El regreso de aquel hombre

Everybody has at least one skeleton in their closet, and Nick Charles is the man who can bring them out into the daylight. The fifth film in the excellent 'Thin Man' series sees our favourite married detectives, Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy), visiting Nick's parents in the small town of Sycamore Springs, a sleepy locale where everybody knows everybody and crime is practically non-existent… or so they thought! The famous detective's arrival is greeted with a wave of controversy, despite his own insistence that the visit is merely a quiet vacation. With everybody under the impression that Nick is investigating an important case, long-forgotten skeletons begin to emerge from their hiding-places, a young artist is shot dead on the doorstep and an ordinary-looking painting of a windmill becomes a vital clue in identifying his murderer.

'The Thin Man Goes Home' was the first film in the series not directed by W.S. Van Dyke, after he committed suicide in February 1943. Nonetheless, Richard Thorpe does a good job of recreating the mystery and good humour of the previous instalments, working off a script from Robert Riskin, Harry Kurnitz and Dwight Taylor. There are also a few notable adjustments to the usual formula: the action takes place in a small town rather than the city, and Nick Charles has gone completely teetotal {no doubt a consequence of the WWII liquor rationing}. Aside from obviously solving the mystery and apprehending the killer, the film has another important sub-plot concerning Nick and his disapproving father. Nora makes it her goal to convince Dr. Charles (Harry Davenport) that his son is, indeed, a detective genius, and fuels the rumours – in a not-so-subtle fashion – that he is here on a case. However, his father won't believe that Nick has gone off drinking, and various unfortunate moments of bad-timing do little to prove him otherwise.

Of course, the main reason we watch 'The Thin Man' movies is to enjoy the witty banter and playful rivalry between husband and wife, and a lot of it is still here, even if it takes a back-seat to the murder mystery itself. Just like the audience, Nora believes that she understands Nick's mystery-solving tactics to the letter, and she enthusiastically narrates his technique to the attentive Dr. Charles, occasionally tossing in her own opinion of the identity of the killer. Of course, she's almost always wrong. This mystery is a muddled affair, with seemingly everyone guilty for at least something, but it's the killer's name that proves a real surprise.

Here we've got a complete change of atmosphere for our city-dwellers Nick and Nora: they travel to Nick's small hometown to see his parents after a long time. And since Nick knows how much his father disapproves of his excessive drinking, he's gone on a 'diet' of... apple cider! But Father also disapproves of something else: that Nick didn't become a doctor like himself, but just a 'cop'... And yet that's exactly what's made him famous in his town: the many difficult murder cases he's solved in the city. And so everybody thinks, as soon as he turns up in the sleepy hole, that he must be here 'on business'... But while he's trying to persuade everyone that he's just on holiday - he DOES get his 'business': a young man is shot right in front of the door of his parents' house!

So, whether he wants to or not, he helps investigating (since the country cops are even dumber than those in the city...); and he uncovers not only a whole number of well-kept family secrets, but - with a painting that Nora buys him for his birthday and that seems strangely coveted by some people as evidence - finally a big case of industrial espionage! And as for the identity of the actual murderer: here he makes his father proud at last with his knowledge of forensic medicine...

Now, it depends on the point of view: you could call the environment in this movie either unusual or unsuitable for Nick and Nora. Anyway, let's see it from the positive side: William Powell and Myrna Loy are once again in great shape and in the mood for cheeky jokes (Nickie Jr. was left at home this time, so there aren't any parents' issues), Anne Revere gives a great performance as 'Crazy Mary' and Donald Meek as the nutty art dealer and Edward Brophy (who had played 'Morelli' in the original first "Thin Man" movie) as the chatty salesman provide good fun entertainment, and the plot is really quite clever and full of surprises.

Still, you can feel the atmosphere changing and drifting further away from the first 'Thin Man' movies; so, for fans of Nick and Nora (as we knew them from the 30s) this one might be a slight disappointment - but as a crime comedy on the whole it's certainly solid, well-made entertainment!

It's 1945, the trains are packed with people, Asta doesn't remain hidden under Nora's fur coat so Nick, Nora and Asta end up in the baggage car as they travel to Nick's home town. And Nick is drinking only cider - his father never approved of drink. Thus begins, "The Thin Man Goes Home," made as the war was ending and a lot of people whose lives had changed were thinking about going home.

Nick, it turns out, has an uneasy relationship with his doctor dad because he himself never became a doctor. When the inevitable mystery arises around a murder, Nora wants Nick to solve it to impress his dad.

