(no subject)

[skygiants]

A couple weeks ago tlvop and I were talking Yuletide. "I dunno," she said, "I'm thinking maybe I'll nominate some noir? Do you think anyone would write me The Thin Man?"

"Oh, yeah," I said, "I feel like there's usually a couple Thin Man fics every year anyway. For the movie more than the book, but --"

"THERE'S A MOVIE?" she said.

So this weekend innerbrat, tlvop and I Skype-watched The Thin Man -- and since I remembered I'd never actually read the book, I went ahead and read it for the sake of comparison.

If anyone's unfamiliar, The Thin Man is maybe the ur-example of the Charming Married Couple Crack Wise, Booze, Solve Murders sub-genre -- which, I mean, who doesn't love watching a Charming Married Couple Crack Wise, Booze, Solve Murders? I think Tommy and Tuppence, the other classic Charming Married Couple Who Crack Wise And Solve Murders, beat The Thin Man into print, but Nick and Nora Charles got a leg up in public acclaim by landing a series of feature films starring the adorable William Powell and Myrna Loy, PLUS a really cute dog.



TL: Asta's in the MOVIE?
Me: Asta's in the BOOK?

It's like with Djali in Hunchback of Notre Dame, I always just automatically assume the cute animal companion is a Hollywood addition.

In fact, I was consistently surprised by how similar the book and movie were to each other overall. Not that there aren't dramatic changes, because there are -- the twelve distinct varieties of extreme dysfunction displayed by the victim's family in the original novel are toned down to probably only four or five, and the movie gives Nick a really fabulous set piece of an "invite all the suspects to a dinner party" conclusion that I can in no way imagine Dashiell Hammett putting in a novel.

Actually, the fact that the movie feels like it concludes at all is a maybe the most drastic departure from the book, which ends on Nick telling Nora that murder doesn't round out anybody's life except the murdered and the murderer's, and Nora complaining it all seems a little unsatisfactory.

That said, a solid 50% of the film's dialogue or more is taken straight from the book, the details of how the murder works itself out hew remarkably true to the original, and Nick and Nora themselves are -- pretty much the same across adaptations? To be honest, I was expecting the book to be a little bit grimmer, a little bit darker, and possibly a little less fun. The book definitely has a little more leeway to show the sordid side of humanity than the film, but in fact Nick and Nora's sparkle is pretty consistent no matter which version you pick up.

I will also add that I did not expect the book to contain a lengthy and completely plot-irrelevant digression on cannibalism? THAT WAS ALSO A SURPRISE.

Comments

[sovay]

The book definitely has a little more leeway to show the sordid side of humanity than the film, but in fact Nick and Nora's sparkle is pretty consistent no matter which version you pick up.

This was also my fear about the book and a great reassurance to me, because no, Nick and Nora are kind of unbreakably awesome.

[skygiants]

Wikipedia tells me that Nick and Nora are speculated to be based on Hammett's own relationship with Lillian Hellman, which is one of the more adorable things I've heard today.

[bookblather]

....okay I had heard that Dashiell Hammett occasionally Victor-Hugos on random topics but I somehow did not expect cannibalism to be one of them.

Then again it is Dashiell Hammett.

[cinaed]

Oh man, I love both the book and the movie! (I need to watch the sequels eventually.) Powell and Loy have some of my favorite on-screen chemistry, and they're so great as Nick and Nora.

[sovay]

Nick and Nora are speculated to be based on Hammett's own relationship with Lillian Hellman, which is one of the more adorable things I've heard today.

I hope it's true. It would be the only adorable thing I know about Dashiell Hammett, but it would be a really great example.

[aquamirage]

DJALI WAS REAL???

[kore]

I love Nick and Nora!.....WHAAA, I don't remember that about the cannibalism, though. Yikes.

[skygiants]

I was not braced for Dashiell Hammett to Victor Hugo at me! Everything up to then had been so terse and punchy!

[skygiants]

Yeah, I need to watch the sequels too! I know I've seen pieces of some of them -- there was a period of time in my old apartment when innerbrat and our other roommate had at least one Thin Man movie on in the living room at least once a week -- but I've never sat down and watched them through.

[skygiants]

DJALI WAS REAL. Esmerelda's fake husband elopes with her. They are basically the only two characters to survive The Hunchback of Notre Dame, By Victor Hugo, A Guy Who Really Cared About Goats Apparently.

[skygiants]

"So what about cannibalism?" is one of the many slightly awkward questions that Dorothy's brother asks Nick. Unlike the rest of the time, when Nick fobs him off with a witty comment, at this point Nick decides to spend TEN PAGES telling a long and involved story about a dude who murdered and ate all his friends. WHY, NICK.

[kore]

....I seriously don't remember this one little bit. I'm wondering if I just skipped it entirely, except I don't usually do that. But for ten pages of cannibalism, Young Me might have made an exception!

[kore]

Ahahaha, there's one moment in....is it Maltese Falcon? Glass Key? Anyway, the Hero makes himself a Sandwich, and it goes on for, no lie, at least a page and a half, maybe two pages. It is a detailed sandwich-making process. And the grad class I was in about detective stories (pretty awesome actually) argued ferociously about the Symbolism of the Sandwich-Making until I suggested that maybe he was being paid by the word by the pulps, and then everyone glared at me.

(But seriously. Sandwiches?)

[attractivegeekery]

I would HIGHLY recommend the "Beyond Belief" episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour to anyone who loves The Thin Man stories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnjDYogjvd8

[skygiants]

I know! I know! I need to learn how to podcast!

(...listen to podcasts. Podcasting myself is not a skill I feel a great need to acquire.)

[bookblather]

Hi, crashing this VERY OLD post because I just read the Thin Man and seconding the Beyond Belief episodes, because Frank and Sadie are basically a much more drunken and slightly more adorable supernatural version of Nick and Nora.

Also, is it me or did Asta change genders between the movie and the book? I'm not particularly complaining, it's just... a really odd change.

[skygiants]

Hah, it's less than a year, it's not that old! Anyway it is ALWAYS time to talk about the Thin Man. >:D Nick and Noraaaaaaaa

(It is also a good time to remind me to listen to Beyond Belief now that I have finally decided to become a listener to podcasts!)

...did Asta change genders? I don't remember! I would believe it though.