Tonight, we finished off The Thin Man series with "The Thin Man Goes Home" (1944). Nick and Nora are on a train headed for Nick's hometown of Sycamore Springs (state unknown). They are on vacation, as usual, and are planning to visit Nick's parents. Asta the dog is along for the ride. The twelve minute opening scene aboard the overcrowded train is one of the funniest sequences in all the Thin Man movies. You'll have to see why for yourself. :)
Sycamore Springs looks like the kind of bucolic town that was depicted in many a 1940s film, like the town in "It's A Wonderful Life", with picket fences, shaded sidewalks and two story old fashioned homes. Classic Americana. William Powell is, for once, not drinking any alcohol. Part of the Thin Man charm in all the other movies is Powell & Myrna Loy's way with a martini. They are rarely without one, and yet they can always function no matter how many they imbibe. This too is part of the 40s fantasy, and it is played for fun in most of the Thin Man films. This time, the couple's sudden sobriety was apparently a studio decision corresponding to the liquor rationing that was in force during the war years. I had never heard of this rationing before, but perhaps the studio bosses thought it best not to rub a lot of celebratory drinking in their audience's collective face. At any rate, all Powell & Loy are sipping this time is cider. The "official reason" given in the script is that Nick's father does not approve of his son's drinking. The old man is a successful doctor. He thinks Nick is a lowly policeman, drunk usually, though he basically has no contact with him. What the father does not know is that Nick has turned himself into a Master Detective who the police themselves rely upon to help solve murder cases.
Nick wants to impress his Dad on this trip back home.....but, to be on the safe side, he is laying off the booze.
The town is populated by the kind of Quaint Eccentrics you might expect from a movie of this era. The Crazy Lady who lives in a cabin on the outskirts; the scrawny, paranoid maid with the bulging eyes and Margaret Hamilton nose; the beautiful but overdramatic young ingenue; the rich and powerful factory owner; the small, flustered art dealer; the shifty couple who don't fit in and seem to be crooks.
Once again a painting is the focus of the story. Wait a minute....are we in a Falcon movie, or The Thin Man? Let me get my bearings. I know we aren't watching Tarzan. :)
The plot begins to thicken when Loy goes into the art dealers shop to look for a birthday present for her husband. She settles on a painting by a local artist, a farming landscape that she believes Powell will love, as he has expressed fond memories of his boyhood in the countryside here.
For some reason, though, the art dealer doesn't want to sell her the painting. It is reserved for another woman. Loy insists, offers more money, and walks away with the canvas, which naturally sets up the mystery. Everybody seems to have an interest in the artist who painted it. He turns up dead of course.
And then classic mook Edward Brophy is seen hiding out in the bushes at the Charles family homestead. Now wait just a cotton-pickin' minute.....wasn't Brophy in all of the Falcon movies we just got through watching? What's going on here? Are Falcon and The Thin Man interchangeable?
Well, no. It's just that Edward Brophy was ubiquitous at the time. He could talk Bronx as good as a Three Stooge and he had the mug to match. He was a classic Hollywood mook, even appearing with Buster Keaton if I am not mistaken.
The real stars here are William Powell and Myrna Loy. She especially should be recognised as one of the most distinct actresses that ever came out of Hollywood. No other performer ever matched her combination of beauty, class, style, intelligence and comedic daffiness. In a way, you could call her a precursor to Lucille Ball, except that Loy also had a fashion model's grace and was much more understated than Lucy in her delivery. She also dressed to the nines (as per the studio's directive) and was the absolute perfect match, and foil, to William Powell in the Thin Man films.
Again, you'll have to see for yourself, but if you can find greater examples of Golden Era screen stardom than Myrna Loy and William Powell, you'll have to show them to me. These two were something special. And, they had one of the all time movie dogs at their side.
As with the Tarzan and Falcon movies, every Thin Man flick is a ton of fun. The Thin Man films, however, had bigger budgets and slightly more developed scripts. I give the entire series my highest recommendation for anyone interested in screwball comedy, or Golden Era studio magic. ////
This afternoon I drove out to Santa Clarita for a really nice hike in Rice Canyon. I had not been there in a while but was reminded how beautiful it looks in January after the first rains of the year. Today was my final day off, so tomorrow I will be back at Pearl's for a new work cycle.
I will see you there in the early afternoon, after our weekly visit to the hair salon.
Giant love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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