Anything with William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles starts out at a six out of ten absent anything else positive in the film. I didn't think that this was one of the best of the series, with nothing outpacing the original Thin Man. There was too much baby in the last one and too much little kid in this one. Look, I wouldn't appreciate Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason, OR Nick Charles showing up in a family drama like "I Remember Mama" and I didn't appreciate the intrusion of all of the little kid schtick in this, what is supposed to be a detective film/comedy. Maybe it is just the conformist view of the pre-war production code era, or maybe it is just that Irving Thalberg had been dead since 1936 and five years later Louis B. Mayer's sickly sweet sentimentalism was starting to really take hold at MGM.
At least Woody Van Dyke is still in the director's chair, and Sam Levene makes a great side kick for Nick as police lieutenant Abrams who couldn't detect his way out of a paper bag without the help of Mr. Charles. Nick takes pity on the fellow and tries to give him credit where he can.
This mystery is about two murders - one at a race track and another in the office of the head of a gambling syndicate, seemingly unrelated. Another problem I have in this film - the guy in the "young couple" who Nick and Nora are trying to help is played by Barry Nelson, who easily has the most punchable face in the history of film. Even when he is out cold he looks like he is obnoxiously smirking.
Some of the weirder sights in this one? Nick walking his son on a leash, and his son - all of four - in a soldier's uniform! Also a San Francisco seafood restaurant which is not upscale but not greasy spoon level either has a dirt floor!
I'd recommend it for fans of the Thin Man films. There is enough Nick and Nora to overcome its several flaws.
