Film Review: Another Thin Man (1939)
Like Tarzan, another popular 1930s MGM film series, The Thin Man attempted to adapt the increasingly conservative mindset of the Hays Office censors by giving protagonists an adorable child, thus turning the franchise more sugary and what we could call “family-friendly” today. The result of such efforts was Another Thin Man, a 1939 crime comedy directed by W. S. Van Dyke, the third instalment of the series.
The film is very loosely based on “Farewell Murder”, a boiled detective story by the characters’ creator Dashiel Hammett, which originally had the Continental Op as the protagonist. The plot, however, begins with former private detective Nick Charles (played by William Powell), his rich socialite wife Nora (played by Myrna Loy), and their terrier Asta (played by Skippy) returning to New York City, this time joined by the couple’s eight-month-old son Nicky Jr. (played by William A. Paulsen). Soon afterwards, Colonel McFay (played by C. Aubrey Smith), a rich industrialist and business associate of Nora’s father, asks Nick to come to his Long Island estate to help him deal with a campaign of threats and intimidations. The most likely culprit is Phil Church (played by Sheldon Leonard), an engineer and McFay’s former employee who considers his boss responsible for spending ten years in prison. When McFay actually gets killed, Church, who became acquainted with various underworld characters during his incarceration, apparently tries to flee the country, but Nick suspects that the murderer might be someone with a different agenda. His investigation is, however, hampered by time-consuming demands of parenthood.
Another Thin Man is the last film in the series that was written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, spouses who took their own lives as inspiration for the characters of Nick and Nora Charles and their banter. It was also the last directly based on Hammet’s work. William Powell and Myrna Loy, one of the most popular screen couples of Hollywood, returned to the screen, together with director W. S. Van Dyke. The formula, established in the previous two films, generally works, although the murder mystery, which also involves killing someone’s dogs, looks more sinister. Such darker tones are, however, confined to the first segment of the film that takes place on McFay’s estate and the film becomes much lighter when the plot returns to New York City, even with the introduction of underworld characters that are presented mostly as comical and even, at times, friendly to Nick, like in the case of a hilarious scene when they stage an impromptu party for Nicky Jr., bringing their own baby sons in the process. However, the main problem for Another Thin Man is an overcomplicated plot, with many characters introduced solely to serve as red herrings and make the solving of the mystery as difficult for the audience as possible; once the actual killer is revealed, it is, predictably but not too convincingly, the least likely suspect and the whole thing looks non-cathartic. The mystery takes too much time and leaves little opportunity for Nick and Nora to engage in their comical banter, which was the main attraction of the film. This is, to a degree, compensated by the murder suspects and people associated with them being played by a very enthusiastic cast of character actors, which includes Sheldon Leonard as the sinister Church, Abner Biberman as Church’s ridiculously loyal underling Dum Dum, and Nat Pendleton, who repeats the role of police detective Guild from the first film in the series. Although oriented more towards mystery than comedy, and overlong despite Van Dyke’s no-nonsense economic style of direction, Another Thin Man delivered enough entertainment to become a major hit at the box office and secure three more sequels in the next ten years."
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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