad guys. And along the way they produced some very memorable literary characters as well. Nick Charles (and wife Nora), Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe are well known exemplars of the action detective. Hammett, on the way to creating these literary works of art did journeyman's work at the detective genre in various pulp detective magazines. Moreover, in the beginning he hid his detectives behind the anonymous, although not faceless or without personality, average detectives of a national detective agency, the Continental Op series(shades of his own past). One of those efforts is an early almost totally unrelated version of The Thin Man that those who have read the later version (or know Nick, Nora and Asta only from the film series) would not recognize.
The story line here centers on solving the apparently “perfect” murder of Nora’s estate’s financial manager, a little rich girl’s financial manager (if a rather nice little girl and by the time of this film a mother too).There is an elaborate, too elaborate attempt, to make the deed seem to the work of a disgruntled former employee who took the fall when the investigators saw the books were cooked. An excellent reason to seek revenge, especially after doing a dime’s worth in stir. But as with all such thing that was just a diversion. As usual Nick and Nora followed the dough, or rather who would benefit most from the financial manager’s demise. That’s why Nick and Nora get the big bucks, or the kudos.
DVD Review
From The Pen Of Frank Jackman
Another Thin Man, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, Asta, very roughly based on Dashiell Hammett’s original crime detection story, 1939
The following paragraphs are taken from a recent review of the Dashiell Hammetts’s crime detection novel The Thin Man which the original source for the successful series of films starring William Powell, Myrna Loy and Asta, including the film under review, Another Thin Man.
“Dashiell Hammett, along with Raymond Chandler, reinvented the detective genre in the 1930's and 1940's. They moved the genre away from the amateurish and simple parlor detectives that had previously dominated the genre to hard-boiled action characters who knew what was what and didn't mind taking a beating to get the bad guys. And along the way they produced some very memorable literary characters as well. Nick Charles (and wife Nora), Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe are well known exemplars of the action detective. Hammett, on the way to creating these literary works of art did journeyman's work at the detective genre in various pulp detective magazines. Moreover, in the beginning he hid his detectives behind the anonymous, although not faceless or without personality, average detectives of a national detective agency, the Continental Op series(shades of his own past). One of those efforts is an early almost totally unrelated version of The Thin Man that those who have read the later version (or know Nick, Nora and Asta only from the film series) would not recognize.
Dashiell Hammett is perhaps better known for creating the classic modern proto-typical detective, one Sam Spade the detective-hero (or anti-hero, if you prefer) of the literary (and film) noir The Maltese Falcon. With The Thin Man he took a different tack in providing a model detective- the urbane Nick Charles, his side-kick society wife, Nora, and their ever present faithful dog companion, Asta.”
The story line here centers on solving the apparently “perfect” murder of Nora’s estate’s financial manager, a little rich girl’s financial manager (if a rather nice little girl and by the time of this film a mother too).There is an elaborate, too elaborate attempt, to make the deed seem to the work of a disgruntled former employee who took the fall when the investigators saw the books were cooked. An excellent reason to seek revenge, especially after doing a dime’s worth in stir. But as with all such thing that was just a diversion. As usual Nick and Nora followed the dough, or rather who would benefit most from the financial manager’s demise. That’s why Nick and Nora get the big bucks, or the kudos.
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