On The Occasion Of The Return Of Nick & Nora

REPORTER: "Well, can't you tell us anything about the case?"

NICK CHARLES: "Yes, it's putting me way behind in my drinking."
"THE THIN MAN"

A few quick thoughts on The Thin Man...

While I consider myself a fan of the dark, hard-boiled noir detective stories, the kind that delve deep into the horrors of humanity and leave a scorched path of destruction in their wake that haunts anyone unlucky enough to survive, I can't think of anything more enjoyable than Dashiell Hammett's novel and specifically its film adaptation of The Thin Man. The film, starring Myrna Loy and William Powell as the witty and snarky lushes Nick and Nora Charles is delightful beyond measure. That's not to say that their cases don't involve murder, deception and violence, it's just that Nick & Nora are more interested in being witty & charming and finding their next drink than letting all that other nonsense get in the way. 

Nick is a famous detective who, although retired (he was at one time a Pinkerton detective, as was Hammett) reluctantly sets up shop in San Francisco after marrying the stunningly beautiful and, more importantly, stunningly rich Nora and they go about their day sipping scotch and doing verbal acrobatics around each other. Their loyal dog Asta is ever present and unnaturally canny but not as brave as the Charles' tend to think he is. Asta tends to run away or hide under something when one of the Charles' try to sic him on an intruder in their home. The film, made in 1934, was followed by 5 sequels and countless other adaptations as well as homages all over pop culture for decades to com. Loy, as previously noted, is nearly unrivaled in her beauty as well as her comedic timing, but she had a very troubled personal life and very nearly single-handedly kept the later films from going into production. Powell was once hailed by Roger Ebert as being to dialogue what Fred Astaire was to dance. His Nick is droll, witty, charming and reluctant to pursue cases that Nora pushes on him. However, six films is much more than we could have hoped for, as there was only ever one book written by Hammett featuring these characters. The titular Thin Man refers to the man Nick is asked to find in the first movie only but was later adopted by the producers to more or less refer to Nick himself (ie. Song Of The Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home, etc.). The character in the novel was described as being overweight and out of shape and obviously not the inspiration for the title but the films producers brought the young, thin and handsome William Powell in to play Nick and changed the course of the character for good. 

Nick is the world famous detective but Nora is the bored heiress and frequently tries to get involved in Nick's cases. A favorite trick of his is to tell Nora to hail a cab for them and then he will tell the driver to take her home and before she knows it, she's out of his hair and he can work in peace. It's usually just to keep her out of harms way but usually it's just that he wants to work alone. Nick tends to invite all the players in the case to his home for a dinner where he then lays out all the details of the case and fingers the culprit. Nora, the thrill-seeking wife, is always just as curious as everyone else to watch it all unfold. Dashiell Hammett usually wrote cold, hard-boiled tales of lone wolf detectives taking on the world and all it throws at them, namely Sam Spade (played by Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon) and the nameless Continental Operative, but with The Thin Man, he gave us the most charming detective duo to ever grace the screen (the film was released only 5 months after the book, and it's one of the few cases where the film is more enjoyable than the book) and the inspiration for duos of the like for decades to come.

The reason for the nostalgia is the fact that Johnny Depp and Rob Marshall have been attached (for quite a while now with no progress being made) to remake The Thin Man. Depp will presumably play Nick and there is no shortage of internet chatter about who should play Nora. I won't weigh in on that conversation just quite yet*, especially since it could be years before the film ever sees the light of day, if it ever does. I sincerely hope it does, however, not just to see two of my favorite literary characters grace the screen yet again but because it would put a renewed focus on Dashiell Hammett's work as well as the old films and we might get a nice new re-release box set or something like that. Right now, I can't picture what a Thin Man movie would look like in 2015 or however many years later but I will wait excitedly nonetheless.

*Depp's new wife-to-be Amber Heard could be an option, although I don't know if she has the comedic chops to step into Loy's shoes. Since we're here, I might as well throw a name into the ring and the first name that pops into my head would be Olivia Wilde...I think she has all the qualities necessary to be a Nora Charles for the 21st century.