When The Thin Man Thinned Out-Myrna Loy and William Powell’s “Shadow Of The Thin Man” (1941)-A Film Review

DVD Review

By Film Critic Sam Lowell

Shadow Of The Thin Man, starring Myrna Loy, William Powell, based on character written by Dashiell Hammett, 1941

A long time ago, or it now seems a long time ago, I had a running argument with the later film critic Henry Dowd about the alleged decline in manly film detectives after the time of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe in the 1940s. By that Henry meant tough guy, no holds barred, non-filter cigarette smoking, bottom of the desk drawer hard shell whiskey neat drinking, who didn’t mind taking or giving a punch, or taking or giving a  random slug for the cause detectives. He had based his opinion strictly on viewing films which is where the film under review, the fourth in the Thin Man series, Shadow of the Thin Man starring Myrna Loy and William Powell as the famous detective couple Nick and Nora Charles comes into the discussion.           

Henry Dowd believed that with the rise of The Thin Man series that previous characterization of a model detective switched from the hard whiskey drinking guy to a soft martini swigging suave guy with a soft manner and an aversion to taking risks, certainly taking punches or slugs. Hell, in the film under review not only is the Nick married to Nora but they have a kid, not to mention that damn dog Asta, a regular entourage to weigh a guy down. What surprised him then was when I told him that the same guy, Dashiell Hammett, who wrote the heroic tough guy detective Sam Spade also wrote the dapper Nick and Nora characters. Henry did not believe me until I produced my tattered copy of Hammett’s The Thin Man which had started the whole film series.    

My objection to Henry’s “decline of the manly” detective theory was not so much about social manners of the couple in the series, a reversion to the parlor detective genre before Hammett and Chandler brought the genre out of the closet and onto the streets, as the thinness of the plots as they rolled out each new product.

This fourth film is a case in point. Above all that the affable Nick and Nora would get involved in the murder case of a jockey who allegedly threw a horse race. The very notion that anybody, much less a private eye, would give more than a passing glance to the demise an allegedly corrupt jockey is beyond me. After all the indignities those curs have thrown my way whenever I have had a “sure thing” has given me a very cynical view of these professionals. Have left me teary eyed at my bad luck-or ready to shot one myself. Of course if you are talking about throwing horse races then you have to deal with the question of the mob and all the connections to that organization from law enforcement to track official. And in a roundabout way this is how Nick with a little timely intervention by Nora solves this one thereby exonerating that fallen jockey (and a newspaper guy too). But can you get worked up about the “exploits” of a private detective who has a wife and a kid in tow when going through the paces. Sacrilege, pure sacrilege. Pass this one by but make sure you see the original film because that is when private eyes started to change their demeanor-and not for the better.