Shadow of the Thin Man
William Powell and Myrna Loy are two of the best comedy pairs evar.
But this sequal to The Thin Man suffers a bit from not actually being written by Dashiell Hammett. Yes, Hammett may have been misogynistic and whatever, but he was funny. The dialog in the first was clever, witty and fast. This one suffers in that the writer is trying to be “just like Hammett” and he doesn’t quite pull it off and the director goes for more sight gags than he should. The appeal of Nick & Nora, to me, are that they are totally in love and devoted to each other, yet give each other no quarter.
The film suffers a bit, too, from introducing a toddler son, something that just shouldn’t happen with the bon vivant couple. Automatic -1 for precocious child. The ‘colored’ maid in the Aunt Jemima outfit is also a little creepy, although in keeping with the times.
The story as a whodunit is quite good, the wriring is crisp (if not as crisp as Hammett’s would be) and the film keeps interest all the way through to the surprizing reveal. Another ding for that, really. The reveal was a little too surprizing. So much so that it reminded me a bit of Murder by Death and Truman Capote’s rant.
Rating: B; would watch again.
