Shadow of the Thin Man
6.5/10. Watched this Saturday evening on DVD.
Director W.S. Van Dyke was still on hand for this, the fourth of the Thin Man movies, but screenwriters Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett were not; and Shadow of the Thin Man proves how crucial the husband-and-wife team was to the series' success.
Leads William Powell and Myrna Loy are typically engaging; and like many movies of the era, Shadow boasts a colorful and compelling supporting cast. But the script is mostly perfunctory, despite the occasional inspired moment; and the scenes with Nick Jr. are pure death. (Why oh why did they make Nick and Nora parents?)
Worth seeing as part of one of the most entertaining series ever, but Shadow doesn't really stand on its own.
posted by Ian @ 11:28 AM
2 Comments:
I just watched Another Thin Man. It's amazing how well that stands up. It's hilarious!
Shadow is definitely a step down from that.
I watched the whole series once before on VHS; I'm now working my way through it again on DVD.
Next up is The Thin Man Goes Home, which not only has the "wrong" screenwriters but also the "wrong" director: W.S. Van Dyke, who had both terminal cancer and a bad heart, killed himself in 1943 at age 53.
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