The Thin Man Goes Home (1945)



Nick Charles: A couple of weeks on this cider and I'll be a new man.
Nora Charles: I sort of like the old one.

            Billed as the first Thin Man movie in two years, The Thin Man Goes Home has Nick and Nora visiting Nick’s parents in his hometown of Sycamore Springs. This film lacks much of what the first four films had but Nick and Nora are still the same and much more.

            Nick and Nora have left Nicky Jr. home since he has started kindergarten. At the train station Asta gets away when he sees a girl dog of his same bread. Nick runs after him but falls backwards when Asta runs off again. He chases after the dog and falls face first to the floor. Animals are not allowed in the coach trains but Nora has a fur coat so they hide Asta under the coat. The dog is found out though when a train worker sees the dog’s tail wagging and the Charleses are forced to go to the baggae care where the animals are stored.

            The train passes an old windmill Nick says he used to hang out in and all the memories he has of going there. When the train pulls to the stop, Nick’s parents are not there to greet them. Nick and Nora arrive at his childhood home and come to see that his mother had no idea they were coming. Nick said he sent a letter to his father telling him that he and Nora were coming to stay. Nick and Dr. Charles have not gotten along in quite a while.

            With Nick in town, the locals suspect that Nick is in Sycamore Springs working on a case. A reporter shows up to the house to speak to Nick but Nora tells the reporter to put the pieces together. When the paper comes out the next day the headline is Nick Charles has come to town to solve a crime and the quote from Nora appears in the article.

            There is no murder until a young man shows up at Mrs. And Dr. Charles’ door to speak to Nick and is shot dead on the porch. There was no sound of a shot anywhere in the neighborhood.

            The case is boring and pretty much deals with what America was dealing with during the War. It involves a man who served in the Pacific Theater, a Japanese rifle, and secrets that were not supposed to get out about a propeller. As Nick talks about why the murder was carried out by the murderer and all the other things that went into the crime there is no clear motive as to why things happened. Some of the case is actually interesting and a bit sad.

            Nora had some great scenes. As always she tries to outsmart Nick and get ahead of him. They met a shady friend of Nick’s on the train named Brogan. He has been suspiciously in the bushes every time something has occurred out the elder Charles’ home. Brogan has been invited in for some birthday cake (it was Nick’s birthday) and Nora really believes he is the killer. After dinner Nora goes upstairs and Nick tells Brogan that Nora is most likely going to tail him and to have fun with her to take for a long walk. Sure enough Nora comes down and says she’s going for a walk to the drug store. As Nora walks away from the house, a man comes out from behind the tree and starts following her. The whole scene is quite funny as Brogan leads Nora and the other man on quite a walk. Brogan leads Nora and the man into a pool hall. He walks into a men’s lounge and she sits at the bar. The man comes up to her and asks her for a painting of the windmill she had bought for Nick for his birthday for $500. Nora comes up with a plan to get the two men arrested; she slaps the man next to her in the face and cries out “He assaulted me” and the whole place breaks out in a fight. She hides in the phone booth and calls the police. Nora realizes the painting is an important part of the case (the man in the store would not sell the painting to Nora at first saying a woman came in all the time buying this particular local artist’s work) and that is why she started the fight. When she tells Nick what she did he asks her “You did this without drinking?” haha.

        Although Myrna Loy had some of her best scenes it seems as if the writers were trying too hard to make Nora Charles into a character she was not: someone who could be shoved aside and a made a fool of. I do not feel Nick was making a fool of Nora when he sent her on a wild goose chase after Brogan but she was just whiny and kind of annoying which is very sad to say about her after the previous four films. She and William Powell barely banter in the film instead she kind of lets him walk all over her. It is as if all Nora Charles could do was praise her husband and his work when she used to rattle him. But hey what can you do, that was society’s influence back in the back in the day.

