The Thin Man Goes Home is the fifth in the six film Thin Man series which stars William Powell and Myrna Loy reprise their roles as Nick and Nora Charles. The 1945 film is notable for being the first that was not directed by W.S Van Dyke who passed away in 1943.
In this comedy caper, Nick Charles (William Powell, Life with Father) and Nora (Myrna Loy, The Mask of Fu Manchu), along with their dog Asta pay a visit to Nick’s hometown of Sycamore Springs to spend time with his parents on his birthday. His father, Dr. Bertram Charles (Harry Davenport, Gone with the Wind) has never been truly proud of Nick because he didn’t follow in his footsteps. While they are there on a vacation, a murder takes place right in front of Nick and before you know it, he’s on another case with lots of red herrings around including Willoughby (Morris Ankrum, Invaders from Mars), Edgar Draque (Leon Ames, Meet Me in St. Louis) Brogran (Edward Brophy, Evelyn Prentice) and Crazy Mary (Anne Revere, Fallen Angel). To make matters worse, a painting that Nora bought as a birthday gift for Nick at a store owned by Willie Crump (Donald Meek, Peter Ibbetson) has something to do with the murder! It turns out the peaceful town of Sycamore Springs isn’t as peaceful as everyone thought!
The Thin Man Goes Home uses the same formula for this film, except in this movie, Nick drinks apple cider in this one as opposed to alcoholic beverages. The cast, which has several character actors, all hand in excellent performances and is another great film in the series, just as entertaining as the previous offerings. This was the only film Myrna Loy acted in during “wartime”. She originally turned down the role because of her commitments during World War II, but fans, along with the cast and crew could not accept anyone else playing Nora, and she did agree to play her again.
The Thin Man Goes Home arrives on Blu-ray from Warner Archive, getting us one step closer to having the entire series in high definition. The picture quality is superb with a clear, clean image with deep blacks and great shadow detail. The grey scale is balanced. The boost in contrast adds to the details and rich textures to both the interior and exterior shots. The film has never looked better.
Warner’s English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack on their Blu-ray is also superb. The soundtrack is sharp with crisp, easy to understand dialogue with other noises such as the musical score by David Snell also coming in perfectly without any hiss, crackling or drop-offs.
Extras include a theatrical trailer, a Screwball Squirrel cartoon, and the Robert Benchley comedy short, called “Why Daddy”. Why Daddy is a 10-minute short about being part of a quiz show against other people. These are all ported over from the DVD release.
The Thin Man Goes Home is another superb entrée in the Thin Man series, and with flawless audio and video quality and extras that were ported over, this release is recommended and should be a no-brainer to pick up!
The Thin Man Goes Home
Directors- Richard Thorpe
Cast- William Powell, Myrna Loy
Country of Origin- US
Distributor – Warner Archive / Warner Home Video
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –11/12/2021