''Shadow of the Thin Man'' is the fourth of six ''The Thin Man''
murder mystery
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
comedy films
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
. It was released by
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
in 1941 and was directed by
W. S. Van Dyke
Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II (Woody) (March 21, 1889 – February 5, 1943) was an American film director and writer who made several successful early sound films, including '' Tarzan the Ape Man'' in 1932, ''The Thin Man'' in 1934, ''San Franc ...
. It stars
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
and
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...
as
Nick and Nora Charles
Nick and Nora Charles are fictional characters created by Dashiell Hammett in his novel ''The Thin Man''. The characters were later adapted for film in a series of films between 1934 and 1947; for radio from 1941 to 1950; for television from 1957 ...
. Also, in this film their son Nick Jr. (Dickie Hall) is old enough to figure in the comic subplot. Other cast members include
Donna Reed
Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in ...
and
Barry Nelson
Barry Nelson (born Robert Haakon Nielsen; April 16, 1917 – April 7, 2007) was an American actor, noted as the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond.
Early life
Nelson was born in San Francisco, the son of Norwegian immi ...
. This was one of three films in which
Stella Adler
Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher. ''
William Powell
William Horatio Powell (July 29, 1892 – March 5, 1984) was an American actor. A major star at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, he was paired with Myrna Loy in 14 films, including the ''The Thin Man (film), Thin Man'' series based on the Nick and Nora Cha ...
as Nick Charles
*
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy (born Myrna Adele Williams; August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993) was an American film, television and stage actress. Trained as a dancer, Loy devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. ...
as Nora Charles
*
Barry Nelson
Barry Nelson (born Robert Haakon Nielsen; April 16, 1917 – April 7, 2007) was an American actor, noted as the first actor to portray Ian Fleming's secret agent James Bond.
Early life
Nelson was born in San Francisco, the son of Norwegian immi ...
as Paul Clarke
*
Louise Beavers
Louise Beavers (March 8, 1902 – October 26, 1962) was an American film and television actress. From the 1920s until 1960, she appeared in dozens of films and two hit television shows. She was most often cast in the roles of a maid, servan ...
as Stella
*
Donna Reed
Donna Reed (born Donna Belle Mullenger; January 27, 1921 – January 14, 1986) was an American actress. Her career spanned more than 40 years, with performances in more than 40 films. She is well known for her portrayal of Mary Hatch Bailey in ...
as Molly
*
Sam Levene
Sam Levene (born Scholem Lewin; August 28, 1905 – December 28, 1980) was a Russian Empire-born American Broadway, film, radio, and television actor and director. In a career spanning over five decades, he appeared in over 50 comedy and dram ...
as Lieutenant Abrams
* Alan Baxter as "Whitey" Barrow
*
Henry O'Neill
Henry O'Neill (August 10, 1891 – May 18, 1961) was an American film actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles during the 1930s and 1940s.
Early years
He was born in Orange, New Jersey.
Career ...
as Major Jason I. Sculley
*
Stella Adler
Stella Adler (February 10, 1901 – December 21, 1992) was an American actress and acting teacher. ''
Loring Smith
Loring B. Smith (November 18, 1890–July 8, 1981) was an American vaudeville, stage, film, radio and television actor, frequently of broadly comic and gregarious characters who enjoyed a 65-year career in every aspect of the entertainment bu ...
as "Link" Stephens
*
Joseph Anthony
Joseph Anthony (born Joseph Deuster; May 24, 1912 – January 20, 1993) was an American playwright, actor, and director. He made his film acting debut in the 1934 film ''Hat, Coat, and Glove'' and his theatrical acting debut in a 1935 productio ...
as Fred Macy
* Will Wright as Maguire - Nervous Ticket Seller (uncredited)
*
Sid Melton
Sidney Meltzer (May 22, 1917 – November 2, 2011), known professionally as Sid Melton, was an American actor. He played the roles of incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe in the CBS sitcom '' Green Acres'' and Uncle Charlie Halper, proprietor ...
as "Fingers" (uncredited)
*
Adeline De Walt Reynolds
Adeline De Walt Reynolds (September 19, 1862 – August 13, 1961) was an American character actress who made her film debut at the age of 78 playing the grandmother of James Stewart in '' Come Live with Me'' (1941). She continued to act in films ...
as Barrow's landlady (uncredited)
*
Tor Johnson
Karl Erik Tore Johansson (19 October 1902 or 1903; sources differ – 12 May 1971), better known by the stage name Tor Johnson, was a Swedish professional wrestler and actor. As an actor, Johnson appeared in many B-movies, including some famous ...
as Jack the Ripper - wrestler (uncredited)
*
Frankie Burke
Frankie Burke (June 6, 1915 – April 7, 1983) was a Hollywood actor, best known for his appearance as a member of The East Side Kids.
