While each film is a cleverly constructed jigsaw puzzle of convenient discoveries, and hard-fought deduction, Nick and Nora Charles navigate the murderous maze with a jovial confidence and spice that no other two actors possessed. In a genre of tense, conflicted personalities with a perpetual furrowed brow, it's a relief to watch Powell and Loy drink and deduce their way to the conclusion of their cases, most often ending in a room full of perplexed suspects as Nick suavely detects their slip-ups with Nora and the lead detectives chomping at the bit.
W.S Dyke, as well as his successors Richard Thorpe and Edward Buzzell, refused to lend credence to the later proposed auteur theory, instead preferring to let the stories play out in their own convoluted fashion; the only mark of a personality behind the camera is the tenderness with which the films deal with Asta, the lovable dog. Asta's actions are sped up, slowed down or repeated depending on their adorable qualities, and it's impossible not to experience the heart melt when the dog does some astounding trick such as a full somersault or the instigation of a bar fight.
Consistently backing up the lead couple were a slew of absolutely fantastic secondary actors and actresses, such as Cesar Romero (The Joker in TV's Batman) in The Thin Man, Jimmy Stewart (It's a Wonderful Life, Rope) and Joseph Calleia (Gilda, Touch of Evil) in After the Thin Man, Donna Reed (They Were Expendable, From Here to Eternity) in The Shadow of the Thin Man, and finally Dean Stockwell (Blue Velvet) and Gloria Grahame (In A Lonely Place) in Song of the Thin Man. With such a wonderful cast, it's strange but understandable that they spend so little time with each of them, especially when they had such wonderful leads.
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