''After the Thin Man'' is a 1936 American

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starring

William Powell William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the '' Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Charles characters cr ...

Myrna Loy Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...

and

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military pilot. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morality ...

. A sequel to the 1934 feature ''

The Thin Man ''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of ''Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main cha ...

'', the film presents Powell and Loy as

Dashiell Hammett Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...

's characters Nick and Nora Charles. The film also features

Elissa Landi Elissa Landi (born Elisabeth Marie Christine Kühnelt; December 6, 1904 – October 21, 1948) was an Austrian-American actress born in Venice, who was popular as a performer in Hollywood films of the 1920s and 1930s. She was noted for her a ...

, Joseph Calleia,

Jessie Ralph Jessie Ralph Patton ( Chambers; November 5, 1864 – May 30, 1944), known as Jessie Ralph, was an American stage and screen actress, best known for her matronly roles in many classic films. Early life Jessie Ralph Chambers was the 13th child ...

, Alan Marshal and

Penny Singleton Penny Singleton (born Mariana Dorothy McNulty, September 15, 1908 – November 12, 2003) was an American actress, singer, dancer and labor leader. During her 60-year career on stage, screen, radio and television, Singleton appeared as the ...

(billed under her maiden name as Dorothy McNulty).

Plot

Nick and Nora Charles return from vacation on New Year's Eve to their home in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, where Nora's stuffy family expects the couple to join them for a formal dinner. Nick is disliked by Nora's aunt Katherine, the family matriarch, as his immigrant heritage and experience as a "flatfoot" are considered beneath Nora's station. Nora's cousin Selma tells Nora that her husband Robert has been missing for three days. David Graham is Selma's earlier fiancé and an old friend of Nora's family. He offers to pay Robert $25,000 to leave and grant Selma a divorce. Nora successfully badgers Nick into helping to locate Robert. After-the-Thin-Man-LC-1

Robert is at the LiChi Club, a Chinese nightclub, where he has been in an affair with Polly, the club's star performer. Unknown to Robert, Polly and club owner Dancer plan to steal the money that David will pay Robert. Polly's brother Phil Byrnes wants money from her, but Dancer throws him out, just as Nick and Nora arrive looking for Robert. They tell Robert about David's offer and he agrees to it. After being paid off, Robert goes back into Aunt Katherine's home to retrieve some clothes and say goodbye to Selma, who begs him not to leave. Nick sees Dancer and nightclub co-owner Lum Kee each leave the club separately at the same time. Robert leaves at the stroke of midnight and is shot dead in the foggy street. David finds Selma standing over Robert, a pistol in her hand. Lt. Abrams considers Selma the prime suspect, and her fragile mental state only strengthens his belief. Selma insists that she never fired her gun, but her claim cannot be backed up as David had thrown the gun into San Francisco Bay, thinking she was guilty. Nick begins to investigate to find the actual murderer. Someone throws a rock with a note tied to it through Nick and Nora's window. The note accuses Polly and Dancer of conspiring to kill Robert while revealing that Phil Byrnes is an ex-con and Polly's husband. Lt. Abrams has found several checks from Robert to Polly, including one for $20,000, but Nick carefully compares them and sees that all but one are forgeries. Nick and Lt. Abrams find Phil murdered in his hotel room. Nick investigates Polly's apartment and discovers that someone using the name Anderson had bugged it from the apartment above. While in the upper apartment, Nick hears Dancer enter Polly's home. Nick pursues Dancer into the basement, but Dancer fires a round of bullets at Nick and disappears. Nick discovers the body of the building custodian, Pedro. Nora identifies Pedro as the former gardener from her father's estate. She finds a photo in Pedro's room of him with their other servants. Lt. Abrams says someone tried to call Nick from the building just before Pedro was killed. Nick has Lt. Abrams gather all the suspects in the Anderson apartment. Dancer and Polly confess that they had intended to use a forged check to steal Robert's money but claim that they are innocent of murder. David says that he has not seen Pedro in six years but remembers his long white mustache. But Nick notices that in the picture from six years ago that Nora had found, Pedro had a small, dark mustache, and Nick infers that David saw Pedro recently. Nick now reconstructs the murder. David is revealed to be Anderson. He hated Robert for taking Selma from him, and also secretly hated Selma for leaving him. He rented the apartment so that he could eavesdrop on Polly and Robert and kill them in the apartment. Instead, he killed Robert on the street and tried to frame Selma for the murder. While spying on Polly, he overheard Phil's real identity and Phil's plan to blackmail David. David murdered Phil and threw the message rock as a diversion. However, Pedro had recognized David as the mysterious Anderson, so David killed him as well. David brandishes a pistol and threatens to kill Selma and then himself. Lum Kee flings his hat in David's face, allowing Nick and Lt. Abrams to overpower him. This surprises Nora because Nick had Lum Kee's brother sent to prison for bank robbery, but Lum Kee explains: "I don't like my brother. I like his girl. You my friend." Nick and Nora leave San Francisco by train for the East Coast, accompanied by Selma. Later, alone with Nora, Nick notices that she is knitting a baby's sock and suddenly realizes that she is pregnant. Nora gently chides him, saying, "And you call yourself a detective."

