Fine Cars and Pool Tables

the-asphalt-jungle:

Given three weeks to shoot the film, W.S. van Dyke managed it all in 12 days for the paltry budget of $231,000 (April 9-mid May). The film surprised everyone by becoming a major box office hit, raking in $1.4 million. (Twelve days!!!!!!! *faints*) It was originally supposed to be a “B” picture.

Skippy, the wire haired terrier who played Asta, bit Myrna Loy once during filming. He played Asta in the next two sequels in The Thin Man series. His name was offically changed to Asta after the first Thin Man movie came out.  He starred in dozens of other films throughout the 1930s, including “The Awful Truth” (1937) and “Bringing Up Baby” (1938).  He officially retired in 1939, and was one of the most intelligent canine stars ever to work in films.

“The Thin Man” was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director (Woody Van Dyke), Best Actor (William Powell), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Hacket and Stromberg)  in 1934.

The film was released on May 24, 1934, only five months after the release of the book, which had been released in January 1934.

In 2002, film critic Roger Ebert added the film to his list of Great Movies.Ebert praises William Powell’s performance in particular, stating that Powell “is to dialogue as Fred Astaire is to dance. His delivery is so droll and insinuating, so knowing and innocent at the same time, that it hardly matters what he’s saying.”

The Thin Man was one of the last pre code movies of 1934 to squeak in under the wire before the Hays Code took effect on July 31rst, 1934.

The Thin Man was dramatized as a radio play on the June 8, 1936 broadcast of Lux Radio Theatre, with William Powell and Myrna Loy reprising their film roles.

The Thin Man and its sequels also created another star - “Asta,” the Charles’s wire-haired terrier. It was a breed that hadn’t been particularly popular in the United States, but the “Thin Man” films changed all that, creating a national craze for wire-haired terriers.

Director W.S. “Woody” Van Dyke had a penchant for mystery stories, and when he found that MGM had bought the rights to Dashiell Hammett’s book The Thin Man for $14,000, he immediately requested it for his next assignment.  The studio did not consider the story a valuable property. The public taste for clever tales of sleuthing seemed to be played out, and the book was not considered worthy of more than B-picture treatment. But because Van Dyke had a reputation for making pictures quickly and cheaply, they figured it wouldn’t hurt to let him have a shot at it.   MGM balked at Van Dyke’s choices of Myrna Loy and William Powell for the lead roles, but Van Dyke fought to cast them, and in the end succeeded, thus causing both of them to enjoy renewed careers, and creating two of the most memorable and beloved characters in screen history.

According to Samuel Marx, head of the MGM story department at the time, two elements of the script “scared the hell” out of the producers: the fact that the murder story was being treated frivolously and with humor and that the central characters were a sophisticated married couple who always seemed to be mixing cocktails.

Although author Dashiell Hammett never wrote a sequel to his book “The Thin Man”, the film went on to spawn 5 sequels, all starring Powell and Loy.  “After The Thin Man” (1936), “Another Thin Man” (1939), “Shadow Of The Thin Man” (1941), “The Thin Man Goes Home” (1945), and “Song Of The Thin Man” (1947).

Although Myrna Loy and William Powell never dated in real life, their on screen chemistry is very real.  The two remained very dear and devoted friends for the rest of their lives.

 

(Source: the-dark-city, via the-dark-city)

meganpaolone:

With 15 new “Arrested Development” episodes just over a month away, here’s a look at 15 of the most creative Bluth family collectables from around the Internet. Some retail therapy before our collective Netflix binge session on May 26.

(via thebluthcompany)