After being pressed for information, Nunheim excuses himself momentarily, only to slip away down the fire escape. Nick and Police Lieutenant Guild visit Nunheim, a frequent source for the lieutenant. Dorothy refuses to believe that her father is guilty. What appears to be a missing person situation rapidly turns into a murder case, when Julia Wolf, Clyde's former secretary and girlfriend, is found dead, and evidence points to Clyde as the prime suspect. She convinces Nick to take the case, with the assistance of his socialite wife, who is eager to see him in action. While in New York, Nick is pressed back into service by Dorothy, as her father, the 'Thin Man' of the movie title, was supposed to have left on a secret business trip with a promise to return home before his daughter's wedding, but he has mysteriously disappeared. Nick and his wealthy wife, Nora, live in San Francisco but are visiting New York City for Christmas, staying in a glamorous apartment-like suite at the Hotel Normandie. Nick Charles is a retired detective and he once did a job for Clyde.

He threatens to call the police unless she comes up with the other $25,000. When he confronts Julia about the missing bonds, she confesses that she cashed them in and has only $25,000 left. The only other person who knows the combination of the safe in which they were kept is his secretary, Julia. Later, her father discovers that bonds worth $50,000, intended as a wedding present for his daughter, are missing. She is surprised that her fiance knows all about her family yet still wants to marry her. William Powell, Myrna Loy and Skippy (Asta) in The Thin Manĭorothy Wynant discusses her upcoming wedding with her father Clyde. The 'Thin Man' moniker was thought by many viewers to refer to Nick Charles and, after a time, it was used in the titles of sequels as if referring to Charles. The eponymous 'Thin Man' is not Nick Charles, but the man Charles is initially hired to find – Clyde Wynant (part way through the film, Charles describes Wynant as a 'thin man with white hair'). In 1934, the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The film's screenplay was written by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, a married couple. In 1997, the film was added to the United States National Film Registry having been deemed 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'. Their wire-haired fox terrier Asta was played by canine actor Skippy. Nick is a retired private detective who left his very successful career when he married Nora, a wealthy heiress accustomed to high society. The film stars William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, a leisure-class couple who enjoy copious drinking and flirtatious banter. Van Dyke and based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. The Thin Man is a 1934 American pre-Code comedy-mystery film directed by W.

The thin man novel