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Some Thoughts on The Thin Man
Nov. 19th, 2008 09:49 pmLately, I have heard one or two people comment on The Thin Man as a demonstration of a happy marriage. "Like a sleepover with your best friend every night, plus naughty stuff."
The comment has been bugging me.
I like The Thin Man a lot, although I note that all the awkward scenes, including that awful dinner party, were not in Dashiell Hammett's original. And that I'm pretty sure that Nick and Nora Charles did not have twin beds. I must say, however, that marriage does not, in fact, have a whole lot in common with an endless sleepover with your best friend.
When you sleep over with your best friend, the two of you do not have to figure out how to get the mortgage paid or who will change the baby. (The Charles's have those questions covered - Nora's money, and the servants will take care of it.)
I am pretty sure that Nick Charles, Jr. never got scabies. That's because he was fictional. There are things that fictional characters don't get, and scabies is one of them. Tiny Tim had some dread disease, but not head lice. Satine was consumptive (which is a fancy word that writers use when they mean "tuberculosis, but, y'know, prettier"), she did not have crabs. This convenient being fictional meant that Nick and Nora's endless sleepover was never called to a spectacular halt so that they could wash and hot iron every stitch of clothing, steam clean all the rugs, and apply funny-smelling lotions to everyone in the house. (Also, face it, had Nick Jr. contracted scabies, Nick and Nora would have boarded the sleeper train for New York, and the servants would have the entire house washed, dried, ironed, re-upholstered, and probably sublet to a bootlegger by the time they'd caught up on their drinking.)
The comment has been bugging me.
I like The Thin Man a lot, although I note that all the awkward scenes, including that awful dinner party, were not in Dashiell Hammett's original. And that I'm pretty sure that Nick and Nora Charles did not have twin beds. I must say, however, that marriage does not, in fact, have a whole lot in common with an endless sleepover with your best friend.
When you sleep over with your best friend, the two of you do not have to figure out how to get the mortgage paid or who will change the baby. (The Charles's have those questions covered - Nora's money, and the servants will take care of it.)
I am pretty sure that Nick Charles, Jr. never got scabies. That's because he was fictional. There are things that fictional characters don't get, and scabies is one of them. Tiny Tim had some dread disease, but not head lice. Satine was consumptive (which is a fancy word that writers use when they mean "tuberculosis, but, y'know, prettier"), she did not have crabs. This convenient being fictional meant that Nick and Nora's endless sleepover was never called to a spectacular halt so that they could wash and hot iron every stitch of clothing, steam clean all the rugs, and apply funny-smelling lotions to everyone in the house. (Also, face it, had Nick Jr. contracted scabies, Nick and Nora would have boarded the sleeper train for New York, and the servants would have the entire house washed, dried, ironed, re-upholstered, and probably sublet to a bootlegger by the time they'd caught up on their drinking.)
