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Nick and Nora Charles

kevinburtonsmith

Created by Dashiell Hammett
(1894-1961)

Nora: “I read where you were shot five times in the tabloids.”
Nick: “Not true. He didn’t come anywhere near my tabloids.”
— from The Thin Man (1934 film)

The glitzy adventures of Dashiell Hammett’s retired private eye NICK CHARLES and his rich, beautiful (and not quite as ditzy as you’d think) wife, NORA, proved to be just what people caught up in the Great Depression wanted. The debut in Hammett’s 1934 novel, The Thin Man, established a formula that film, television and fiction are still trying to duplicate.

Originally, Nick (a Greek-American whose father had changed his unpronounceable last name upon his arrival at Ellis Island) served as an ace operative for the Trans-American Detective Agency, but upon marriage to heiress Nora, he retired to a life of leisure, content to manage Nora’s rather sizable dowry.

FILMS

The 1934 book was an instant bestseller, and a film version from MGM, The Thin Man, soon followed later that same year. Both novel and film were quite popular, although the film was played for far more laughs. Oh, there was humour in the book, and a certain amount of dry wit, some whispers of sex and plenty of drinking, but nothing like the films, which had a field day with the material. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and bolstered by a solid, whip smart script by real life couple Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, the chemistry between actors William Powell and Myrna Loy took the book’s playful interplay between Nick and Nora to a whole new level.

After The Thin Man followed in 1936, with Jimmy Stewart added to the mix. It was followed Another Thin Man (1939), Shadow of the Thin Man (1941), The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) and Song of the Thin Man (1947).

Especially after the films started coming out, folks started assuming (incorrectly) that Nick Charles, as portrayed by Powell, was the Thin Man. In fact, the thin man is actually the murder victim in the novel.

Still, that first film was the start of one of the most popular film franchises of all time, even if the later films (significantly the ones not scripted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett) weren’t as strong as the first few. 1939’s Another Thin Man, the third film in the series, introduced William A. Poulsen as Nick Charles, Jr. and saw the beginning of Nora’s descent into domestic ditzyness, and the end of Hammett’s involvement with the series.

But then, Hammett always seemed to have had a love/hate thing going on with the Charleeses, resenting their popularity even as that popularity no doubt kept the bar tabs paid off for years. After having ground out negligible story “treatments” for the second and third films, he sold his rights to the Charleses for $40,000 (a couple of million in today’s market) and boasted that “Maybe there are better writers in the world but nobody ever invented a more insufferably smug pair of characters. They can’t take that away from me, even for $40,000.”

Still, Hammett or no, Nick and Nora’s popularity continued, and soon spread to other media.

RADIO

A radio show appeared in 1940, with a succession of actors taking on Nick’s part, while Claudia Morgan held steadfast and true as Nora. Each week, listeners tuned in to “Pabst Blue Ribbon presents the new adventures of The Thin Man with Nick and Nora Charles, the happiest married couple in radio. Claudia Morgan as Nora and Les Damon as Nick star in tonight’s adventure of The Thin Man called “The Adventure of the Passionate Palooka” (or whatever). And each show closed with Nora calling “Good night, Nickeee…” Hammett was supposedly even coaxed into writing several of the scripts to “set” the series.

Parker Fennelly, who often offered comic relief as the sherriff, later became famous on the Fred Allen show and, in the 1960s, became known to another generation as “Pepperidge Farm” spokesman. His Maine accent was unmistakable as he signed off, “At Pepp’ridge Faaahm, we remembah.”

TELEVISION

There was even an attempt to bring the detecting duo’s popularity to television in 1957, with Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk playing the Charleses for two seasons, starting in 1957. Light fare, to be sure, but I’ve heard people argue that it was quite enjoyable, due to the easy-going chemistry between the two stars, while others have chided it for being superficial fluff, that missed out completely on the charm or wit of its source material, and was slightly better than Mr. and Mrs. North, an obvious clone.

But Nick and Nora’s influence, and the romantic idea of a mismatched couple solving crimes together while swapping banter continues to spread to this day, be it on television (Moonlighting, The Late Show), film (Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Murder By Death) or even on stage (1990’s highly-anticipated musical, Nick and Nora). As recently as 2011,  Johnny Depp had expressed a desire to bring Nick and Nora to the big screen once more.

Of course, Hammett was also the creator of Sam Spade, Brad Runyon (The Fat Man), The Continental Op, Robin Thin and a slew of others.

THE EVIDENCE

UNDER OATH

NOVELS

SCREEN STORIES

Subsequent to the success of MGM’s The Thin Man in 1934, the studio hired Hammett to write screen stories, which would be adapted and turned into screenplays by other writers. It kept Hammett in booze money for awhile, anyway. They’ve appeared in various places over the years, and they were finally collected in the 2012 volume Return of the Thin Man (below)

COLLECTIONS

FILMS

ALSO AVAILABLE

RADIO

TELEVISION

THEATRICAL ADAPTATIONS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Sean Wright and Dennis Bendy for the heads-up. Ah’ll remembah. Also, David Goodrich, the author of The Real Nick and Nora.

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