The fact is, the scripts of "The Thin Man" series never mattered. It was always the acting and interaction of William Powell and Myrna Loy, and here, as usual, they're great - loving, flippant, and funny. Since Nick is always falling on the floor or getting hit on the head, it's hard for anyone to believe he's sober. At a charity dance, in order to do some investigating, he gives his dance tickets to a sailor and Nora becomes his partner. The dance scene is hilarious as the sailor tosses Nora all over the place and swings her around with the kind of maneuvers you see in pair figure skating.

The war is still on so the story involves espionage. A very young Gloria de Haven does nicely as a self-consciously over-dramatic young woman; Harry Davenport and Lucile Watson are great as Nick's parents; and the later blacklisted Anne Revere does a fine job as Crazy Mary.

William Powell could read the phone book with class and humor; Loy looks beautiful and their teamwork has never been better. Highly recommended.

All the Thin Man films are great to watch, but this is one with which I find a bit easier to identify. Riskin, the writer of this film and long time scriptwriter for Frank Capra, was also the guy who wrote "It Happened One Night" and "Meet John Doe". This New York City born writer's attraction to average Joe small town values over Cosmopolitan glitz and decadence obvious in those two films is plain to see here. This is probably the image a lot of successful urbanites had about moving to the suburbs after WW2.

This is sort of an odd bird among Thin Man films in a couple of ways. First of all, Nick is astonishingly sober for a change. Don't look for any of those scenes of Nick and Nora trying to drink each other the table at some New York nightclub in this one. In fact, the nightclubs and high rises are totally gone as Nick takes Nora the glamorous New York socialite back for a visit to Nick's hometown, which bears a fairly strong likeness to Andy Hardy's. Nick's father is a retired M.D. not unlike the ones in the Norman Rockwell paintings. He wanted Nick to follow in his footsteps as a small town doctor instead of becoming a big city policeman and this is the first time the two of them have gotten together in years. This father-son reconciliation is the explanation for Nick's sudden uncharacteristic attraction to a sober, healthy lifestyle.

Nick's father is actually fairly proud of Nick and keeps a scrapbook about all his adventures. The whole town knows about Nick Charles the famous Detective. I sort of see invisible images of G.I.s returning home from WW2 in a lot of this movie. Nick's celebrity as a tough, smart local boy who went off to bring gun toting gangsters to justice in the big city of aristocratic sophisticates and Broadway nights is not very far removed from how most Americans probably saw the guys who went off to liberate Paris and Europe in WW2. Nora fits into that picture as a sort of "Mrs. Miniver" figure of what American's admired about European sophication brought back home to meet the folks.

The homecoming hero vision of Nick peacefully turning into a happy coach potato in a post war suburbia however is not what we want to see. What everybody loves about the Thin Man films is their contrary to Hollywood stereotype revelation that life after marriage can actually be exciting. Nora decides to get Nick off the coach with an "I Love Lucy" sort of plot twist that spreads a rumor around town that Nick is secretly working on a detective case. The result of course is that all the various local characters with small town secrets to hide think he's after them and all the mystery murders and skeletons start coming out of the closet like we've all been waiting to see. Nick and Nora are such a fun couple, aren't they?

This is the fourth sequel to the 1934 smash hit THE THIN MAN. Just when I would have thought the series was dead the producers and writers were able to add life to the franchise.

Nick goes home and of course gets dragged into another murder mystery. Nora, who by now should no longer be curious to see Nick solve a mystery, tries to get Nick to solve a murder mystery so he can impress his father the medical doctor. Nick's father had always hoped his son would have become a doctor and when Nick became a cop and then detective he looked down on him. As far as the mystery goes it follows the typical THIN MAN formula. A bunch of suspects are introduced and in the end Nick rounds them all up and reveals the killer.

The comedy is better than ever. Rather than have Nick always drinking and having jokes centered around his drinking Nick is now sober. The jokes are even funnier because everyone believes he is still a drunk and he just can't convince them otherwise. The scene in his Dad's parlor is hilarious. Nick is stone sober but due to a series of mishaps he is on the floor and appears to all to be drunk as ever. Also, when Nick recounts his childhood to Nora and tells her of his trips to the wood shed that brings back memories of my childhood and trips to the wood shed.

This is my second favorite THIN MAN movie. Right behind AFTER THE THIN MAN and just before the original THIN MAN. It is an almost perfect blend of mystery and comedy.