The Thin Lady - Myrna Loy.

As a child I loved murder mystery movies, I avidly read Agatha Christie's book and devoured every Sherlock Holmes novel along with the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce world war 2  patriotic movie revival renditions. One of the first detective movies I ever watched was  The Thin Man.

Nick, Nora and Asta.

Surprisingly in today's culture private detectives Nick and Nora Charles have it would seem vanished. I can mention them to my peers and few if any would have a clue who they were, not even the mention of The Thin Man films would stir a jot in their memory banks. Why should they? These films were made and finished at least forty years before I was born and in some respects they seem to have got lost in the fog of time.

After watching the endless Summer holiday repeats of the series of films called  The Thin Man, I was highly delighted to find as a teenager in the library one day that they were based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett. He who created other such classic novel characters as Sam Spade,  from his most famous novel The Maltese Falcon. Which EVERYONE and his dog seems to know. Yet I think The Thin Man  is far superior in quality and character both in film and book form......but as the advert says "But that's just me".



"Oh that's alright, we're married!" - Just look
at that GORGEOUS coat!



There were five Thin Man movies made in all : The originial The Thin Man 1934, After The Thin Man 1936, Another Thin Man 1939, Shadow Of The Thin Man 1941, The Thin Man Goes Home 1945 and lastly but certainly not least the Song Of The Thin Man 1947. The films are littered with other famous actors such as Maureen O'Sullivan, Cesar Romero (minus Joker makeup) and Elissa Landi.

An interesting little known fact: Most people think that the title the Thin Man is conferred on William Powell's character, Nick Charles. It isn't, it's actually the soubriquet of the victim in the original novel.



"Waiter will you serve the nuts, I
mean will you serve the guests the
nuts?"



I never thought Nick Charles was terribly convincing or attractive, but Nora now there was a woman who knew her man inside and out. She was the real brains of the outfit and gorgeously dressed along with it. They had the kind of lifestyle and she the wardrobe I desperately desired, along with their cute dog Asta. He was a talented detective she a fabulously rich  Heiress who had indulged in marrying for love. As the films grew we were shown Nora's connections via family and friends to the fabulously wealthy of society's and Nicks charming celebrated acquaintances with the criminal underclasses.

The subtle humour and struggle for power between the two characters was not wasted on my youthful years, I lapped it up. This was the serious business of murder with an under current of relationship humour. Perhaps it shaped my formative mind in more ways than one, but it has since always appealed to me in humour that the woman allow the man to feel he's in charge. As a loving married couple Nick and Nora Charles solve crime and mysteries whilst all the while exchanging a sharp and witty repartee.

Nora patiently putting up with Nick's less than desirably quirks and ways is part of the charm and beauty of the pace of the film. Their constant sarcastic bantering and one up-man-ship of each other jolts the film along with it's sassy trope attitude. Something I'd never seen before, and I liked it! The mixture of old fashioned (back then it was hip and in fashion) slang and street speak mixed in with their upper class accents and characters was a heady eclectic mix of fire and water. Throughout the films there is an onscreen chemistry between the two actors was the key to these films success. In fact most of it was improvised on set and their harmony jelling often led the public to believe that William Powell and Myrna Loy were a married couple off screen as well. Aided by the perfectly adorable white schnauzer, Asta - as loyal and intelligent as Tin Tin's snowy.

The series of films lasted from 1934 until 1947, and always throughout them all it was Nora Charles that caught my heart and beady fashion adoring eyes. Not least because she made the 'old lady name' of Nora glamorous, but for her power, brains, humour and OMG her wardrobe!

She had the most gorgeous arched eyebrows I had ever seen, that incredible vision of loveliness and intelligence with just one small raise of her brows and tight purse of her flawlessly painted lips was Myrna Loy. One of the things I still wish I could do, and I have a little secret practise of every now and then, is to be able to wink with such credibility and seductive flirtacious humour as Myrna whilst playing Nora.

Myrna Adele Williams was born in 1905 in Montana, America. The movie studio changed her name to the charistmatic sounding Loy and she was often type cast in vamp, femme fatale and exotic roles, one of her first being spotted by the great Rudolph Valentino. She was a small time bit actress but this changed in 1934 after the film she was playing in, Manhatten Melodrama, (with actors Clark Gable and coninsidentally William Powell)  was attended by the infamous gangster Johnny Dillinger (recently played in a movie by Johnny Depp) and upon leaving the Chicargo movie theatre he was gunned down by federal agents and died on the pavement outside, bringing the film much publicity after some newspapers reported that Myrna was Dillinger's favourite actress. From then on in her screen luck grew from strength to strength after her first Thin Man movie.

Myrna Loy & William Powell.

Loy was married four times, and never to William Powell despite their on screen chemsitry and audience appeal. Her first husband was movie producer Arthur Hornblow Jnr and her next husband was John Hertz jnr of the Hettz car rental family. Her subsequent husbands were the producer Gene Markey and UNESCO delegate Howland H. Sargeant. Although Loy never had any children of her own she was extremely close to her first husband's children. In later years she had a double masectomy for breast cancer and died during surgery aged 88, on the 14th of December 1993.

There are rumours I heard that they are going to film a remake of the Thin Man. I am going to reserve my judgement. I haven't even looked into who will be playing Nick and Nora, lest I prejudice myself. I recently decided and refused to watch the New Shelock Holmes, because I felt it would never match my childhood memories of Basil Rathbone, but I was more than pleasantly surprised when Mud Boy insisted I watch it and further more that I would love it. He was of course right, darn it! So I shall recieve the film with an open mind, whilst watching my re-runs of the orginals before hand in preparation, so I can scrutinize....carefully. x

Now bring me some more martinis an line 'em up right here.................