THE THIN MAN (1934)

Hard-drinking Nick Charles (William Powell) is one of the greatest detectives alive, but he recently married a wealthy industrialist's daughter, Nora (Myrna Loy), so from now on it's smooth sailing!!  No more gumshoeing or hiding in the shadows for him. No siree, Bob! Just a bunch of relaxing, getting drunk as a skunk and gettin' up in his wife's guts...or at least that was the plan.

No matter how hard he fights it, he can't help but get pulled into the case of a married scientist (Edward Ellis) who disappeared around the time his mistress was found murdered. All of New York is abuzz with wild rumors and stories. And to make matters even worse, Nick's beautiful new bride is chomping at the bit to see her famous detective husband in action! Finally, he agrees and after some entertaining snooping around, he has all of the players in the mystery forced to attend a dinner party at his penthouse.  Fireworks ensue.

The murder mystery in THE THIN MAN is entertaining, but the real attraction (and the reason the film endures even to this day) is the on-screen chemistry between Myrna Loy and William Powell.  The two of them together as Nick and Nora Charles really is movie perfection.  The playfulness and quick wit...and the funny faces!  Oh my god, the funny faces they make at each other is the cutest thing that I've seen in a long time.

Quick pace, great mystery, amazing supporting cast, nice use of shadows, clever script (based on an outstanding novel by Dashiell Hammett), outstanding direction by W.S. Van Dyke (a.k.a. "One-Take Woody") who somehow shot this movie in less than 3 weeks!!!  Fun fact: Hammett's novel was originally published in December 1933 and the film premiered five months later in May 1934!  Holy duck-billed platypus testicles, that's fast!!!

If you enjoy classic Hollywood mysteries, then THE THIN MAN is required viewing and the start to a wonderful series that actually has a two sequels that I think are better than the original (parts 2 and 3). Highly recommended.

Part 2 - After the Thin Man (1936)
Part 3 - Another Thin Man (1939)
Part 4 - Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)
Part 5 - The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)
Part 6 - Song of the Thin Man (1947)

MR. PEABODY AND THE MERMAID (1948)

Forty-nine year-old Mr. Peabody (played by 56 year-old William Powell) goes on a Caribbean vacation with his wife, who's 17 years younger than him.  It's never explains how, but somehow they have enough money to rent a beachside mansion with a full-service staff.  Anyway, 56 year-old Powell is depressed that he's going to be turning 50 soon, so he goes for a walk and he hears some annoying, I mean, beautiful singing coming from a nearby island.  He goes out there and...nothing happens.  Finally, 26 minutes into the film, he meets the mermaid in the title, so he promptly brings her home and dumps her in the bathtub.  Then, for whatever bizarre Hollywood logic reason, his once loving wife suddenly turns mean when she sees a large fishtail sticking out of the water.  So now, for nearly the remainder of the film, it's just Powell hanging out by his pool doing nothing.  I was surprised at how unfunny MR. PEABODY AND THE MERMAID was!  I thought this was suppose to be a comedy?

Ann Blyth is absolutely gorgeous (her beauty is the highlight of the film), but she has nothing to work with.  She never says a word and spends the entire film simply floating around in the water.  Also, the character of Powell's wife (played by Irene Hervey) was completely unlikable.  Slow pace, non-existent humor (example: the mermaid cries while underwater and wipes her tears away with a handkerchief.  Hardy-har-har.), woman littering on the beach, very little mermaid swimming action, dead on arrival acting, unsatisfactory ending.

I love William Powell, but this movie is lame as Hell.  Skip it.

It's a little known fact that the girl that Frankenstein's monster threw into the lake actually turned into a mermaid and that the monster himself escaped the fire at the mill.  They later hooked up and ran off to Hollywood, CA were they lived happily ever after and operated a pet store for the next 54 years until it burned down.  The fire was captured in the documentary PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE.  After collecting the insurance money from the fire they retired and moved to Cedar Park, TX where I still occasionally see them holding hands.