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Although Clark Gable was King when Myra Loy was crowned Queen of Hollywood, she was always at her best when paired with the ever-charming William Powell. They made 14 features together, but the best six saw them playing the ultra-chic sleuths Nick and Nora Charles in the whodunits spun off from W.S. Van Dyke's 1934 adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled masterpiece, The Thin Man. It was something of a misnomer to brand the entire series after the victim in the first case, but somehow the moniker seemed to suit Powell’s bibulous shamus, who was equally at home with sophisticated socialites and quick-fisted thugs. But he would have been just another B-movie troubleshooter without Loy's wisecracking sidekick, whose shrewd intuition and readiness with a martini made the Charles seem the perfect American couple. And then there was Asta, the wire-haired terrier with a nose for clues, and Nick Jr., who became a fixture after Another Thin Man (1939). The quality dipped slightly in the later entries, but After the Thin Man (1936), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) and Song of the Thin Man (1947) remain utterly irresistible.

 

David Parkinson on 5th September 2005
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