THE THIN MAN AT 75
Date: Sat, July 4th 2009 - Thu, August 13th 2009External Link: Event Website
Event Tags: The Movies
Location: AFI Silver Theatre & Cultural Center
July 4 - August 13
This year marks the 75th anniversary of THE THIN MAN, and AFI celebrates with a complete retrospective of all six films in the popular series. Adapted from a Dashiell Hammett novel about retired detective Nick Charles and his heiress wife Nora (along with beloved terrier Asta) solving crimes in between cocktails and bon mots, THE THIN MAN helped launch the "screwball" genre in America's greatest era of THE THIN MAN screen comedy. The 1934 film proved so popular that a franchise was born, with five sequels following over the next 13 years. Blessed throughout with the screen team of William Powell and Myrna Loy, who reportedly loved acting together as much as the audience loved watching them, the series advanced the revolutionary idea that, in the movies, marriage could be fun.
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AFI Member passes will be accepted at all films in The Thin Man at 75 series. |
THE THIN MAN
75th Anniversary!
Director W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke, known as "One-Take Woody" for his speedy shooting style, got this project off the ground by promising to shoot it in three weeks. He wrapped in 12 days! The dream pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy does, in fact, make it look easy, exchanging non-stop witty banter over highballs and a variety of comic hijinks to solve the mystery of a missing inventor, the "thin man" of the title. The roundup of suspects to reveal the guilty party became a series staple, later imitated by hundreds of other whodunits.
DIR W.S. Van Dyke; SCR Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, from the novel by Dashiell Hammett; PROD Hunt Stromberg. US, 1934, b&w, 93 min. NOT RATED
Saturday, July 4, 5:00; Sunday, July 5, 12:45; Tuesday, July 7, 5:00; Thursday, July 9, 5:00, 7:00
AFTER THE THIN MAN
"This is a fine way to start the New Year," Nick says as he bails Nora from jail. But it's Nora's cousin who's really in trouble, having been found standing over the body of her cheating husband with a smoking gun in her hand. Did she do it? Starring a young Jimmy Stewart, in one of his earliest roles, as Nora's younger cousin. After the climactic reveal, Nora has one more surprise for unsuspecting Nick.
DIR W.S. Van Dyke; SCR Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich; PROD Hunt Stromberg. US, 1936, b&w, 113 min. NOT RATED
Friday, July 10, 5:00; Saturday, July 11, 5:00; Sunday, July 12, 12:30
SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN
With Nick, Jr., now a young lad, Nick and Nora have sworn off booze and retired from sleuthing--neither for the first nor last time. An afternoon visit to the local horse track sets things in motion this time out, after a crooked jockey gets shot in the locker room, and Nick and Nora's delight in snooping around wins out, eventually exposing a sports-fixing organized crime ring.
DIR W.S. Van Dyke; SCR Irving Brecher, Harry Kurnitz; PROD Hunt Stromberg. US, 1941, b&w, 97 min. NOT RATED
Friday, July 17, 5:00; Saturday, July 18, 5:00; Sunday, July 19, 5:20; Tuesday, July 21, 4:30
ANOTHER THIN MAN
Dashiell Hammett contributed this sequel's original story, the last to be adapted for the screen by the able Hackett and Goodrich team. Now with baby Nick Jr. in tow, the Charles family decamps to the Long Island mansion of retired Colonel and wealthy munitions manufacturer C.Aubrey Smith, who has called on Nick for advice about some unpleasantness in his personal life. When the Colonel turns up dead, the Charleses don't lack for bizarre suspects to investigate, including creepy clairvoyant Sheldon Leonard and boarding house proprietress/procuress Marjorie Main.
DIR W.S. Van Dyke; SCR Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich, from The Farewell Murder by Dashiell Hammett; PROD Hunt Stromberg. US, 1939, b&w, 103 min. NOT RATED
Friday, July 24, 4:45; Saturday, July 25, 4:45; Sunday, July 26, 5:15; Monday, July 27, 4:45; Tuesday, July 28, 4:45; Thursday, July 30, 4:45
SONG OF THE THIN MAN
Aboard a cruise ship for a charity casino night, the musical entertainment hits a bum note when the bandleader turns up dead. Back on land, Nick and Nora descend into the demimonde of New York City jazz joints, where they discover, through the haze of smoke, waft of booze and slang of 1940s jazz-speak, that the deceased did not lack for enemies. One of the series' best supporting casts here includes Keenan Wynn, Jayne Meadows, Gloria Grahame and the young Dean Stockwell as Nick, Jr.
DIR Edward Buzzell; SCR Steve Fisher, Nat Perrin; PROD Nat Perrin. US, 1947, b&w, 86 min. NOT RATED
Friday, July 31, 5:00; Saturday, August 1, 5:45; Sunday, August 2, 5:35; Monday, August 3, 5:00; Tuesday, August 4, 5:00; Thursday, August 6, 5:00
THE THIN MAN GOES HOME
With Nick Jr. off to boarding school, Nick and Nora visit Nick's hometown of Sycamore Springs, and his patrician parents Harry Davenport and Lucile Watson. Although father never cared for Nick's profession, the murder of a local painter affords Nick the opportunity to show off his sleuthing skills, with Nora chipping in her talent for creating chaos--and detecting clues.
DIR Richard Thorpe; SCR Robert Riskin, Dwight Taylor; PROD Everett Riskin. US, 1944, b&w, 100 min. NOT RATED
Friday, August 7, 5:00; Saturday, August 8, 5:35; Sunday, August 9, 5:20, Tuesday, August 11, 5:00; Thursday, August 13, 5:00