            You will notice how Nick and Nora do not drink like they used to. Unfortunately this reflected the rationing of alcohol during the war. I think the drinking is what made them so funny… maybe that is part of the reason why the film was so dull? Nick and Nora are best a bit drunk and daring. There is a scene after Nick gets hit on the back of the head he fumbles up the stairs and Nora and Dr. and Mrs. Charles run out to see what has happened. He has a pack of ice on his head and his parents think he has been drinking and Nora is mad that he may have been drinking without her.

            The Thin Man Goes Home is not the strongest Thin Man I have seen so far. Myrna Loy was at her best she had good funny moments throughout the film. What this film does do greatly is show why Nick and Nora Charles/Myrna Loy and William Powell are so good together.

Shadow of the Thin Man (1941)





                Nick and Nora Charles are back for their fourth Thin Man film Shadow of the Thin Man. The couple along with their son Nicky Jr. and Asta are living nicely in California.

            At the beginning of the film Nick is taking Nicky Jr. and Asta for a walk in the park near their apartment. The boys sit down so Nick can read a story but he does not want to read the little fairy tale book he has brought so he reads Nicky Jr. the horse races from the newspaper. Meanwhile up in the apartment, Nora and the maid are waiting for the boys to come home for lunch. Nora looks out the window to see her husband and son sitting on a bench apparently reading a book. The kid tells his father “Nick why don’t you put down the book and read the racing form” and Nick says to his son that he is getting more like his mother. Then he stops laughing and this occurs…

Nick Charles: Nicky, something tells me that something important is happening somewhere and I think we should be there.

[cut to Nora with a cocktail shaker]

Estrellita: Ma'am, did he hear that or did he smell it?
Nora Charles: That's Mr. Charles, isn't it?
Estrellita: Yes'm.
Nora Charles: This is a cocktail, isn't it?
Estrellita: Yes'm.
Nora Charles: They'll get together.

            Nick and Nora decide to spend a nice day at the horse races. On their way across the Golden Gate Bridge they get pulled over because Nick was speeding. The police officer is so excited to see Nick Charles he tells them (after he wrote a ticket out) that he will escort them to the races since the races were starting soon.

Unfortunately the police officer drove very slowly. All the sudden a whole bunch of policemen on motorcycles and an ambulance rush around the Charles’ car. When they get to the racetrack they cannot even get out of their car before some officers come up to say hi to Nick and ask him how he get there so fast when they had just got word about the murder of a jockey. Nick obviously had no idea about the murder but his detective friend Lt. Abrams pulls him into the case.

            The case eventually leads them to a wrestling match (or bout as they say). Nora has, apparently, wanted to go to a bout and she gets very into it, she wraps her arms in a headlock around Nick without even realizing it!! Her new found wrestling moves will come in handy later on in the film.  

            Nora once again gets in on the action. One of the men involved has come to see Nick but he is not home. The man is harmless and really nervous. Nora lets him and tells the man that he can tell her what he wants from Nick and she will relay the message. But the man is being stubborn and only wants to talk to Nick. Nora pretends to call her husband by pulling out the phone cord and having a one sided conversation. The man believes her and he tells her what he had come to tell Nick.

            Nick goes to the racetrack to have a look where the jockey was murdered. He finds a gun in the shower drain. He hears a noise; someone is in the locker room. He points the gun at the intruder but it turns out to be Nora who tripped over a bench into a locker.

"Don't shook Nicky it's me!!"

            Shadow of the Thin Man is good, not as good as the first three but good. Unlike the murders in the first three which were ok the murder mystery case here was actually interesting with gambling and throwing games. The killer is probably not someone you would expect it to be with all the shady suspects that pop up throughout the film.

            A little trivia: Ava Gardner has an uncredited role in Shadow of a Thin Man as an extra. Try to spot her when watching the film.



Another Thin Man (1939)



“What’s the idea of the kid?”

“Well, we have a dog, and he was lonesome. That was the idea, wasn't it, Mommy?”

            Nick and Nora Charles are back in the Big Apple for another much needed break in Another Thin Man. They now have a son named Nicky Jr. who is a year old. Asta of course is with them as well.

