News

There are certain characters in pop culture who, no matter the actor portraying them, conjure up a particular look and feeling about them when they're thought of or talked about. For instance, the general public image of Batman is someone in a cape and cowl who broods about while fighting crime, a persona that dominates despite the gulf of difference between Adam West and Christian Bale's screen portrayals of the Caped Crusader. James Bond is undoubtedly such a character; while he's only been played by six different actors during his 63 years on cinema screens — and these actors all brought something so unique to their portrayals that they're frequently ranked against each other in order of personal preference — there still exists a consistency to Bond's pop culture persona.

The reason for this is actually a fairly direct one. When Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli and Harry Saltzman formed Eon Productions in...

The cherished screen team of William Powell and Myrna Loy met “cute” on their first film together, the gritty 1934 “Manhattan Melodrama.” According to TCM.com, first scene in the film required her to run out a building, maneuver through a crowd of people and jump into a car. The film’s director W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke, who was nicknamed “One Take Woody” because of his efficiency, didn’t bother to introduce the actress to Powell. So, when Van Dyke called “action “Loy recalled jumping into the car and landing “smack on William Powell’s lap. He looked up nonchalantly: Miss Loy, I presume?” I said, Mr. Powell? That’s how I met the man who would be my partner in 14 films.”

It was their next film, the smart screwball comedy/mystery “The Thin Man,” which opened May 25, 1934, transformed the couple into top stars at MGM. Directed by Van Dyke...

Dashiell Hammett didn't invent detective fiction, he just perfected it — partially because he knew good and goddamn well of what he wrote. The high school dropout landed a gig with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency and evidently saw the worst side of the profession when his employer got fat off industrial cash by assigning their operatives to muscle, if not kill labor organizers. Years later, he laced his first published novel, "Red Harvest," with the bitter conscience of a man who witnessed evil but out of self-preservation did nothing.

Much of Hammett's work stings like a day drunk's swallow of rotgut whiskey, a belt they absorb over and over again to escape the awfulness of a world they cannot change in any meaningful way. The Continental Op eradicating a cluster of cold-blooded thugs with the 20-steps-ahead cool of a chess grandmaster in "Red Harvest" is so satisfying it's provided the foundation for several brilliant films.

The Thin Man franchise is unique because of its longevity and its relation to the holidays, making it a stand-out film worth watching. The Thin Man movies follow married couple Nick and Nora Charles as they get involved in various mystery cases, with each film bringing new challenges and adventures. The Thin Man franchise lasted for over a decade, with the final film, Song of the Thin Man, being the last installment due to financial losses.

Despite being released nearly 90 years ago, The Thin Man is still a very watchable classic movie, especially during the holidays, however, with six similarly named films making up the franchise, it can be unclear how exactly they should be watched. The Thin Man, released in 1934, is a mystery comedy movie based on a novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The story, and its consequent sequels, follow married couple Nick and Nora Charles.

Margot Robbie’s LuckyChap Entertainment and Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment are in talks to co-produce a remake of classic 1934 comedy mystery The Thin Man.

Based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as a husband and wife who team up to solve a murder and host a dinner party attended by all the suspects. The film was a huge success upon release, even scoring several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actor. Five sequels followed, including After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man, The Thin Man Goes Home, and Song of the Thin Man.

The third star of The Thin Man and its sequel was Asta, the couple’s Wire Fox Terrier. At the time, the breed wasn’t overly popular in the United States, but the films quickly...

Experience the perfect blend of mystery and comedy in the world of “Thin Man” movies. In this blog post, we will guide you through the franchise chronologically and explain why these films achieved classic status during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Related: 10 Best Comedies of All Time, Ranked by Viewers

“The Thin Man” series follows the charming couple Nick Charles and Nora Charles, played by the incomparable William Powell and Myrna Loy, as they solve murders and crimes with a side of hilarity.

Whether you’re a longtime fan or a newcomer to these films, you’ll soon understand why they’ve remained so beloved. So sit back, grab a martini, and let’s dive into the world of the “Thin Man” franchise.

A List of All ‘Thin Man’ Movies In Order The Thin Man (1934) After the Thin Man (1936) Another Thin Man (1939) Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) The Thin Man Goes Home...

Warner Bros. Discovery has had a rough go of it recently. The newly-formed mega corporation’s decision to callously prune HBO Max’s servers of hours of content has led to mountains of bad PR and billions of dollars in market cap losses. Suffice it to say, a jam-packed list of new HBO Max releases for September 2022 would provide some welcome relief for the “House of the House of the Dragon.”

Unfortunately, HBO Max’s new releases this month are uncommonly light. It’s impossible to say whether this is the result of more Wbd meddling or simply some bad scheduling luck but either way it’s not going to make any executives’ seats less warm. There are only a handful of notable originals this month, led by season 2 of the Spanish language comedy Los Espookys on Sept. 16. That is joined by a pair of documentaries, Escape from Kabul on Sept.

