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THE THIN MAN
Murder, Mirth and
Marriage
At The Movies
Part 1
By Rich Drees
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In June 1934 Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios released what was assumed to be another
in a long string of B-pictures- a murder mystery based on a best selling novel
starring a pair of actors who were playing against type. No one, from the MGM
brass on down ever suspected the kind of response that The Thin Man would
generate- earning four Academy Award nominations, creating one of the most
beloved screen pairings of all time and launching a franchise that would spin
off to both radio and television.
Dashiell Hammett’s novel The Thin Man first came to the attention of MGM
Story Department head Samuel Marx, who took it to producer Hunt Stromberg. With
the only adaptations of a Hammett novel being the unsuccessful 1930 film
Roadhouse Nights (Adapted from Red Harvest, directed by Hobart
Henley) and the 1931 version of
The Maltese Falcon (Directed by Roy Del Ruth) no one at the studio was sure
what approach to take with the material. Stromberg finally went to director
Woodbridge Strong “Woody” Van Dyke, promising to buy the story if he would take
on the film.
Born in San Diego, CA on March 21, 1889, Van Dyke came to the motion picture
business after working in such rugged professions as gold miner, lumberjack and
railroad worker. He started in Hollywood at the end of the Silent Era, cutting
his teeth working as both Assistant Director and as a bit player in D. W.
Griffith’s Intolerance (1916). (He was also partnered on that film with
another assistant director, Tod Browning, who would go onto to film the classic
version of Dracula.) Making the transition to Talkies, Van Dyke’s biggest
success to date had been another series launching film, 1932’s Tarzan, The
Ape Man with Johnny Weismueller.
After reading the book, Van Dyke told Stromberg that he would do the film but as
a lighthearted, sophisticated mystery and he wanted William Powell and Myrna Loy
in the lead roles of Nick and Nora Charles. Studio head Leo Mayer was unsure of
Van Dyke’s vision however. He thought that Powell and Loy were considered by the
public to be heavy, serious actors that wouldn’t be accepted in lighter roles.
It was also felt that Powell was too old for the role and that Loy was better
suited for “The Other Woman” type of roles.
Van Dyke knew
differently. He had just finished directing the two in their first screen
pairing, and Powell’s first film at MGM since leaving Warner Brothers earlier
that year. The film was Manhattan Melodrama and Van Dyke immediately saw
the potential in their natural chemistry from their first day together on the
shoot.
When Loy first
reported to the Manhattan Melodrama set there had been no time for her to
be introduced to her co-star Powell. Their first scene together- shot at night
on the studio’s backlot- required Loy to jump into a cab that was already
occupied by Powell. At the completion of the shot, Powell turned to her and
dryly said, “Miss Loy, I
presume?” Easy confidence for an actor who was still
nursing some insecurities after being recently dumped by girlfriend Carole
Lombard for a younger man.
Their playful bantering continued off screen as
well. It was something Van Dyke would recall when presented with
The Thin Man project.
As Loy comments in her autobiography Being and Becoming:
From that very first scene (in Manhattan Melodrama), a curious thing
passed between us, a feeling of rhythm, complete understanding, an instinct of
how one could bring out the best in the other. In all our work together you
can see this strange- I don’t know what. . . a kind of rapport. It wasn’t
conscious. If you heard us talking in a room, you’d hear the same thing. He’d
tease me a little and a kind of blending emerged that seemed to please people.
Whatever caused it, though, it was magical and Woody Van Dyke brought it to
fruition in our next picture (The Thin Man)- perhaps the best
remembered of my hundred and twenty- four features.
Casting Powell was considered a risk by some. He had just come over from the
Warner Brothers Studio where the prevailing thought was that the actor was
beginning to dry up. His last few films at the studio hadn’t been very memorable
and the Warners’
brass had decided not to renew his contract. MGM’s David O. Selznick didn’t
agree with his colleagues at Warners and snatched Powell up with a one picture
tryout contract for Manhattan Melodrama. It was Powell’s work on that
film- as well as Van Dyke’s insistence to have him as Nick in The Thin Man-
that earned Powell a full contract at the studio.
Van Dyke argued to Mayer that Powell and Loy as Nick and Nora would be droll,
urbane and sophisticated while in the dangerous business of catching criminals.
Mayer finally acquiesced and brought the film rights from Hammett for $21,000-
$4,000 less than what Paramount had just paid for Hammett’s The Glass Key.
With Van Dyke’s mandate that Nick and Nora be witty and urbane, husband and wife
screenwriting team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich set to work transforming
Hammett’s novel into a script.
CONTINUE
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