The Thin Man(William Powell and Myrna Loy)

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Dashiell Hammett, mystery-comedy

With both Netflix and Turner Classic Movies, I’ve been catching up on a lot of old films.Though I read Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man years ago, I’d never seen the film version(or any of the sequels for that matter).

I quite enjoyed this light-hearted mystery adaptation. William Powell and Myrna Loy had that chemistry so easily working that many other film couples worked hard at but failed miserably.  They could absolutely have been a long married couple with their joking banter, the care they felt for each other, anticipation of each other. It was all so smooth.

Their relationship actually pushed the mystery story into a secondary position. That’s okay.

Nick Charles didn’t really want to return to his detective roots. He enjoyed playing the idle rich boy too well. Nora thinks it would be a hoot and gradually, against his will, Nick gets pulled into the case.

Wynant, the eccentric inventor, was missing and believed to be a murderer. His daughter, seemingly the only sane member of the family, doesn’t think so. The bodies start to add up, each additional one being blamed on Wynant.

In a bow to the classic scenario, the Charles have a dinner party with all the suspects there, as well as a contingent of cops, where Nick ends up exposing the real killer.

After watching this film, I now want to see the other five. I’ve read that they had varying degrees of success.

We’ll see.

Lady In The Lake(Robert Montgomery)

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Philip Marlowe, PI

Originally, My next Marlowe post was to be on Powers Boothe’s HBO series. Then I discovered Netflix had LADY IN THE LAKE available and slipped it ahead. I’d read a lot about this film, good and bad, and I decided to go with it next.

Robert Montgomery as Philip Marlowe and he directed as well.

Marlowe is hired to find a publisher’s missing wife. A telegram had arrived two months ago saying she was in Mexico to get a divorce so she could marry a, let’s be charitable, gigolo. Then he’s seen around town and seems to know nothing about it.

Marlowe soon becomes enmeshed in a complicated plot with a  woman drowned a while back in a lake, a crooked cop, a murdered gigolo, a furious husband. He gets slugged around a bit, as usual, framed a couple of times, the usual in pursuit of the truth. Which, of course, is never what the participants want.

I really had no problem with the story line. The basic plot of the novel is there. I’ve never insisted a novel be slavishly followed. Two different mediums that aren’t really complimentary to each other. Allowances have to be made, even with Raymond Chandler, as incredible as that may seem.

And Marlowe himself is done right. That cynical, wise cracking PI is there, even in the face of danger.

The POV is where my problems lie with the film. I didn’t much care for the first person point of view. They used to call such things “interesting” experiments. I wouldn’t. This type of film seems to require seeing the main character, the emotions in his face, the body language. They sort of overdid the looking-at-himself in a mirror bit as well. That was to get Montgomery on camera more, I suppose. But I often go a whole day without looking in a mirror, let alone a half dozen times in just a few hours. That borders on narcissism.

Not the best of the Marlowe movies I’ve seen recently. But not the worst either.