If you were to observe me while I watch Chicago Bears football, you might think me crazy.  That I admit to this would probably suggest that I need to relax.  Since my team did not win today, I had to find other methods to unwind.  For me, this calls for something less fraught with moral quandaries in terms of cinematic content.  Specifically, I am referring to classic films.  I do not mean to suggest that they are simplistic.  After the Thin Man (1936) is anything but simple, but it has the right attitude.  The good guys, while they drink too much for my taste, triumph.  As a Christian, this is what I like to see in my movies.  As I had recently seen its predecessor, I also had an even better understanding as to what I was getting into beyond what one can typically expect from this era of Hollywood.  Also, like the one before it, I was a little unclear on who did what, but I found I had fun getting to the end in spite of any confusion.

The Thin Man (1934) ended with Nick (William Powell) and Nora Charles (Myrna Loy) on the train from New York to their California home, and After the Thin Man picks up with them pulling into the station.  An appropriate title, no?  They are looking forward to spending a quiet New Year’s Eve at their home, but this is not to be.  Instead, it is filled with revelers, most of whom they do not know.  Before they can join in the celebrating, Nora gets a call from Selma Landis (Elissa Landi).  Selma has been fretting about the fact that her husband, Robert Landis (Alan Marshal), has been missing for three days.  She wants Nick, a former detective of some repute who retired when he married into Nora’s wealth, to look into the matter.  Grudgingly for Nick, this requires going to the stuffy in-laws on this festive occasion when he would rather be drinking.  Once they are able to tear themselves away from the elderly, the Charles listen to Selma’s story, with her one-time fiancé along to support.  This would-be suitor is David Graham (James Stewart), and everyone agrees that Selma should have married him.  This includes Selma, saying that part of her wishes Robert never comes home.  Nick and Nora invite her out for some fun to cheer her up, but she decides to stay home.  The same entreaty is put to David, but he declines when Selma does.  The place the Charles go to is a Chinese nightclub called LiChi.  They are greeted by the maître d’, called “Dancer” (Joseph Calleia), and the owner, Lum Kee (William Law).  Instead of going to the table to which Dancer is guiding them, they stop off at where they spot Robert sitting.  The absent husband is defiant, saying that soon Selma will no longer be his problem.  This is because Robert is sweet on Polly Byrnes (Penny Singleton), the club’s dancing and singing main attraction.  I am not revealing any great mystery here to say that things are not what they seem.  Robert thinks he has gotten Polly to agree to run away with him, but she is conning him with Dancer’s help.  At stake is the $25,000 payment David has offered Robert for him to leave Selma.  With this in mind, Robert leaves the LiChi to gather his belongings from Selma’s place, taunting her as he goes.  Not long after he departs, she takes out a gun to go after him.  Shortly after seeing him with Polly, a shot is fired and David, who had been coming to meet her, takes the pistol from her.  David later disposes of the weapon by throwing it off a bridge.  News of Robert’s death spreads quickly, and Lieutenant Abrams (Sam Levene) is assigned to the case, going to Selma’s residence to begin the questioning.  She is the natural suspect, but eventually she remembers that the shot did not come from her.  Lieutenant Abrams next stop is LiChi’s, where Nick is still having a grand time and is overserved.  Dancer is immediately acting suspiciously, and soon turns out the lights in the club’s office in order to make a getaway.  Overnight, desperate to get some rest but willing to make an early morning meal for his wife, Nick scrambles eggs for Nora.  They are interrupted by a rock through their window with a note tied to it, implicating Dancer and Polly.  Adding to this are the checks found by Lieutenant Abrams, which he shows to Nick in the morning, all of which appear to have been made out by Robert to Polly.  When Nick examines them, he can tell that all but one of them are forgeries.  With this, to Nora’s annoyance, Nick goes out to conduct further investigations, including of the hotel address listed at the bottom of the note.  Lieutenant Abrams and Nick get to the lodging to find Phil Byrnes (Paul Fix), Polly’s brother, murdered.  He had been trying to get money out of Polly earlier.  On a hunch, Nick goes to Polly’s apartment alone, discovering it bugged by an occupant named “Anderson” living on the above floor.  As Nick is snooping around, Dancer gets there, and fires at Nick before hurrying from the building.  The errant shot reveals another body, that of Pedro, the former gardener for the estate on which Nora and Selma lived as children.  Feeling like he has the answers he needs, Nick decides to gather everyone involved inside Polly’s apartment.  His scheme is to have Lieutenant Abrams lay into each person there, not because he thinks they are all suspects, but in order to see who gets rattled.  It is when David sees a picture of Pedro from years ago, but described the old caretaker by his current appearance, that the young man shows his guilt.  He had done it out of a desire for revenge on Selma, and he is carried away by the authorities screaming like a lunatic.  With this, Nick and Nora take Selma for a European vacation, though on the train ride Nora reveals that she is pregnant as she is knitting baby socks.

This is a rather sweet end to After the Thin Man considering we had just witnessed a triple homicide.  And here is this Catholic’s salute to Nick and Nora doing what God calls upon all married couples to do: bring new life into the world. There are caveats to this, but they are not germane to the story.  Another small aspect to the plot, but no less alarming from a Catholic perspective, is Nick’s drinking.  It is excessive, but it is played for laughs.  That does not make it okay, I am just documenting.  Alcohol becomes a god for those addicted to it, and Nick is constantly in need of a drink.  However, boozing is also not the issue on which I would like to focus.  Instead, there is a line said by Selma early on to David, one to which the man takes a slight offense.  She says that a person cannot go on forever caring for someone without reciprocal feelings.  He challenges her on this point, himself being the obvious exception.  Since he turns out to be the killer, what I am about to say loses some of its uprightness.  Maybe I should have seen this twist coming, but I wanted him to be a good character in the end.  Part of the reason I say this is because, as a practicing Catholic in today’s society, I feel Selma’s sentiment and David’s response have a great deal of resonance.  I have said this many times in other reviews, but I have noticed that the main reason people turn their back on God is because they did not recognize His presence at a moment they felt they needed Him most.  If this has been your experience, I am sorry and know that I am praying for you.  Still, supposing that God is real, and since He is, He is love, it is impossible that He was absent and/or choose not to show His love for you  Or perhaps you were understandably hurt in said moment that you could not recognize the fact that He is right there with you?  Faith is a verb, not an adjective.  If something is going wrong in one moment, I promise you that eventually, with Faith, things will get better.  That is the kind of belief that has someone saying that they will stay committed despite seemingly not getting the attention they think they deserve.  That is David’s attitude at the beginning.  Turning away from God in times of distress would be more like David at the end.  The reward lies with the former path.

The path you should take in regards to After the Thin Man is to watch it.  The plot can be convoluted, and there are enough red herrings in it to start a fish market.  And as mentioned, I get concerned over the excessive drinking.  Otherwise, it is a fun little murder mystery, with a side-story about the dog, Asta.