The Thin Man

Experience the greatest films from Hollywood’s Golden Age back on the big screen, every week at The Loft Cinema! 
 
Based on the 1932 novel by Dashiell Hammett, the intoxicating comedy/mystery The Thin Man is the first installment in one of the most successful detective series in film history, following the adventures of stylish sleuthing spouses Nick (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy), whose knack for solving crimes is equaled only by their love of a good cocktail. Nick and Nora live the cozy life of hard-drinking socialites in Prohibition-era New York City. Nick, nominally retired from life as a detective, is always drawn back to sleuthing by increasingly inventive circumstances, with wife Nora, and her endless supply of snappy bon mots, in tow. Miraculously, the wisecracking couple somehow manages to solve crimes despite constantly imbibing martinis, champagne and whatever other alcoholic beverage they can lay their hands on. In their first big screen adventure, the duo takes on the search for a missing inventor and almost get killed for their efforts, but the complex mystery plot, which moves at a rapid-fire pace, really takes a back seat to its charming stars’ snappy banter and offbeat marital shenanigans. Even the couple’s pet dog Asta gets in on the action, and the supporting roles are filled with a riotous crew of comical character actors, lending the proceedings a woozy-boozy comedic rhythm that has often been imitated, but never equaled. (Dir. by W.S. Van Dyke, 1934, USA, 131 mins., Not Rated)