After the Thin Man (1936)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:

Frances Goodrich (screenplay) and
Albert Hackett (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 December 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Mystery | Romance

Tagline:

Continuing the fun in their NEW hit!

Plot:

Selma asks Nick to find her missing husband. He had been seeing a bit on the side, and blackmailing a local criminal. David Graham claims he paid the missing husband to get rid of a former girlfriend. Will Nick locate him?

Plot Keywords:

Murder | New Year's Eve | Infidelity | Face Slap | Forgery

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

William Powell	...	Nick Charles
Myrna Loy	...	Nora
James Stewart	...	David
Elissa Landi	...	Selma
Joseph Calleia	...	'Dancer'
Jessie Ralph	...	Aunt Katherine
Alan Marshal	...	Robert (as Alan Marshall)
Teddy Hart	...	Floyd Casper
Sam Levene	...	Abrams
Penny Singleton	...	Polly (as Dorothy McNulty)
William Law	...	Lum Kee
George Zucco	...	Dr. Kammer
Paul Fix	...	Phil
Asta	...	Asta
Mrs. Asta	...	Mrs. Asta

Runtime:

112 min | Canada:113 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #2889)

Filming Locations:

Coit Tower, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The sixth of fourteen films pairing William Powell and Myrna Loy.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As the train is arriving in San Francisco at the start of the movie, the rear-screen exterior is backward. Notice the lettering on the buildings.

Quotes:

'Dancer', Lichee Club Owner: Once a gumheel, always a gumheel, huh? Well, I don't like gumheels, but I thought you'd quit it when you married a pot of money.
Nora Charles: Did he call me a pot?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Young Frankenstein (1974)

Soundtrack:

California Here I Come

More Nick and Nora fun!

I was spurred to watch this one after having seen David Niven and Maggie Smith's spot-on parody of Nick and Nora in 'Murder By Death'. Nick spends most of this one either drinking or drunk, but doesn't let that prevent him from solving the crime of course. Myrna Loy is wonderfully aloof in a fine comic performance. Although it involves murder, the tone is almost exclusively light hearted. The plot was almost a little too complicated, the type of thing that 'Murder By Death' so effectively mocked. It seemed as though the script wanted to make it so that anyone could have been a suspect (one of which is James Stewart in a fun role)which normally would be a good idea, but can make it a little confusing (and I'll admit that I wasn't paying 100% attention, but the light-heartedness seems to almost encourage you not to take it all seriously...which is why 'The Thin Man' movies are so much fun in the first place!)