Replacing The Thin Man

A Man in Demand: Melvyn Douglas was chosen to play a Nick Charles-style detective in two potential film franchises in 1938.

I've written a few entries on what I refer to as the Husband and Wife Detective Team , so I was fortunate to find a book, Jon Tuska’s The Detective in Hollywood (1978) which covers the many movie series detectives popular in the 1930s and 40s. The book is noteworthy, despite its often cynical tone, for providing the interesting backstory on The Thin Man series and MGM’s desire to strike gold once again by pairing another onscreen couple in the hopes of replicating the William Powell-Myrna Loy electricity.

William Powell had a tremendous career year in 1936 (the best year any actor ever had), but 1937 found the actor dealing with life and death situations. In June, his fiancée Jean Harlow, 26, died of uremic poisoning. Shortly afterwards, Powell was diagnosed with colon cancer, which required surgery and radium treatments. He would not make a movie for the next two years. MGM, looking to keep the money rolling in, began searching for substitutes for another husband and wife detective team series. The move was seen by Metro as “insurance”, and as the author cynically notes:


"Metro announced to the trades that in view of Powell’s difficulties the next Thin Man picture would star a new team consisting of Virginia Bruce and Melvyn Douglas…Metro had been taking out insurance, looking for a new team that clicked like Powell and Loy. Not only were they concerned about Powell’s living long enough to make another picture, but Loy herself, who was quite difficult to get along with and anything but the perfect wife off-screen, was constantly after the studio to give her major star buildup like that of Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo."

So Suave: Melvyn Douglas looks characteristically dapper in 1938's "Arsene Lusin."

The first of these Thin Man substitutes featured Melvyn Douglas. In The previously-mentioned mystery-comedy, Fast Company (1938), Douglas and Florence Rice are rare-book dealers Joel and Garda Sloane, who become involved in a murder mystery after a rival book dealer is killed. Strangely enough, MGM recast the next two Fast movies, Fast and Loose (1939) with Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell and then that same year, Fast and Furious, with Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern as Joel and Garda.

Columbia pictures tried its own hand at grabbing some of that Thin Man action and tapped--you guessed it-- Melvyn Douglas as detective-turned-lawyer in 1938’s There’s Always a Woman, in which he and Joan Blondell played sleuthing couple Bill and Sally Reardon. Bill wants to give up detecting and return to his job at the district attorney’s office, but Sally is hired by a friend to determine if her fiancée is having an affair. Of course, a murder is committed, and both Bill and Sally are both on the case. An interesting aspect of the film is that Sally is the heart of the detective agency, and an equal partner in the firm. Heady stuff in 1938! An actress like Joan Blondell was just the sort of personality who could pull that off, too. However, the studios didn’t think so, because the sequel, 1939’s There’s That Woman Again, had Sally being played by Virginia Bruce. Melvyn Douglas was back as Bill Reardon, though. Apparently both MGM and Columbia believed that Douglas, who bore a passing resemblance to William Powell, was the man to be the “next” Nick Charles. I believe that while Douglas was a fantastic actor, the sometimes-broad comedy that Powell could do with ease was not Douglas’ forte. Douglas’ humor was dry, subtle, and sophisticated, whereas Powell, while all of those things, also brought a physical presence to his comedy that Douglas lacked.

Both the “Fast” and “Woman” series were scrapped. MGM and Columbia probably realized that William Powell could not be replaced. In the non-tormented, non-Noir detective racket, there’s Nick Charles and then there’s everyone else. No wonder the studios were scrambling like panicked schoolgirls when Powell was diagnosed with cancer. The Thin Man series was a huge moneymaking franchise and an unexpected success, to boot. The studio suits believed that they could replicate the Sleuthing Couple formula with some combination of their stable of stars and contract players, but it didn't happen. However, from the tragedy that was Jean Harlow’s death and the serious health problem that was colon cancer, The Dapper One would return to movies in 1939’s Another Thin Man, the trailer of which includes a “Welcome Back, Bill Powell!” banner written below Powell’s visage at ad’s end while accompanied by the strains of “Happy Days are Here Again.” There would be three more Thin Man movies: in 1941, 1944, and 1947. William Powell would live another forty-five years, happily married to his wife Diana Lewis (twenty-three years his junior) and live in blissful retirement in their Palm Springs home for nearly thirty years after walking away from films in 1955. Powell reportedly loved reading and watching TV in his mammoth bed, wearing his silk robe, and with an ever-present cocktail in hand; sounds like a happy ending worthy of Nick and Nora Charles.


As for those would-be Thin Man knock offs, they're best viewed today as amusing entries in the sleuthing couples sweepstakes, but when seen in the context of the 1930s, when desperate movie studios attempted to replace their biggest moneymaker in the detective genre, one can see that they're pale substitiutes compared to the superior films--and actor-- they were supposed to replace.

The Template: No one played suave, smooth, and silly like William Powell.

Husband and Wife Detectives

Ever since I saw The Thin Man I’ve been fascinated with the concept of the “Husband and wife sleuthing team.” It’s probably my number one “Silver Screen Dream”, to exist in an ongoing, never-ending Thin Man movie. For those who don’t know, William Powell and Myrna Loy perfected the genre in that first Thin Man entry, which was adapted from the Dashiell Hammett novel of the same name. Hammett based his novel on the tippling and banter of he and paramour Lillian Hellman. The original movie was a surprise hit largely due to the sparkle between the two stars. MGM had the making of a hit movie series. In all, Powell and Loy would play the roles in six Thin Man films.

