Why is it that the United States National Film Registry include The Thin Man in their list?”
The Thin Man (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett. Although he never wrote a sequel, the book became the basis for a successful film series which also began in 1934 with The Thin Man and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy. A Thin Man television series followed in the 1950s. An early draft of the story, written several years before the published version, and now in print in several collections of Hammett’s work, does not mention the main characters of the novel, Nick and Nora Charles, and ends after ten chapters. It is about a quarter of the length of the finished book.
The Thin Man is a 1934 American comic detective film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, a flirtatious married couple who banter wittily as they solve crimes with ease. Nick is a hard drinking retired detective and Nora a wealthy heiress. Their dog, the Wire-Haired Fox Terrier Asta, played by Skippy, was also a popular character. Completed in 1934 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, the film was directed by W.S. Van Dyke from a script by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich; the screenplay was based on the mystery novel The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, supposedly based on his relationship with playwright Lillian Hellman. Also appearing in the film were Maureen O’Sullivan, Nat Pendleton, Minna Gombell, Cesar Romero and Porter Hall.