            Like the last two films it seems Nick and Nora can never get any rest and a murder case just always happens to come their way. As soon as they walk into their hotel room they are bombarded by people either in person or on the telephone… or should I say poor Nora is the one who is being bombarded. This is the only time we see Nora flustered so far in the series. Nora answers a call from her father’s business partner Colonel MacFay saying he needs to see both she and Nick right away even going so far as to send a car down to them in the city to take them to his house.

            On the way to Col. MacFay’s house Nick sees a dead body with a knife in its back lying by the side of the road. Nick tells the driver of the car to pull over, the driver does but he gets so freaked out that he runs away leaving Nick to drive the car.

            At the house MacFay tells Nick and Nora that he has been receiving threats from a shady man named Phil Church who feels like he has been screwed out of money from MacFay and Nora’s father. MacFay fears for his life and has guards and watchmen all over the house and the grounds. Unfortunately all these measures are no good, MacFay is eventually murdered. Nick and Nora were awake with Nicky Jr. when MacFay’s daughter Lois comes in because she cannot sleep when they all hear a shot go off and run to MacFay’s room. There seems to have been a struggle but Nick sees something is hinky with the crime scene.

            The police are called along with the District Attorney. The DA suspects Nick has something to do with the murder since whenever he seems to be in town someone is murdered and he is always around. All the suspicion surrounding Nick is quickly cleared. Phil Church is the number one suspect and yet again Nick sees something more to this murder and only sees Church as part of a larger act.

            So who is the murderer? Well… watch the film!!

            How MacFay was murdered and how he was shot was really cool. Let’s just say I would love it if something like it were to show up on a CSI show (preferably CSI:NY), it is very clever and a bit scientific.

            Nora again gets set back from following Nick after he received a threatening call concerning his family. He did not want Nora to come to any harm so he pretended to hear Nicky Jr. crying and when Nora walked away he ran out the door (at least he was not doing so to just get rid of her he was doing so to keep her safe). When Nick walks out the door the phone rings… this call gives Nora an opportunity to be a detective without Nick. Nick finds a clue at an apartment; it’s a matchbook from a club called The West Indies Club. He goes there and is immediately surrounded by a group of women. A waiter brings over a note from a woman named Bella Spruce (a name of one of Nick’s old girlfriends). He knows immediately who it is and looks up to see a whole group of men completely surrounding the woman who wrote the note. He goes over clearing the men out of the way and there sitting at the table is Nora. Nick, acting all serious makes a joke about her being sick and how it’s too soon for her to be out of quarantine and Nora goes right along with and says that she will not go back. Since both of them are acting so serious the men disperse leaving Nick and Nora together.

            After a while of sitting down, Nora goes to signal someone by walking around the club with a napkin full of money in her hand and Nick is sitting at the table. Some guys Nick knows sit down at the table with him and they discuss Phil Church. A sitting at the other table is eavesdropping much to the annoyance of one of the guys at the table. Nora is getting hit on by a guy who just grabs her and dances with her. She is not happy and keeps telling the guy that she is married but the guy just does not care. At the table a fight breaks out and eventually spreads throughout the club and the lights turn off and the band playing on. When the lights go Nick is now the one dancing with Nora; he punched the guy away from his wife.

            The club scene (besides the dancing of two performers) was really good. When the fight broke out William Powell just played Nick sitting down calmly without flinching at the commotion that was going on around him. I also liked how Nick just let Nora do her little detecting, trying to get the caller’s attention with what he asked for. He knew it was nothing really big to do with the case but he let Nora have her fun. When the lights went on and we see them dancing together as if they were the only two people in the club was really cute. You can just see they are so in love with each other.

            From the now three films I have watched in The Thin Man series they just get better and better. Nick and Nora just become better and funnier and more adorable. It is nice to see a couple in a film have fun with each other, they do not seem fake they look like a real couple who really love and get along so well with one another. Their scenes with Nicky Jr. were so cute especially a scene at the beginning of the film where Nora lets the baby crawl over Nick when he’s sleeping. Nick takes the baby in his arms and kisses him. It’s something you really never see in old films it was nice.

