Thin man, 2nd case

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Movie
German title Thin man, 2nd case
Original title After the Thin Man
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director WS Van Dyke
script Frances Goodrich ,
Albert Hackett
production Hunt Stromberg
for MGM
music Herbert Stothart ,
Edward Ward
camera Oliver T. Marsh
cut Robert Kern
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Thin Man, 3rd case

Thin man, 2nd case (alternative title: After the thin man , It happened on New Year's Eve and And something called detective ) is an American crime comedy by WS Van Dyke from 1936. The film, based on a novel by Dashiell Hammett was the second part of the thin man film series, which includes six feature films.

action

Nick and Nora Charles come to the dissolved murder case around the thin man to New Year's Eve back in San Francisco on. The press is waiting for them and a surprise party is held in their honor at home, even if the couple would rather be left alone. However, they cannot attend their own party because Nora's elite aunt Katherine invites them to the annual New Year's Eve dinner with her elderly relatives. The fact that Nick Charles, whom she despises, is also invited is primarily thanks to Nora's sister Selma, who is mentally unstable. She suffers from her husband Robert, who only married her for her money and who has now disappeared without a trace for three days. Although she suspects another woman as the reason, she has received an obviously misdirected box. But she also worries that something might have happened to Robert. Even the visit of her former fiancé David, who still loves her, cannot comfort Selma.

After all, Nick is happy to have escaped the old men and women. Shortly before midnight, he and Nora went to the same Chinese establishment from which the jewelry box was sent. The bar is run by Dancer, a shady friend of Nick's. In the bar they meet Robert, who has been drunk there for three days. Intrigues take place in the background. Robert has made an agreement with David: If he receives $ 25,000 from him, he will disappear from the city and David will leave his unloved wife Selma. Polly, the singer in the Chinese bar, who allegedly secretly wants to disappear with Robert and start a new life, is also speculating on the money. In reality she is supposed to exempt him on Dancer's instructions and Dancer as well as his business partner Lum Kee share in the "profit" of the 25,000 dollars. Polly's brother Phil also learns about the plan and jealously wants to share in the profits. David, on the other hand, did not plan to hand over the money until the following day and therefore pays the agreed sum in shares .

Robert briefly returns to Selma and packs his things. Selma follows him with a gun. Shots are fired and shortly afterwards Robert is dead - and Selma leans over his corpse, gun in hand. Shortly afterwards David is with her and disappears the gun. Selma, on the other hand, shouldn't say that she was out of the house that day. Her neurologist Dr. Chamber shields the young woman from the public. Nick begins to investigate, he is convinced of Selma's innocence. Things get complicated when Phil's body is found a short time later; because Phil was one of the suspects as a jealous brother. Dancer is now a suspect too, having been with Phil a short time before. Phil has the key to Polly's apartment, which Nick checks. There he finds the box that was sent to Selma and takes it back. It turns out that the apartment above Polly's was rented from a certain Anderson a few days ago. He installed a listening device in Polly's apartment and wanted to use a ladder to enter her apartment. As Nick is checking Anderson's apartment, Dancer enters the dancer's apartment to take the box. A chase ensues in which Dancer shoots Nick. However, he encounters a chest that opens and reveals the porter's body. He was shot with the same gun as Robert while Phil was being strangled.

Nick now decides to invite all the suspects in the various murder cases: Dancer, Selma, Polly, David, Dr. Kammer and, in revenge for the boring New Year's Eve dinner, also Aunt Katherine. First of all, it is about the murdered doorman who had been employed as a gardener by Nora's aunt years earlier - Nora even brings a photo from that time. Some still know him from that time and David remembers looking back on a little man with a white beard, whom he hadn't seen for years. After numerous different allegations, with which Nick wants to bring the perpetrator to a debunking testimony, he suddenly knows who the killer is: David committed all three murders. He remembered the gardener as a man with a long white beard; However, he only had this more recently as a porter and not yet on Nora's photo.

David first murdered the doorman and then Robert because he could never have raised the $ 25,000. He gave him the shares on New Year's Eve, since the banks are closed on New Year's Day and they could not be redeemed that way. The murder of the doorman, in turn, became necessary because David wanted to cast suspicion on Polly and therefore wanted to get into her apartment. In turn, Phil, who was actually Polly's husband, found out about him and blackmailed him. So he had to die too. In the end, he tried to make Selma a suspect, too, because he hated her as much as Robert, because she rejected him. Convicted, David pulls a pistol, but is overwhelmed and led away by those present.

A little later, Nora and Nick Charles are on the train to Europe to finally go on vacation in peace. However, the plan to only be the two of them does not work because Nora reveals to Nick that she is pregnant.

production

The film was shot in San Francisco and had its world premiere on December 25, 1936.

Two titles are sung in the film:

The film shows actor James Stewart in an early supporting role. He had made his feature film debut only two years earlier; Thin Man, Part 2, on the other hand, was his eighth film, which he made in 1936, and the eleventh of his career. In retrospect, he himself described the role as "ridiculous".

criticism

The lexicon of international films described Dünner Mann, Part 2, as "a turbulent crime comedy, amusing and exciting entertainment", while other critics said that "William Powell and Myrna Loy [...] heartlessly joke their way through detective work". The Protestant film observer is full of praise : “Van Dyke's film is one of the few cases where a sequel has lost none of its wit and ingenuity compared to the first part. The second prank offers ample opportunity to present the comical bestiary known as kinship. A turbulent fun that one can confidently recommend to all friends of crime fiction and light entertainment. "

Awards

Thin Man, Part 2 was nominated for an Oscar in the category “ Best Adapted Screenplay ” in 1937 , but could not prevail against Louis Pasteur .

Thin Man (film series)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donald Dewey: James Stewart. A life for the film . Henschel, Berlin 1997, p. 104.
  2. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Ed.): Lexicon of International Films . Volume 2. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990, p. 779.
  3. ↑ Jonathan Coe: James Stewart. His films - his life . Heyne, Munich 1994, p. 30.
  4. ↑ Evangelischer Presseverband München, Review No. 288/1969