L'introuvable rentre chez lui

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?

Generally the Fourth Sequel to nearly anything would be considered Garbage and You'd think that the Producers had milked the cash cow once too often...BUT 'The Thin Man goes home' the Fourth Sequel and penultimate Film in the Enjoyable MGM Series which ran from 1934-1947 is FAR better than you could really hope for.

Nick (William Powell) & Nora (Myrna Loy) catch a Train to see Nick's Parents merely for a Vacation, but everybody in the Small town are led to believe that Nick is on a Case... He Isn't...Well, Not until a Young man drops dead on his Parents doorstep from a Gunshot Wound -

'The Thin Man goes home' despite being 65 Years old now, doesn't feel anywhere near as dated as many other Films from the Era, There is plenty of Witty lines that are still Funny today and the Sparkling Chemistry between Powell & Loy is a joy to watch.

***1/2 out of *****

This film is hilarious! Powell and Loy's chemistry just doesn't let up, even after four sequels. I've now seen three of these films (The first, third and fifth), and the quality is as high as ever. I liked this one better than the third (Another Thin Man), though it's not quite as good as the first (The Thin Man).

The humour is excellent. These films wouldn't be half as good without the oft-subtle, always hilarious dialogue rampant throughout. And Powell and Loy are always perfect, they never miss a beat. One of the problems I had with the third one was that it felt forced, the humour just wasn't top-notch. But it's full-force here, nearly at the level of the first one. As well, the story is much more interesting than the third one, and almost at the level of the first. The first one had the spark, the originality, that won't ever be reproduced. But this script is sharp (although I really missed all of the great drinking jokes;), and it didn't (thankfully) have the brat of a baby;) And Asta is as cute as ever, what more could I ask for??

It's not perfect, it's not as good as the first. But it's up there! Another definite must-see; I'd recommend these films to all, an eternal classic!! 8/10.

The penultimate Thin Man movie has Nick & Nora visiting Nick's parents when, of course, a murder is committed. This one gives us a look at Nick's background, including that he grew up in a very MGM small town and that his doctor father is disappointed that Nick didn't follow in his footsteps. As the story progresses, the father learns to appreciate what a great detective Nick is. There's also a WWII spy angle and a recurring joke about Nick's newfound sobriety.

William Powell and Myrna Loy are great as ever with that fun chemistry we all love so much. One of my favorite Myrna Loy scenes in the entire series is the one here where she tells Nick's father about the Stinky Davis case. It's hilarious! Nick, Jr. is absent from this one but Asta is still around, albeit played by a different dog this time. The great supporting cast includes Lucille Watson, Harry Davenport, Lloyd Corrigan, Donald MacBride, Leon Ames, Edward Brophy, Helen Vinson, Donald Meek, Morris Ankrum, and a scenery-chewing Gloria DeHaven ("Just call me...Laurabelle."). It's the first Thin Man film not directed by Woody Van Dyke, who died in 1943. Perhaps that's why the movie has a different feel to it than prior entries in the series, although I'm sure we can most probably chalk it up to the changing times and tastes. More than a decade had passed since the first Thin Man film, after all. Still, it's an enjoyable movie that most fans of the series will love. It's hard to miss with Powell and Loy.