            I had a feeling that Nicky Jr. would be dumped with a nanny and we would never see the kid again until the end of the film… I was somewhat right but the scenes the baby was in Nick and Nora were very affectionate and loving with him. The couple still had a good time drinking and going out to nightclubs and the normal things they did previously without Nicky Jr. but they knew he was there.

            Another Thin Man keeps in line with the previous two Thin Man films but the line works so well that it is not old and tired, the line is still fun.

After The Thin Man (1936)



“Come on, let's get something to eat. I'm thirsty.”

Nick and Nora Charles are back in their second film After The Thin Man. The film picks up right where The Thin Man left off when the couple comes home to California after their Christmas trip to New York City.

            As soon as Nick, Nora, and Asta step off the train they are bombarded by reporters asking them about the case they just solved. Even on their way home in their car Nick has some people he knows who are not the greatest coming up to him and welcoming him back home. Someone waves hello to Nora and Nick asks who they were and she tells him “Oh, you wouldn't know them, darling. They're respectable.”

            All Nick and Nora want to do is go home and sleep for days. Unfortunately when they open the door to their house it is completely full of people. Someone has decided to throw them a surprise party. It seems the Charleses cannot get a moments peace to relax. Adding to the chaos Nora’s Aunt Katherine calls inviting them to dinner. Nick is not too well liked by Nora’s aunt but she insists that he comes.

            At Nora’s aunt’s, they find out that Nora’s cousin Selma is worried about her husband; he has been missing for quite a few days. This is not the first time the husband has run off. Katherine just wants the whole thing hushed and solved quietly which is why she wanted Nick to come by. They meet David played by a very young James Stewart in one of his first films for MGM. David was once engaged to Selma and still loves her.

            As always comedy ensues when Nick Charles is on the case. All the suspects he comes across are silly and unintelligent in certain ways and Nick just plays along with them with snarky comments.

            Like The Thin Man there is no shortage of funny moments. Nora went to David’s house and somewhere down the line they were brought into jail. A police officer called Nick saying that there was a woman there claiming to be his wife. Jokingly he told the officer he had no idea who the woman was and to through her in a cell. Poor Nora was put into a cell with a whole bunch of women. When Nick comes to get her the warden tells him that Nora has apparently been doing a fan dance (which she has not it was most likely someone else) and he says “Really? She’s been holding out on me.”

Another really funny part is at the beginning of the film when Nick is sitting with some old men at Nora’s aunt’s house. All the old men have fallen asleep and are snoring so Nick entertains himself by responding to their snores with witty remarks.  

            This is probably the only film where James Stewart ever played a bad guy. His character David killed Selma’s husband out of hatred and so that the two could be together. Nick knows he is the murderer when he gives the only description of another murder victim. It is always fun to see an actor who is always cast as the good guy to see them play a bad guy.      

        Needing to get away again, the ending of the film sees the Charleses on a train bound for New York for a boat to Europe. Nick sees Nora is not really paying attention to him so he takes a look at what she is doing. Nora is knitting a baby boot and says to him “And you call yourself a detective.” Throughout the film Nora does not drink and she drops some hints here and there that Nick does not pick up on.

            After The Thin Man is as good as The Thin Man. The film and the characters pick up right where the first one left off without skipping a beat. The scenes where Nick and Nora get a few moments to themselves are the best because they are just constantly at each other but in a loving way and the dialogue in their scenes are always the best.

The Thin Man (1934)


 "You know, that sounds like an interesting case. Why don't you take it?" 
" I haven't the time. I'm much too busy seeing that you don't lose any of the money I married you for."



The Thin Man is a mystery film where the mystery is not as fun to watch as the bantering between the two main characters Nick and Nora Charles. The mystery is the plot of course: you want to see where the missing character has disappeared to and who has been killing off the victims. But once you see Nick and Nora together and you hear how they talk to each other they are all you want to see.