Early life
Burke was born Frankie Vaselle and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. His name was changed whe ...
as Jockey at the races (uncredited)
* Joe Oakie as Spider Webb (uncredited)
* Lou Lubin as Rainbow Benny
* Richard Hall as Nick Jr.
Production
Frances Goodrich
Frances Goodrich (December 21, 1890 – January 29, 1984) was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her hus ...
and
Albert Hackett
Albert Maurice Hackett (February 16, 1900 – March 16, 1995) was an American actor, dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich.
Early years
Hackett was born in New York City, the son ...
, the husband and wife team who wrote the first three ''Thin Man'' scripts, refused to write another one. Goodrich said "They press you awfully hard there…when they started talking about another Thin Man, we started throwing up and crying into our typewriters. We had the nervous breakdown together, owe said, “let’s get out of here ndwe quit.”" It was based on a story by Harry Kurnitz, not Dashiell Hammett, as the previous films had been, with the script written by Harry Kurnitz and Irving Brecher.
After difficulties with the previous films, author
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
was uninvolved in the production of ''Shadow'' or the two subsequent films in the series.
On 22 June 1941, MGM filmed exteriors for ''Shadow of the Thin Man'' in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emer ...
, with
Golden Gate Fields
Golden Gate Fields is an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the closing of t ...
racetrack, which first opened 1 February 1941, as ''Greenway Park''. On the
San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, known locally as the Bay Bridge, is a complex of bridges spanning San Francisco Bay in California. As part of Interstate 80 in California, Interstate 80 and the direct road between San Francisco and Oakland ...
, Nick and Nora Charles get "pulled over" for speeding on the upper deck of the bridge.
Box office
''Shadow of the Thin Man'' was eagerly welcomed, coming two years after the previous outing and hitting theaters just two weeks before the
attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...
. It would be three years before Loy would make another film (''
The Thin Man Goes Home
''The Thin Man Goes Home'' is a 1945 comedy-mystery film directed by Richard Thorpe. It is the fifth of the six '' Thin Man'' films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's dapper ex-private detective Nick Charles and his wif ...
'' in 1945) as she left Hollywood for New York, where she volunteered for the war effort with the Red Cross, as an assistant to the director of military and naval welfare.
According to MGM records, the film earned $1,453,000 in the US and Canada and $848,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $769,000."The Eddie Mannix Ledger." ''Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study'' (Los Angeles).
Nick and Nora Charles film series
This film was the fourth of six based on the characters of Nick and Nora Charles:
* ''
The Thin Man
''The Thin Man'' (1934) is a detective novel by Dashiell Hammett, originally published in a condensed version in the December 1933 issue of ''Redbook''. It appeared in book form the following month. A film series followed, featuring the main cha ...
'' (1934)
* ''
After the Thin Man
''After the Thin Man'' is a 1936 American murder mystery comedy film directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starring William Powell, Myrna Loy and James Stewart. A sequel to the 1934 feature ''The Thin Man'', the film presents Powell and Loy as Dashiel ...
'' (1936)
* ''
Another Thin Man
''Another Thin Man'' is a 1939 American detective film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, the third of six in the ''Thin Man'' series. It again stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles and is based on Dashiell Hammett's Continental O ...
'' (1939)
* ''Shadow of the Thin Man'' (1941)
* ''
The Thin Man Goes Home
''The Thin Man Goes Home'' is a 1945 comedy-mystery film directed by Richard Thorpe. It is the fifth of the six '' Thin Man'' films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Dashiell Hammett's dapper ex-private detective Nick Charles and his wif ...
'' (1945)
* ''
Song of the Thin Man
''Song of the Thin Man'' is a 1947 murder mystery-comedy directed by Edward Buzzell. The sixth and final film in MGM's '' Thin Man'' series, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, characters created by Dashiell Hammett ...