Notes on my Favorite Films (Year By Year) The Thin Man (1934)

Holding off stiff competition from the likes of Von Sternberg’s The Scarlett Empress, Howard Hawks Twentieth Century and Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante, W.S. Van Dyke’s razor-sharp comic-mystery The Thin Man is my favorite film from 1934. Loosley adapted from the popular novel by Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man remains a brutally funny and wonderfully wicked masterpiece that hasn’t aged a bit since it wowed audiences throughout the summer and fall of '34.



Getting his start as Assistant Director to D. W. Griffith on the stunning Intolerance, W.S. Van Dyke (One Take Woody) quickly became known in Hollywood for the speed at which he would direct. The Thin Man was indeed shot very quickly, in under two weeks, and it's directed with a rather unrefined zip. Thankfully Van Dyke’s sometimes-rudimentary style doesn’t hurt the film at all and it almost adds to the drunken atmosphere. While his direction is raw, Van Dyke was smart enough to know his real assets were Powell and Loy and he lets them control his frame every chance he gets.




The unstoppable duo of William Powell and Myrna Loy give two of the most infectiously witty and audacious screen performances ever in The Thin Man and the film works as a mystery, a romantic comedy and a subversive commentary on the dynamics of a married couple. With a drink constantly in hand, Powell’s Nick Charles has a wonderfully bruised, but nowhere near defeated quality, about him and its easy to see why he would become one of the most popular characters of this tough period in American history. Loy’s Nora Charles is even better, with her constant comebacks and warm sexual charm, and her performance in The Thin Man is positively groundbreaking and is very much ahead of its time.



With a marvelous supporting cast of memorable actors including Margaret O’Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Porter Hall, Cesar Romero and the ever-present Fox-Terrier Skippy as the unforgettable Asta, The Thin Man is still such an absolute joy to watch and its ability to make an audience laugh hasn't been diminished in the decades since its release. Van Dyke’s film would spawn a number of sequels but none of them came close to measuring up to the success of the first. The Thin Man series would ultimately derail itself by sobering up Powell and domesticating Loy, but the delightful spirit of the initial outing was thankfully unharmed. Van Dyke's film is available as a stand alone DVD or as part of a box-set containing all The Thin Man films.

Notes on my Favorite Films Year By Year (1936): My Man Godfrey

For most of his life, Godfrey Parke had had it made. Coming from a wealthy family with a healthy inheritance awaiting him and possessing a natural charm that drew everyone around him in, it seemed like life only had wine and roses in store for Godfrey. Life has a way of falling apart at the drop of a designer hat though and a splintered love affair had hit Godfrey hard. Depressed and near suicidal, Godfrey escapes to a depressed hobo-village down by the east river where he discovered that happiness has little to do with financial prosperity.

Gregory La Cava had been knocking around the film industry for as long as it had basically existed. Born in Pennsylvania in 1892, La Cava got his start in the silents in 1916 as an animator. Dozens upon dozens of animated and finally short live-action films followed for the ambitious La Cava, who quickly established himself as one of the most prolific fellows in the silent-film industry. He made the jump to talkies fairly smoothly but he never quite made the leap to the top-tier directors of his day. No one could argue with the spirited and brilliant touch he gave to My Man Godfrey though, his masterpiece from 1936 that remains one of Hollywood's greatest and most moving comedies.



La Cava crafted the script of the very brave My Man Godfrey from an Eric Hatch novel along with screenwriter Morrie Ryskind and Hatch himself. Opening with a cruel scavenger hunt perpetrated by seemingly selfish socialite Irene Bullock, who decides a homeless man would be the greatest prize of all, My Man Godfrey remains as surprising and potent as ever. The never less than brilliant script would act as a romantic screwball comedy but would also attempt to come to terms with the terrible financial depression America was suffering at the time. My Man Godfrey would lament the plight of the working class while poking fun at the rich and powerful that had stepped all over them, and it would do so with a style and wit that has rarely been matched to this day.



With La Cava's sure-handed touch and the wondrous lead work by William Powell and the glorious Carole Lombard (still probably the greatest female comedian the screen has ever seen), My Man Godfrey remains one of the most purely entertaining and thought-provoking Hollywood films of the thirties. It would snag a solid six Oscar nominations (although it was shut-out) and it would briefly give Gregory La Cava the respect that had mostly alluded him. Sadly, he would only complete a half dozen or so more films before he passed away in 1952.



My Man Godfrey is available as part of The Criterion Collection, where a brilliant series of outtakes featuring the beautiful Lombard cursing like a sailor can be enjoyed as an extra. Avoid at all costs the colorized version that is floating around, as it mercilessly destroys the wonderful black and white photography of Ted Tetzlaff that is so essential to the film's success.

Images From My All Time Favorite Films: W.S. Van Dyke's The Thin Man (1934)