            Nick is a former PI is who is asked by a young girl who is a friend to help find her father since he has been missing for many months. Nick says he cannot take the case he has not been a detective for four years. The girl, Dorothy, comes to the Charles’ apartment on Christmas in the middle of a big party to beg for help to find her father and to find whoever killed his girlfriend. Dorothy knows her father did not kill his girlfriend or anyone else like the media is leading readers to believe. She says her father may have been absent minded and a bit crazy but he would never hurt someone.

            Nora convinces Nick to take the case because she wants to see him solve a crime. She sees this as something very exciting but he sees it as the same ol’ same ol’. Nick eventually solves the case at a dinner party with all the suspects. The murderer almost shoots Nick when they are named as the murderer. Nora and Nick hug and she tells him “I’m so glad you’re not a detective.” Nick’s look on his face when Nora says this to him is so funny since she is the one who wanted him to be detective again for her amusement.

            I cracked up from beginning to end with Nick and Nora’s bantering. Some of the things they said to each other or just said were a bit shocking to hear given the time period of the film. For example:

            Nick Charles: I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune.
            Nora Charles: I read where you were shot 5 times in the tabloids.
            Nick Charles: It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids.

            Nick Charles: Hey, would you mind putting that gun away? My wife doesn't care, but I'm a very      timid fellow.
            Nora Charles: You idiot!
            Nick Charles: [to the gunman] Alright, shoot! I mean, uh, what's on your mind?

            The scene where the gunman comes into the couple’s bedroom was one of my favorites. Nick goes to grab for a pillow to distract the gunman and he accidentally knocks poor Nora in the face to the floor!! When the police enter and grab the gunman Nick goes over to Nora and gives her liquor to wake her up (haha).

            William Powell and Myrna Loy were excellent together. You know you are watching a great comedy film when the bantering and wittiness between characters looks flawless like the lines are just coming out naturally off the top of their heads. Both actors handled their lines and each other perfectly. Powell and Loy just worked so well as a comedic couple, they are two of the best film characters I have seen together in a while.  Nora is not the whiney wife who tells Nick to not do anything dangerous, she is encouraging him to take the case and just shakes off most of the things he says to her or gives it right back. I like Nora’s wittiness, Myrna Loy did such a great job… and to think Louis B. Mayer did not want her to do a comedy film. The first scene we see William Powell he’s telling bartenders how to mix drinks to music; right off the bat we know we are in for a good time. The drinking done by Nick and Nora, especially Nick, is hysterical.

            The Thin Man is an excellent classic comedy film. I can see why this film was so popular when it premiered in 1934 in one of the worst years of the Depression, it was just a good time and for an hour and a half people could laugh. The Thin Man is enjoyable and funny from the moment we first see Nick and Nora Charles. The comedy still holds up very well today.

Nora: What hit me
Nick: The fifth martini

I Walked With a Zombie (1943)

“Do you believe in witchcraft Ms. Connell?”

            I Walked with a Zombie is not what we today would think of a zombie movie. There are no creepy Exorcist-looking dead people roaming around a small town getting their heads blown off with a shotgun. I Walked with a Zombie explores the tradition of voodoo and the sect’s belief in the dead and their rising. This  film explores voodoo respectfully. The lead character does not believe in voodoo but she begins to question whether it could help.

            Frances Dee plays Betsy Connell a Canadian nurse who is sent down to an island called Saint Sebastian. She is to care for Jessica Holland, the wife of a sugar plantation owner named Paul Holland (Tom Conway) . On the boat heading towards the island, we hear Betty’s thoughts on how beautiful the island is going to be when it is as if Paul can hear her thoughts and he says that nothing stays beautiful for long.

            At dinner when she arrives on the island, Betsy can hear drums. Paul and his brother Wes explain that the drums are coming from the houmfort where the natives practice and hold their voodoo rituals. Paul tells Betsy that she can meet Jessica the next day. That night she hears crying and follows it to an old tower on the property. As she climbs the stairs she can see Jessica and calls out to her. Jessica has this emotionless look on her face and just walks towards Betsy like she is going to harm the nurse. Betsy screams and Paul, Wes, and the house keeper Alma come running into the tower. Paul commands Jessica to stop. She can follow simple commands and that is all. Paul sees Betsy coming to an island as a mistake; he feels she cannot handle the island that she is easily frightened. But Betsy assures Paul that she is not easily frightened; she never would have come to the island in the first place if she had been.

