THE THIN MAN Murder, Mirth and Marriage  At The Movies

     At the time of its publication in the first months of 1934, The Thin Man had caused quite a stir. Many were outraged at some of the wanton behavior found within. Nick never hid his attraction towards other women and Nora would often step out with other men like the Larry Crowley character. The marriage between Harrison and Alice Quinn is less than exemplary with Harrison’s open affair with Dorothy Wynant. It’s hard for the reader to feel pity for Alice when she tells Nick, “What do people think about me staying with Harrison with him chasing everything that’s hot and hollow? You know I’m only staying with him for his money, don’t you?”

     The biggest controversy in the book dealt with the scene in which Nick wrestles with Mimi in her apartment. When Nora hears of the incident, she asks:

“Tell me something, Nick. Tell me the truth: when you were wrestling with Mimi, didn’t you have an erection?

“Oh, a little.”

She laughed and got up from the floor. “If you aren’t a disgusting old lecher,” she said.

     Publisher Knopf took advantage of the commotion to run an advertisement in The New York Times. Signed by Alfred Knopf, it read: “I don’t believe the question on page 192 of Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man has had the slightest influence upon the sale of the book. Twenty thousand people don’t buy a book within three weeks to read a five word question.”

     The book ultimately went on to sell more than 34,000 copies in its first year and a half in print.

      In deference to the Hayes Office, the Hacketts were understandably forced to tone down several aspects of the book. The couple was able to sneak one thing past the overly strict board- In order to enliven a scene that merely consisted of Nick, Nora and Detective Guild (Nat Pendleton) discussing Nick’s progress in unraveling the mystery, the Hacketts decided to have the couple and the police officer walking Asta. As the scene progresses, they stop several times, presumably for the just off camera Asta to releave himself against passing fire hydrants and trees. Albert Goodrich once stated, “We got the idea from seeing people walking dogs in New York and pretending so politely not to know them [the dogs] when they stopped.”

      It is reported that Van Dyke had also instructed the Hacketts to tailor the screenplay to Powell and Loy’s talents and asked for no fewer than eight romantic scenes between the two.

     Nick Charles as portrayed by Powell is a much more polished person than Hammett’s rough-around-the-edges detective. The novelistic Nick is more in the tradition of Hammett’s other tough guy protagonists. Although initially reluctant to investigate the disappearance of Professor Wynant, once on the trail of the solution, Nick plows along not caring whose feelings may get hurt in the process. When Alice Quinn asks Nick what people must think of her for staying with her philandering husband he bluntly responds, “You’re like everybody else: some people like you, some people don’t, and some have no feeling about it one way or the other.”

     The cinematic Nick is much more considerate of those around him and is always ready with a quip. Although quite at ease with his comfortable surroundings and elevated status, he is still able to rub elbows with residents of the seamier side of the tracks.

     Nora Charles makes off rather well in the transition from book to screen. In the novel, Nora is fairly unessential to the plot once she nudges Nick into investigating Wynan’s disappearance. Hammett sets her to the side for most of the rest of the narrative.

     But with the lightening up of Powell’s Nick, Myrna Loy’s Nora is brought forward as his comic foil, matching him quip-for-quip and drink-for-drink. As the couple’s alcohol consumption gets downplayed in subsequent films in the series, Nora’s importance to the plots grow until by the end of the series, she is virtually an equal partner in Nick’s sleuthing.

     In the novel, the character of Dorothy Wynatt is a sexually frustrated man chaser who is infatuated with Nick. For the film, these traits simply disappear. As portrayed by Maureen O’Sullivan (best known as Tarzan’s Jane from the series launched by Van Dyke), Dorothy comes off as a society debutante who is happily on the road to the alter with Tommy, until the murder of Julia Wolf and the apparent involvement of her father in the crime turns her world sideways. It is only after being taken to Nick’s apartment with the other suspects that she begins to suspect that she and her children-to-be are infected with “Killer Genes.” Distraught, she then leaves her fiancé and takes up with Harrison Quinn.

     There are some points though, where The Thin Man’s Nick Charles is a bit of a departure for Hammett. Whereas the heroes of his previous best sellers do not so much restore order as mete out justice according to their own personal moral code, Nick Charles hands the killer over to the police in a neatly tied bundle.

     Hammett’s heroes before Nick Charles were focused men, whose sole aim was to get the job done allowing for no interruptions from their private lives. So it was for Hammett also, who would cease his drinking and carousing when working on a novel. The character of Nick, however, is a bit of a harbinger of Hammett’s own work habits to come. Nick goes about his sleuthing reluctantly, only prying himself away from a bottle and a party at the insistence of others. This is a foreshadowing of Hammett’s own relationship with Hollywood when his absence from meetings and missed deadlines due to drinking would become the norm.

     Having drawn on his own experiences as a Pinkerton for his earlier plots and protagonists, Hammett seems to be examining his own current celebrity and lifestyle with The Thin Man. Hammett frequently admitted that his relationship with Hellman was the model for the literary Nick and Nora. Hellman’s own inquiries about Hammett’s past as a detective were passed directly into Nora’s mouth.

     In a 1969 interview with Joyce Haber for The Los Angles Times Calendar, Hellman stated:

Mr. Hammett had once been a detective long before he was a good writer, and I used to nag him to go back to work as a detective- chiefly so, in my mind, I could follow him around and see what would happen. He’d grow very angry at the idea. But it also gave him something to write about.

     In addition, Nick and Nora’s excessive drinking has been seen by some Hammett biographers as a self-parody of his and Hellman’s own excesses.

     While there is much evidence to support that Hammett based Nick and Nora on his own relationship with Hellman, it’s clear that he idealized it as well. Hammett and Hellman were never married, were often separated for long periods of time and would have tumultuous arguments. Hammett was certainly not known for his fidelity in their relationship. The Hacketts, meanwhile, were known as a happily married couple, who playfully sparred with each other. They were the perfect choice to adapt the Charleses to the big screen.

     Though much was done by the Hacketts to bring several of the characters more in line with what the Production Code would approve, they still managed to keep extremely faithful to the storyline of the novel. Several scenes, including gangster Morelli’s assault in the bedroom, play very faithfully to their literary counterparts. All told, it only took the Hackett’s three weeks to turn out their script.

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