***Watch Out For The Angry Ones- The Thin Man Series-William Powell and Myra Loy’s’ The Thin Man Goes Home- With Kudos To Dashiell Hammett

 

 

 

DVD Review

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

 

The Thin Man Goes Home, starring William Powell, Myra Loy and Asta, based on the crime detection novel by Dashiell Hammett, 1945

 

Recently I wrote the following which can apply to the Thin Man series film under review, The Thin Man Goes Home, as well:

“Long before Jaws, long before Halloween X, long before Ocean’s X  Hollywood has cashed in on sequelling any film idea that showed the least bit of staying power. One of the early example of that trend was the six (I believe) run Thin Man series starring William Powell, Myra  and of course their faithful dog Asta. While the subsequent four after the initial fairly straightforward film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s classic crime detection novel The Thin Man running from the mid-1930s into the early 1940s are a mixed bag the film under review here, After The Thin Man, except for a bit too much length and confusing filler is one of the better ones.   

No question that every crime detection novel (and film noir ) aficionado owes Dashiell Hammett (and Raymond Chandler) a great debt for providing us with professional private detectives we can get behind and root for after a long run of amateur Saturday afternoon parlor detectives was snapped in the late 1920s and 1930s. Hammett’s Sam Spade may be the max daddy of all the tough private no question  but Hammett’s more measured attempt to mix a plebian ex-copper Nick Charles and patrician, meaning the one with the dough, Nora (with Asta thrown in) to solve the hard city murders that they wound up solving is interesting as well. Those sleuthing virtues are more apparent in the book than on the various film adaptations but with the exception of the over-the-top use of liquor to loosen up old Nick and Nora’s brains the pains-taking crime detection methodology behind the facile façade come through.”      

With exception this being a lesser film than the one reviewed above all that is left is a little sketch of the action here.

Old Nick and Nora after a decade on screen together in dangerous big cities like New York and Frisco town are going home to Nick’s growing up town in Podunk New York for some rest and some reconciliation (if possible) with Nick’s estranged father. Yes, to get away from all that big city crime and enjoy the country air. Except this is wartime America and foreign powers (the Japanese here) are out to by hook or by crook commit espionage against the interests of the United States. Seems Nick’s hometown is a center for espionage ring looking to get secrets from nearby aircraft plant. Naturally such a conspiracy needs tight lips to get the secrets in and out without detection. The way they get that information here is via a young painter painting over the blueprints. Except he gets a conscious and also gets bumped off by his confederates. And guess who the leader of that nefarious gang is? An old school chum of Nick’s. A doctor like Nick’s father but jealous of Nick since school days. Of course Daddy Charles could not be prouder of his son. Frankly this one dragged out a bit and signaled that this sub-genre had had its day after a decade on the old silver screen.