Ex-sleuth Nick Charles (Powell) doesn’t really want to go back to his old profession and why would he? He and wife Nora (Loy) live in the lap of luxury with nil to worry about. But Dorothy Wynant (O’Sullivan) is an old acquaintance of him and on the Christmas eve she has a foreboding that her father Clyde (Ellis) seems to renege on his promise of returning before Christmas to attend her upcoming wedding with Tommy (Wadsworth), as Clyde has gone on a secret business trip months earlier and no one has heard from him since, our reluctant gumshoe only manages to squeeze an interest in the case because Nora eggs him on solving the puzzle simply because it might keep boredom at bay, also for a husband to prove his worth to his wife is quite something can ginger up their marital bliss. Subsequently, Clyde’s secretary-cum-mistress Julia Wolf (Moorhead) is rubbed out in cold blood, discovered by Dorothy’s mother and Clyde’s ex-wife Mimi Jorgenson (Gombell, with perfect fussy cadence and ditziness) who alights on an implicating item, following by an in-the-know blackmailer croaked for his undue greed, then a skeleton is disinterred in Clyde’s work place which turns out to be deceased for months, whose identity can be easily inferred by detective story-savvy viewers, however, it is the climatic dinner pageantry during which Nick corrals all the suspects in one room before spilling the beans that deliciously spurs the suspense to the finishing line with a delightful veneer of sophistication and delectation. First of six in massive popular The Thin Man series, and adapted from mystery writer Dashiell Hammett's beloved source novel, W.S. Van Dyke’s series-generator eloquently and unashamedly melds a screwball-y jollification with the morbid procedural of a whodunit, transfused with a fluid agglomeration of nonchalant merry-making, shadowy ominousness, connubial bickering and canoodling in spite of their tonal discrepancy, the outcome is a unique genre-bending humdinger underlined by the optimal duo, William Powell and Myrna Loy’s dexterously relaxed, bibulously rollicking interplay, as well as the gimmicky showstopper, their button-cute fox terrier named Asta, that's the ace in the hole. referential entries: Gregory La Cava’s MY MAN GODFREY (1936, 7.4/10); John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941, 8.4/10)

Ex-sleuth Nick Charles (Powell) doesn’t really want to go back to his old profession and why would he? He and wife Nora (Loy) live in the lap of luxury with nil to worry about. But Dorothy Wynant (O’Sullivan) is an old acquaintance of him and on the Christmas eve she has a foreboding that her father Clyde (Ellis) seems to renege on his promise of returning before Christmas to attend her upcoming wedding with Tommy (Wadsworth), as Clyde has gone on a secret business trip months earlier and no one has heard from him since, our reluctant gumshoe only manages to squeeze an interest in the case because Nora eggs him on solving the puzzle simply because it might keep boredom at bay, also for a husband to prove his worth to his wife is quite something can ginger up their marital bliss. Subsequently, Clyde’s secretary-cum-mistress Julia Wolf (Moorhead) is rubbed out in cold blood, discovered by Dorothy’s mother and Clyde’s ex-wife Mimi Jorgenson (Gombell, with perfect fussy cadence and ditziness) who alights on an implicating item, following by an in-the-know blackmailer croaked for his undue greed, then a skeleton is disinterred in Clyde’s work place which turns out to be deceased for months, whose identity can be easily inferred by detective story-savvy viewers, however, it is the climatic dinner pageantry during which Nick corrals all the suspects in one room before spilling the beans that deliciously spurs the suspense to the finishing line with a delightful veneer of sophistication and delectation. First of six in massive popular The Thin Man series, and adapted from mystery writer Dashiell Hammett's beloved source novel, W.S. Van Dyke’s series-generator eloquently and unashamedly melds a screwball-y jollification with the morbid procedural of a whodunit, transfused with a fluid agglomeration of nonchalant merry-making, shadowy ominousness, connubial bickering and canoodling in spite of their tonal discrepancy, the outcome is a unique genre-bending humdinger underlined by the optimal duo, William Powell and Myrna Loy’s dexterously relaxed, bibulously rollicking interplay, as well as the gimmicky showstopper, their button-cute fox terrier named Asta, that's the ace in the hole. referential entries: Gregory La Cava’s MY MAN GODFREY (1936, 7.4/10); John Huston’s The Maltese Falcon (1941, 8.4/10)

達(dá)希爾·哈米特的小說去年重版，我買了Kindle的合集，包括了《馬耳他之鷹》《玻璃鑰匙》《瘦子》《大陸偵探社》《血色收獲》《丹恩家的詛咒》《暗夜女子》《螺絲起子》八部，其中《暗夜女子》中還包括了薩姆?斯佩德系列的三個(gè)短篇。

哈米特在偵探小說界多有名？他是美國硬漢派小說的創(chuàng)始者，好萊塢黑色電影的主要?jiǎng)?chuàng)始人，他早年做過偵探，給了他日后創(chuàng)作的很多素材，30年代他進(jìn)入好萊塢編劇圈，先是把自己的作品《馬耳他之鷹》《瘦子》改編成電影，大獲成功，后來就開始專門寫劇本，還拿到了奧斯卡提名。

哈米特出生在1894年，他參加過一戰(zhàn)和二戰(zhàn)，在二戰(zhàn)前后是美國著名的左派作家、反法西斯主義者，這使得他在50年代受到麥卡錫主義的迫害，他被迫離開了好萊塢，結(jié)束了自己的創(chuàng)作生涯。

《瘦子》是他在1934年出版的小說，幾乎算得上是他最后的長篇小說，之后他就開始了編劇生涯。小說出版后不久，他就把小說賣給了米高梅公司，并由兩位出色的編劇改成了電影劇本，米高梅老板拍板由威廉·鮑威爾和茂娜·洛挨來出演書中搞笑又聰明的偵探夫婦尼克和諾拉，電影拍得節(jié)奏飛快，在喜劇和懸疑兩方面都獲得了巨大的成功。

之后，哈米特又為這對偵探夫婦寫了五部續(xù)集電影1936年的《瘦子之后》（迷霧重重）1939年《另一個(gè)瘦子》（疑云重重）1941年《瘦子的影子》1945年《瘦子回家》（疑云風(fēng)波）1947年《瘦子之歌》。12年拍完六部曲，當(dāng)然和很多續(xù)集電影一樣算得上一部不如一部，但也最終結(jié)了尾，此時(shí)的好萊塢黑色電影的輝煌已經(jīng)過去，哈米特的創(chuàng)作也開始慢慢進(jìn)入了下坡。

哈米特在一戰(zhàn)時(shí)認(rèn)識(shí)了他后來的妻子，他們生育了兩個(gè)孩子，但是這段婚姻在哈米特來到好萊塢后就名存實(shí)亡，1937年，他們正式辦理了離婚手續(xù)。在好萊塢，哈米特先后與兩位女編劇尼爾·馬丁和莉莉·赫爾曼相戀，莉莉·赫爾曼是他人生中最后的伴侶，他們在一起生活了30年。哈米特在一戰(zhàn)時(shí)感染了西班牙流感，雖然治愈卻患了伴隨終生的結(jié)核病，40年代，他又開始酗酒，被麥卡錫主義迫害后的哈米特健康急劇直下，1961年，他因肺癌去世，年僅66歲。