Someone my age or older if he is familiar with Hammett’s story, “The Thin Man” probably has only seen the 1934 film with William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles. And as I’ve reviewed elsewhere, it is a fantastically entertaining movie made up of equal parts comedy and murder mystery.
I have a copy of the Library of America volumes for Dashiell Hammett and for whatever reason this past week I decided to read the short novel that the movie is based on. And to start with I’ll say I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a good story and well written to entertain the reader with vivid characterizations and plenty to keep your interest piqued. But one thing it isn’t is a blueprint for the movie. So, I thought it would be interesting to just give my impressions on how the book and movie differ and then to say which version was more satisfying.
The first piece of bookkeeping is the suitability for general audiences. Now the film was pre-code meaning that strict censorship of risqué images, language and themes was not yet being enforced in Hollywood. But even saying that, the film version of the story would today be rated (at worst) PG-13 due to violent circumstances in the plot. But in reality, a G rating would not be a terrible stretch. Several of the characters were criminals and murder and other crimes are the focus of the story but everything was handled in a sanitized portrayal. The book however leans heavily into the seedier aspects of several of the characters’ lifestyles. There is allusion to sexual activity and the violence that is portrayed is much more graphic than in the movie version. And as an example of an unusual bit of reality one character is compared to a lesbian in her “hatred of men.”
And as far as the characterization of some of the more important people in the story, the two grown children of the eponymous “Thin Man,” Dorothy and Gilbert Wynant are described as at the very least highly neurotic and very possibly dangerously disturbed due to the terrible parenting of their mother Mimi. And this differs significantly from Dorothy’s character in the movie where she is portrayed very sympathetically. And as one of the main characters Mimi is definitely portrayed as a much worse person in the book than in the film. In the movie she’s a greedy, manipulative woman but in the book she’s close to a psychopath. She brutalizes her daughter for almost no reason and she lies pathologically at every turn. At one point she becomes so angry at Dorothy that she goes into a sort of blind fury as she tries to get at her while Nick restrains her by main force. She is easily the ugliest character in the book.
As far as the characterization of Nick and Nora Charles, one thing that agreed in both versions is that they both drank hard liquor almost continuously both day and night. Now in the movie it almost seemed to be a joke. But in the book, it was just their routine. I guess allowances would have to be made for the prohibition era mores and customs but to a modern reader it is very noticeable. As far as their personalities they come off slightly harder edged than Powell and Loy’s remarkably affable screen personae. Nick especially is quite willing to get tough with both men and women who get in his face. At one point he has to stop Mimi from assaulting her daughter by lifting her off the ground and pinning her arms while holding her down on a couch while someone throws water in her face to calm her down. In the final scene he becomes angry at the police Lieutenant Guild for not seeing that Wynant was the murdered man and knocks out MacCaulay as much out of anger as to stop him. And in general, both Nick and Nora are not as “nice” as their screen versions.
The book characterizes most of Nick’s friends in upper crust New York City as morally compromised while his underworld acquaintances come off as “good fellas” if a little on the rough side.
Evaluating overall the contrast between the book and movie, what we have is a gritty detective story versus a film that is basically a light-hearted comedy as much as it is a murder mystery. And considering the audiences that each of these stories were aimed at both are highly successful in their entertainment value. The book was aimed at adults, probably particularly men. The movie was a family entertainment with some double entendres thrown in for the adults. But I think the short novel is well worth reading and I only wish he had written more stories for Nick and Nora. The screen sequels never measured up to the original film but I’m sure Hammett could have provided more gritty adventures for his Nick and Nora.