The Thin Man (1934) William Powell, Myrna Loy, Maureen O'Sullivan, Cesar Romero & Dashiell Hammett

<b>Book Vs. Movie: The Thin Man</b><br /><b>The Dashiell Hammett Novel Vs. the 1934 Classic Film<br /><br /><br /></b>The Margos are looking for actors with chemistry and witty banter, so we had to dive into the fabulous world of Nick and Nora Charles and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025878/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Thin Man</a>. What began as a feature in <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Redbook-Magazine-December-1933-Vol-Hammett/629422117/bd" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Redbook magazine in December 1933</a> turned into a best-selling novel by one of the most important writers of the 20th Century--<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashiell_Hammett" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dashiell Hammett</a>. <br /><br />We discussed Hammett when talking about The Maltese Falcon, and for several reasons, The Thin Man became his last novel. Hammett was a passionate anti-fascist who joined the Communist Party in 1937. By the 1950s, Congress investigated him before the House of Un-American Activities (HUAC), where he refused to “name names.” He went to a federal penitentiary in West Virginia and found himself impoverished afterward. His partner <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Hellman" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lillian Hellman</a> would go on to run his estate posthumously. <br /><b><br /></b>The Thin Man is a story about a former New York City police officer (Nick Charles) who marries a wealthy socialite (Nora Charles) and spends his time between the city and San Francisco living as a bon vivant. One day, back in NYC, he runs into Dorothy Wynert, the daughter of a former client looking for her father.<br /><br />Later, we learn that his secretary (and former lover), Julia Wolf, was found murdered by his former wife, Mimi. The police think she was murdered by her gangster friend Shep Morelli. Mimi’s new husband is much younger, tall, handsome, and slim (the THIN man!) There are all kinds of banter, double-crossing hiji