Another Thin Man (1939)

Another Thin Man (1939)

Retired cop, and now married-into-wealth and a new father, sometimes detective Nick Charles (William Powell) wants nothing more than to have a peaceful holiday with his family and dog (which travels with its own, personal fire hydrant), but when a former business partner of his defunct father-in-law receives threats and doesn’t hesitate to ask for his help, Charles must interrupt his vacation.

A convoluted plot involving murder and clear intent to obtain alibis for particular suspects which may, by the film’s conclusion, be said to have been 'properly' cleared up still keeps distracting from what should be the real entertainment: The funny, romantic interplay between Nick and his sexy wife Nora (Myrna Loy).

Yeah, we love these two characters and hope to see a lot of them, so a simpler mystery would work best: Something you could ignore while it develops in the background for the most part and allows the audience to focus on the two.

Instead, this movie keeps asking you to pay attention to one other aspect or one further element in order to make sense out of any of it.

Our main characters are extremely nonchalant about the threats and the murders, especially since these are (or were) folks they knew personally.

Charles clearly cares about his wife and kid, but care for his own welfare doesn't seem that important, to him (he is shot and thrown knives at.) Maybe play up his awareness of his own mortality a bit more?

It’s always nice unexpectedly catching Shemp in a random feature. Was he supposed to be the Stooge with the best acting chops? How did he get so much work outside of the Three Stooges features?

The cast includes Skippy (as Asta), Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger, C. Aubrey Smith, Ruth Hussey, Nat Pendleton, Patric Knowles, Sheldon Leonard, Tom Neal, Phyllis Gordon and Marjorie Main.

Despite its odd creative decisions there’s no way I’m gonna nix this one.