            The next day Betsy talks with Jessica’s doctor. The doctor says that Jessica had such a high fever from a tropical disease that it gave her brain damage. So far there is no cure to be found and Jessica just lives like a zombie.

            One afternoon on her day off, Betsy walks into town where she happens to meet Wes. As they sit a café a man, unaware that Wes is near, sings a song about the family. The song says that Wes had an affair with Jessica and that the boys are lonely and a young nurse has come along. The man stops singing the song but it affects Wes and he starts drinking heavily. When it gets dark Betsy wants to leave but Wes is completely out of it. Mrs. Rand, Wes’ mother, comes to get him. What has happened to Jessica has obviously affected the family and Wes and Paul blame themselves for her condition.

            That night at dinner, Paul and Wesley get into an argument over Jessica and over Wesley’s drinking. Wesley blames Paul for the way Jessica is and that he is only trying to impress Betsy. By this time it does seem as if Paul is trying to impress Betsy he seems to have very little interest in his wife at all, as if he is ready to move on since he knows nothing can be done for her. That night Betsy wakes up to the piano being played outside her room. Paul is playing it, he apologizes for waking her. He tells Betsy that he thinks she should go back to Canada that he should not have brought her to island and that now he feels he is the main cause of Jessica’s condition. Betsy does not want to go she has fallen in love with Paul.

            Betsy is determined to make Paul happy and to do so she feels she must find a cure for Jessica. She and Jessica’s doctor try to give her insulin shock treatment but that fails. Now desperate, Betsy asks Mrs. Rand’s advice about voodoo and if it could possibly help. Mrs. Rand works in a clinic so she sees things in a purely medical way. She says that voodoo is only psychological.

            That night Alma tells Betsy how to get to the houmfort. The night is windy as they walk through a cane field and past animal sacrifices. Betsy is obviously a little nervous and frightened but she keeps moving ahead. At a crossroad they come up to a zombie man who stands on guard.

He is very scary looking; he does not say or do anything. At the houmfort Betsy sees a priest doing a ritual with a saber. Followers play drums and chant.  Some followers, including Betsy, line up to ask the voodoo priest for advice through a hole in the door. When Betsy ask for a cure for Jessica the door opens and she is pulled inside. The priest turns out to be Mrs. Rand. She tells Betsy through voodoo she is able to tell the natives to use modern means of curing the sick. Mrs. Rand says that Jessica will never be cured she is too far gone.

            As Mrs. Rand and Betsy talk; the natives are amazed by the state Jessica is in. The priest with the sword stabs Jessica in the arm and she does not bleed. Betsy comes out of the hut and quickly takes Jessica back. The natives have upped their drumming and want Jessica to come back so they can do more ritual tests on her. Residents of the area are starting to get worried since they have never heard this before and always passed voodoo off as a joke. Later that night, the priest sends the zombie man to get Jessica. Betsy hears him shuffling passed her room and runs out. Before the zombie man can take Jessica Mrs. Rand comes out to the garden and sends him away.

            An official inquiry into Jessica’s illness has been started. Wesley uses this inquiry to put the blame on Paul but his accusation does not go very far. Mrs. Rand says she knows why Jessica is like this; she has turned the girl into a zombie. The doctor and Betsy dismiss this because her heart is still beating and she was never in a coma. When the doctor leaves, Wesley backs his mother up by telling that Jessica was in a coma for a day. Mrs. Rand has never believed in voodoo but felt desperate to save her family from breaking up when Jessica wanted to run away with Wesley. She felt possessed by the voodoo god to turn the woman into a zombie.

