The Thin Man

Originally published on January 2, 2022

My review of “The Thin Man”—

The Thin Man has three crucial elements that make it, at least, an okay film. There is mystery to entertain the mind, comedy to make people laugh, and a cute dog to appeal to the heart. Yet with all these three elements combined, the movie is missing something important.

Myrna Loy plays the supportive wife to former detective William Powell. She plays the role of the witty housewife well and the pair have natural chemistry. With that, there are no real faults in the acting.

The setting is ideal for a 1930’s mystery: a city with questionable characters lurking about. Taking place a week after Christmas makes it a great source for entertainment when your holiday spirit is fading, but not completely gone.

In essence, the faults of the Thin Man lie in these observations: there is too much alcohol and small talk, and lacks any character development. The audience hardly knows anything about the characters therefore cannot actually participate in the game of solving the mystery of the Thin Man.

The worst part of the Thin man was that the detective himself did not seem confident in the solution and only calls it out after it’s been made obvious. As the trailer for this movie indicates, there is a scene toward the end where the detective gathers all the suspects together for a dinner party and solves the murder. The queen of mystery, Agatha Christie, used this technique a lot in her writings, and always backed up the solution with lots of evidence. The revealing of the murderer left a lot to be desired in lacking good explanations of the conclusion, but also ending the scene abruptly after the facts are revealed. In a way, it almost felt like there was something crucial that was supposed to happen following the reveal of the murderer, but was removed from the film to save time.

This film is often called a suspenseful mystery, and I disagree with that description. If anything, this movie is a comedy. While the overall story telling leaves something to be desired, what makes this movie worthwhile are the comedy aspects. Comedy is what saves this film.