“You got all the luck. What’d you do? Swallow a horseshoe?”

William Powell and Myrna Loy in Shadow Of The Thin Man (1941) will be available on Blu-ray August 17th From Warner Archive.

A jockey who threw a race is murdered in the locker room. With that, she and hubby Nick are off to the races on another case of murder, mirth and perfect martinis. Red herrings abound.

Nick and Nora’s hopes for a pleasant afternoon at the local race track are dashed when a jockey is found shot dead in the locker room. Nick’s friend Lt. Abrams wants him to help out but Nick is enjoying the good life too much to get involved. However, he is subsequently approached by Major Scully to look into corruption and the role of organized crime in gambling. Others are killed but in the end, Nick gathers all of the suspects...

As Hollywood threatens to remake The Thin Man, Turner Classic Movies and Warner Home Entertainment are releasing a Thin Man collection as one of three new classic film collections being added to their Greatest Classic Films and Legends lines (The Thin Man, After the Thin Man, Another Thin Man, Shadow of the Thin Man), all starring the iconic screen couple William Powell and Myrna Loy as happily tipsy sleuths Nick and Nora Charles. The other two collections also feature Golden Age screen couples, but of the singer-dancer variety: young MGM-era Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland (Girl Crazy, Strike Up the Band, Babes in Arms, Babes on Broadway) and the second-tier Astaire and Rogers Volume Two (Flying Down to Rio [pictured], Follow the Fleet, The Story ...

Depp to reunite with Pirates director Rob Marshall on new version of Dashiell Hammett thriller – but the partners in crime are still looking for their Nora

Johnny Depp is to reunite with Rob Marshall, director of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides for a remake of the classic 1934 comedy The Thin Man, according to the Thompson on Hollywood blog.

Ws Van Dyke's much-loved film, based on Dashiell Hammett's mystery novel, centres on a flirtatious, bantering married couple who work together to solve a mystery. Depp will play Nick Charles, a hard-drinking, droll, retired detective forced back into service by his friend's disappearance and possible involvement in a murder. Top priority for Marshall, also producing with partner John DeLuca, will be securing an A-list actor to portray his witty wife Nora, a wealthy heiress. The pair were played by William Powell and Myrna Loy in the original film.

"John...

"Stella was tough," recalls Kate Mulgrew of her acting teacher, the legendary Stella Adler. That description is an understatement.In 1931, Adler was a founding member of the revolutionary Group Theatre, which took Broadway by storm with a series of naturalistic productions of socially relevant plays, such as Clifford Odets' "Awake and Sing" and "Paradise Lost." In 1934, unsatisfied with Group Theatre co-founder Lee Strasberg's teaching of Konstantin Stanislavsky's techniques, the determined Adler traveled to Paris and studied with Stanislavsky himself. She returned to the Group with her own understanding of his work and offered acting classes to other members, including Sanford Meisner, Elia Kazan, and Robert Lewis.After a sojourn in Hollywood, where she appeared in such films as "Love on Toast" and "The Shadow of the Thin Man," Adler returned to New York and London to direct and act in numerous plays and to teach at the Erwin Piscator...

No. 78: Donna Reed 1921-86

Every Hollywood studio had its girl-next-door under contract in the 1930s and 40s, a pretty, wholesome, reliable future homemaker, usually a small-town girl from the midwest. The most perfect of them all was Donna Reed, brought up on a farm Iowa, 5ft 7in, brunette and exuding an unaffected purity. She was spotted by an MGM scout in a student show at Los Angeles City College, where she was in secretarial school. The studio changed her name from Donne Belle Mullinger to Donna Reed and cast her in a succession of lightweight films including Shadow of the Thin Man with William Powell and Myrna Loy and Babes on Broadway with Rooney and Garland. By 1944, with the help of the MGM publicity department, a Us battalion in Europe voted her "the girl we'd most like to come home to".

She came into her own as the war...

Comedy scriptwriter Irving Brecher has died at the age of 94.

He passed away on Monday in Los Angeles after a series of heart attacks last week (beg10Nov08).

His most notable work included the vaudeville sketches he penned for Milton Berle and comedies he wrote for the Marx Brothers - including a solo credit on 1940 film Go West.

Early in his career, Brecher was an uncredited script doctor on The Wizard of Oz, leading Groucho Marx to call him The Wicked Wit of the West - the title of his autobiography, which is scheduled to hit shelves in January.

His film credits came to include Shadow of the Thin Man in 1941, 1943's Du Barry Was a Lady, starring Lucille Ball, Gene Kelly and Red Skelton, Yolanda and the Thief in 1945, starring Fred Astaire, and 1963 classic Bye Bye Birdie.

Brecher was also nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Meet Me in St. Louis, starring Judy Garland.

In addition to the silver screen, Brecher also turned his talents to radio, creating long-running series The Life of Riley - later adapted into a feature film and TV series in 1949.

He is survived by his wife, Norma, and three stepchildren.