            Paul is now the desperate one as he asks Betsy to put Jessica out of her misery but she will not do it. The voodoo priest takes control of Jessica by putting her into a walking trance. Wesley follows her taking an arrow off the fountain statue of St. Sebastian.  Wesley carries Jessica in his arms to the shore of the beach. As the voodoo priest sticks a pin in a plastic doll of Jessica, Wesley plunges the arrow into her. He takes her body and walks into the ocean. The next day Wesley and Jessica’s bodies are found by natives while fishing.

            I Walked With a Zombie was very well received when it was first released. There is nothing spectacular and jaw dropping about the film. There was nothing like this being made at the time. What makes this film so good is that it is ambiguous: we never know the real reason for Jessica’s illness, we never know if she truly is a zombie or not, we do not know if the voodoo priest made Wesley kill Jessica and himself, and so much more. It did not stereotype Caribbean culture or the voodoo ritual it was a semi-serious look into is it-is it not real aspect of the voodoo religion. First watching the film it can be a little nerve wracking because you do not know what is going to come along or happen; maybe the nervousness or suspense is due to what we have come to believe that voodoo is scary with zombies and bringing people back to life.

            Everything about this film was very well done. The acting was very good. I watched this film to see Frances Dee, I had seen her in a pre-code film she made with Ginger Rogers called Finishing School  and I really liked her. She was gorgeous and a very good actress. The lighting in the film was great. Most of it took place at night time with the moon shining, the lighting added to the mystery and intensity to the story.

            Very little music is played throughout the film. The scene where Betsy comes across the zombie man walking in the garden there is no music playing; you can feel your heart race as you wait for something to happen. A scene without music is often more powerful than a scene with music since you are left to really think about what is to come there is not cue.

            One of my favorite aspects of the film is how Paul referred to island as being dead and unhappy, everything came to die there there was no beauty. On a wall in Jessica’s room there is a painting called Island of the Dead by Arnold Bocklin. Very nice touch by the design department adding this painting to the wall.

                                         

            I Walked with a Zombie is not a conventional Golden Age of Hollywood story. There is a bit of a love story going on between Betsy and Paul but it is not the main focus. The focus is on ambiguity and voodoo and desperation. I liked this film for those aspects, for it being different from what was being made at the time.



The Wrong Man



“This is Alfred Hitchcock speaking. In the past, I have given you many kinds of suspense                pictures. But this time, I would like you to see a different one. The difference lies in the fact that           this is a true story, every word of it. And yet it contains elements that are stranger than all the fiction that has gone into many of the thrillers that I've made before.”- prologue to The Wrong Man

            “ An innocent man has nothing to fear, remember that.”

            Does an innocent man really have nothing to fear? We have heard this kind of line over and over again in crime movies and shows, for the cops they say this to see if the accused squirms or reacts either genuinely or guiltily. Alfred Hitchcock in his film The Wrong Man shows that an innocent man really has many things to fear when accused of a crime he did not commit.

             The Wrong Man is based off the real- life story of Manny Balestrero who is charged with holding up a store. The story was first printed in Life magazine in 1952 by Hubert Brean called “A Case of Identity.”  The story of an innocent man accused of something he did not do is a recurring theme in many of Hitchcock’s movies (Vertigo, North by Northwest, Spellbound). Christopher Emmanuel “Manny” Balestrero (Henry Fonda) plays the double bass in a small orchestra at the Stork Club. He plays late into the night, takes the subway and bus back to his home in Queens. He and his wife Rose (Vera Miles) are like most people, they struggle to make ends meet but they are happy with what they have. Poor Rose is having trouble with her wisdom teeth which will cost $300 to get taken care of (!!!). The next day Manny goes to the insurance company to take out money against Rose’s policy so she can get her teeth taken care of… from here on in Manny’s life is turned upside down.

            That night after Manny comes home from his mother’s house the police are waiting for him outside. The ladies in the insurance office believe that Manny is the one who held up the office the previous month. The police do not even let Manny tell Rose where he is going which makes her worry to no end later on. Witnesses say that Manny is the man who robbed their places of business. He is processed, put in a holding cell, taken to court where his bale is set way too high, and then taken to prison. Fortunately his brother-in-law posts his bale and he is allowed out of prison until the trial.