Cast

File:William Powell in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg File:Myrna Loy in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg File:Asta in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg File:James Stewart in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg File:Elissa Landi in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg File:Joseph Calleia in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg File:Jessie Ralph in After the Thin Man trailer.jpg The cast is listed in order as documented by the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

. *

as Nick Charles, called "Nicholas" by Aunt Katherine *

as Nora Charles *

as David Graham *

as Selma Landis * Joseph Calleia as "Dancer" *

as Aunt Katherine Forrest * Alan Marshal as Robert Landis * Teddy Hart as Casper *

Sam Levene Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and dr ...

as Lieutenant Abrams *

as Polly Byrnes (credited as Dorothy McNulty) * William Law as Lum Kee *

George Zucco George Zucco (11 January 1886 – 27 May 1960) was a British character actor who appeared in plays and 96 films, mostly American-made, during a career spanning over two decades, from the 1920s to 1951. In his films, he often played a suave ...

as Dr. Kammer *

Paul Fix Peter Paul Fix (March 13, 1901 – October 14, 1983) was an American film and television character actor who was best known for his work in Westerns. Fix appeared in more than 100 movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career b ...

as Phil Byrnes * Skippy as Asta * Maude Turner Gordon as Helen ''(uncredited)'' *

Tom Ricketts Thomas B. Ricketts (15 January 1853 – 19 January 1939) was an English-born American stage actor, stage and motion picture, film actor and film director, director who was a pioneer in the film industry. He portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the fi ...

as Henry, the butler ''(uncredited)'' * Zeffie Tilbury as Aunt Lucy ''(uncredited)'' * Esther Howard as the woman at LiChi Club who says "Hello, handsome" to Nick ''(uncredited)''

Production

The film's storyline was written by

based on his characters Nick and Nora, but not on a particular novel or short story.

Albert Hackett Albert Maurice Hackett (February 16, 1900 – March 16, 1995) was an American actor, dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich. Early years Hackett was born in New York City, the s ...

and

Frances Goodrich Frances Goodrich (December 21, 1890 – January 29, 1984) was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her h ...

wrote the original screenplay. The film was the second of six

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s based on the characters of Nick and Nora: * ''

'' (1934) * ''After the Thin Man'' (1936) * ''

Another Thin Man ''Another Thin Man'' is a 1939 American detective film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, the third of six in the ''Thin Man'' series. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and is based on Dashiell Hammett's Continen ...

'' (1939) * ''

Shadow of the Thin Man ''Shadow of the Thin Man'' is the fourth of six ''The Thin Man'' murder mystery comedy films. It was released by MGM in 1941 and was directed by W. S. Van Dyke. It stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. Also, in this fil ...

'' (1941) * ''

The Thin Man Goes Home ''The Thin Man Goes Home'' is a 1945 comedy- mystery film directed by Richard Thorpe. It is the fifth of the six '' Thin Man'' films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's dapper ex-private detective Nick Charles and his ...

'' (1945) * ''

Song of the Thin Man ''Song of the Thin Man'' is a 1947 murder mystery-comedy directed by Edward Buzzell. The sixth and final film in MGM's '' Thin Man'' series, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, characters created by Dashiell Hammett ...

'' (1947)

Reception

The film was nominated for an Oscar in 1937 for Best Writing, Screenplay. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

lists the film with a score of 100% based on reviews from 18 professional critics, with a rating average of 7.65/10. ''After the Thin Man'' grossed a domestic and foreign total of $3,165,000: $1,992,000 from the U.S. and Canada and $1,173,000 elsewhere. It returned a profit of $1,516,000.

Radio adaptation

An hour-long radio adaptation of ''After the Thin Man'' was presented on the CBS ''

Lux Radio Theatre ''Lux Radio Theatre'', sometimes spelled ''Lux Radio Theater'', a classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network (1934–35) (owned by the National Broadcasting Company, later predecessor of American Broadcasting Company ...

'' on June 17, 1940. Powell and Loy reprised their roles.

References in other media

The film is name-checked by the 1938 American mystery novel ''The Listening House'' by Mabel Seeley during an interlude in which the book's protagonist goes to see a film called ''After the Dark Man''.

Home media

''After the Thin Man'' was released on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

by the

Warner Archive Collection The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the inten ...

on January 26, 2021.

References

External links

* * *
Plot overview
at

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cul ...

*
''After the Thin Man''
on Lux Radio Theater: June 17, 1940 {{DEFAULTSORT:After The Thin Man 1936 films 1930s crime comedy films 1930s mystery thriller films American black-and-white films American crime comedy films American comedy thriller films American detective films American mystery thriller films American sequel films Films based on American novels Films based on mystery novels Films directed by W. S. Van Dyke Films scored by Herbert Stothart Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films set around New Year The Thin Man films 1936 comedy films Films scored by Edward Ward (composer) 1930s English-language films 1930s American films