I think was New Year's Eve day and Turner was running all six 'Thin Man' movies consecutively. These are the great William Powell/Myrna Loy movies that combine the drinking capacity of Robert Benchley with the coolness of a couple's relationship that allows him to solve crimes and her to never look out-of-place wearing the latest fashion. And Myrna's voice! Restrained sauciness and sophistication.
I've seen several of these movies, but it was only this time that I caught some of the things I'll write about. The Nick and Nora Charles characters were the creation of Dashiell Hammett in the "Thin Man." That novel was made into a movie and five more movies followed, all starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, but not based on Hammett novels; just his characters.
Years and years ago I read something Christopher Buckley wrote where he quoted Dorothy Parker who said: "If the girls of Bennington College were laid end-to-end, I wouldn't be at all surprised." Dorothy of course didn't go to college, and Bennington was seen as providing a bit of a permissive education.
So, when Myrna Loy in 'The Thin Man Goes Home" tells us about Nick's romances before her..."if all his sweethearts were laid-to-end, you could use the for a sidewalk," I held my breath until she finished her dialogue. Was she going to say something risqué like Dorothy Parker?
Turns out she doesn't, but the image of something being laid end-to-end must have been a bit of a common phrase in 1944 when the movie came out. Dorothy Parker or the screenwriter just appropriated it.
Learning doesn't stop there. In 'After the Thin Man' Nick finds himself in a basement ducking bullets from a casino operator. It's dicey, but the bad guy, Dancer, played by Joseph Calleia, keeps missing, only to hit a large hamper that Nick has sought cover behind.
The bullets unhinge the hamper's lid and a dead body rolls out on top of Nick. Nick, always one to never panic, asks out loud if it's 'Bank Night.' Huh?
Turns out Bank Night was a very popular lottery-style promotional feature of movie houses in the '30s that saw management give prizes away to the moviegoers who had to be there to win it. They were assigned numbers, and if their number matched the number of a winning horse, they received a top prize of $100. Nick apparently wise-cracked that the body falling on him was a prize.
The last movie in the series, 'The Song of the Thin Man,' provides further education.
We have Nick bending down to pick up a single edge razor blade in the office of a gambling ship. He thinks out loud, "what have we here, Somerset Maugham's razor?" Don't get it.
Not until I find out Somerset wrote a novel titled "The Razors's Edge in 1944 about a traumatized American pilot over his experiences in WW I.
The single edge blade is also a clue. Was it dropped by the killer? Turns out no, it's a red herring. Keenan Wynn, who plays a hard be-boppin' saxophone player, is seen by Nick massaging his saxophone's mouthpiece with a single edge blade.
Turns out it is a common practice by sax players to make a saxophone neck cork. Keenan Wynn is no killer. The things we learn.
In the same movie, we have Nick visiting a waterfront dive diner. These places are only ever gotten to by walking through fog and climbing onto one of the two seats at the counter and telling the person behind the counter (male or female) who's wearing a hat and who doesn't look like they've washed themselves in in a week, what your order is. If there is a menu, it's on a blackboard. These are always small places.
Nick hears a watchman order a sandwich "with no piccalilli." Got to be something with pickles, right? But what?
After fumbling through some odd spelling combinations, I found "piccalilli," "a pickle of chopped vegetables, mustard and hot spices." Never heard of it, but would definitely try it, especially on a hot dog. Or, do we now just call it "relish?"
You never stop learning.
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