Before I became enamored with Nick and Nora’s adventures, I was a Film Noir devotee and routinely dismissed what I saw as “lightweight” detectives like Nick Charles and other “non-tormented” characters. I was big on tormented protagonists; in fact, I still am. However, when I became obsessed with the 1930s, Nick Charles became my new hero. He was cool, calm, collected, and always ready with a glib remark. In other words, everything most of us are not. He didn’t want to be a private detective anymore, especially since he married Nora, the inheritor of her wealthy industrialist father’s fortune. Comfortably well off Nick and Nora drink to excess (it is the recurring gag in the first two films, reflecting the nation’s joy at the repeal of prohibition). The couple crack wise with one another, play the ponies, dine at the finest restaurants, stay at the best hotels, and generally act as though there is no Great Depression. Nora meets and is amused by the many colorful characters from Nick’s days as a detective and chides him for the dubious company he kept. What’s more, the crooks that Nick “sent up the river” have nothing but affection and admiration for him! In the middle of all this revelry and amusement, Nick solves the occasional murder. Nora is Nick’s catalyst, often urging him into action, asking about his previous adventures and pestering him about taking on another case, which is never for payment but rather to assist the police, who are always too happy to have his help. Oh, and they have a delightful wire-haired terrier, Asta, (female in the novel, male in the films), who is practically a partner in the Charles’ adventures.

The Thin Man series is a rarity in that it's one of the few times in film that a couple is shown in the “ever after” stage of the romance. Nick and Nora are a happy, confident, and well-adjusted couple who enjoy one another's company; it's not a concept that Hollywood has embraced--then or now-- with any degree of regularity. Subsequent attempts to replicate this formula have been marginally successful and Nick and Nora remain the exception to the rule; they remain the model for the concept. William Powell would appear in a film that attempted to replicate the magic he had with Myrna Loy, 1936’s The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, which featured Powell alongside Jean Arthur. In it Powell is a doctor whose ex-wife drags him into yet another murder case, which was the reason he divorced her!

After devouring the Thin Man movies multiple times, my quest for similar crime fighting couples grew. My search for similar fare led me to upon Joel and Garda Sloane of the Fast series, written by Harry Kurnitz. The characters appeared in three movies produced by MGM during 1938-39 and featured three different couples as the rare book dealer turned detectives:

Fast Company: Melvyn Douglas and Florence Rice. Married book-dealers Joel and Garda Sloane try to clear a friend in the murder of a rival book-seller.

Fast and Loose: Robert Montgomery and Rosalind Russell. Joel and Garda Sloane investigate the killing of a noted collector.

Fast and Furious: Franchot Tone and Ann Sothern. The couple get mixed up with murder during a beauty pageant.

Why MGM didn’t sick with one couple is a mystery in itself. Perhaps it was because the search for another couple with Powell-Loy style chemistry proved elusive. All three films have their charms, and I regularly bounce back and forth between which is my favorite, with the present frontrunner being Fast and Furious, as Tone is a delight and Ann Sothern is…irresistible! The men play Joel Sloane in varying degrees: from a dry and subtle wit (Melvyn Douglas), to more obviously comedic (Bob Montgomery & Franchot Tone). The various Gardas are alternately silly, meddlesome, and unlike the supercool Nora Charles, jealous of the attention their husbands receive from the lovely young ladies. It’s unfortunate that a regular duo wasn’t used. We’re still waiting for the Fast films to appear on DVD.


A "novel" twist on husband-wife detectives is the series of mystery novels by George Baxt. Baxt (1923-2003) employs famous movie couples as the protagonists. The intriguing concept is perhaps best realized in his last novel, The Clark Gable & Carole Lombard Murder Case. Amateur detectives Gable and Lombard are in pursuit of a kidnapper of movie star babies amid the backdrop of Gone with the Wind’s premiere, though the plot is also a nod to the Lindbergh baby kidnapping of 1932. Lombard’s Screwball persona and Gable’s wisecracking propels the tale, which is best read for its atmosphere of the era and allowing the on screen personas of the two stars to be the focus. George Baxt had previously written The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Murder Case, with its Cold War-era intrigue in Moscow and early 1950s Hollywood, and The William Powell & Myrna Loy Murder Case. Not husband & wife teams, but the public saw them that way, even though the stars were “just good friends.” The Powell and Loy mystery has the duo investigating an infamous Hollywood madam’s death, and the actors are buoyed by their experience as a silver screen sleuthing team! I just wish that Baxt had just written the "Continuing Adventures of the Thin Man", but give him credit for trying something different.

Television has tried its hand at husband and wife detectives as Nick and Nora Charles would re-emerge in a 1957 TV series, starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk. But it just wasn’t the same having Nick and Nora amid bongo-playing beatniks and Nick sans the fedora. Lawford possessed zero comic ability, though Phyllis Kirk wasn’t bad as Nora. The last gasp would appear to be the 1979-84 TV series Hart to Hart, starring Robert Wagner and Stephanie Powers, with 1930s character actor Lionel Stander as their butler. The Harts also had a dog, “Freeway”, though he wasn’t a wire-haired terrier. The series was successful and was clearly patterned after Nick & Nora. The show’s been off the air for over twenty-five years, so is that all? Are there no more crime solving couples out there? Is the genre dead? Perhaps it’s time for another crack at making funny, sophisticated married couples “hip” again. If not, we’ll always have William Powell and Myrna Loy’s Nick and Nora.

In Dreams: William Powell & Carole Lombard would've made a great onscreen detective team.