            After bringing Manny back home, Rose phones a lawyer named O’Connor. They see the lawyer the following. Rose is very optimistic and does all the talking while Manny is silent. O’Connor will take the case but he warns the Balestreros that he has never done a criminal case. During the meeting we find out that on the night of one of the crimes the Balestreros were on vacation. They go up to the place where they stayed and talk to the couple who run the motel. Manny remembers playing cards with some men. When they get back to the City, Manny and Rose try to track down these men for witnesses but they have no luck, two of the men are dead and one cannot be found.

            Rose is no longer optimistic about things. She’s worrying that Manny will be sent to jail and about money. She and Manny sit in O’Connor’s office and she just stares off into space. O’Connor notices something is wrong and suggests she gets up. When Manny gets home from work one night, Rose is still awake; she hasn’t been able to sleep for the past few nights. Manny now sees that something is definitely wrong with his wife. At one point she takes a brush and hits Manny over the head with it and cracks a mirror. Manny takes Rose to a specialist. He tells Manny that Rose is feeling guilty that all this has happened because of her and they are drowning in debt because she feels she was not good with money. The specialist suggests Rose goes into a home for a while to straighten out her mind.

            Manny’s trial is not going well. Two women identify Manny as the robber and a juror stands up asking why they have to listen to all the testimony anymore which causes a mistrial. At home while getting ready for work one night, Manny is basically at wits end with this whole trial. His life has been turned upside down and he wishes he had just been found guilty since it would be easier for him to move on. His mother tells him to pray but he just says it doesn’t work it’s luck he needs. When he walks into his bedroom he looks at a picture of Jesus on the wall and begins to pray. As he prays his face fades and we see a man walking towards the camera. The man’s face fits into Manny’s; it is the man who has been causing the Balestreros all their troubles and whom Manny has been mistaken for.

            The man walks into a deli and asks for some ham. As the woman goes to get the ham he walks behind the counter. He messes with the wrong woman!! The woman takes a knife and holds it out ready for him if comes and attacks. She stomps the floor as an alert and her husband comes up and attacks the robber. The police come and take him in.

            As Manny is working an employee tells him that the police need him to come down to the station and he leaves his double-bass on stage. At the station O’Connor tells Manny they got the guy and the innocent man and guilty man come face to face. Manny, not thinking of himself says to the robber “do you know what you have done to my wife?” The women who accused Manny in court have now positively identified the real the man; they cannot look Manny in the eye as they walk out because of embarrassment.

            The first thing Manny does the next day is go to Rose at the home she is staying at. He tells her everything will be alright but she’s not in her right frame of mind she is still out of it. This crushes Manny to no end.

            The film ends with a title card saying that two years later Rose was completely cured and the family is now living in Florida.

            The Wrong Man is not considered to be one of Hitchcock’s best films. When you watch a Hitchcock film you expect there to be this fantastic fictional suspense/mystery/thriller with a love story thrown in. The Wrong Man is a true story that cannot be fictionalized which makes this film underrated. It is a shame that this film considered underrated, I personally think, while it is not the best story, it is one of Hitchcock’s best directed films. As I watched this film I was amazed by the camera angles and how much they made us feel for Henry Fonda’s character. When Manny is in the holding cell Hitchcock pans the room as if we were looking through Manny’s eyes and he does the same thing in the courtroom and when Manny is being transferred to the prison. In the courtroom scene we see that Manny’s confidence is shaking as he looks as the jury not paying attention and talking, one of the lawyers that is defending him is drawing on a notebook and not listening at all, and his sister is putting on lipstick. Hitchcock explained to Francoise Truffaut about the prison transfer:

            “During the journey between the station house and the prison, there are different men guarding him, but since he’s ashamed, he keeps his head down, staring at his shoes, so we never show the guards… In the same way, during the whole trip, we only show theguards’ feet, their lower legs, the floor, and the bottom parts of the door.”

We see what Manny is nervously looking at as he walks past other prisoners. We can genuinely feel that Manny is sad and nervous and scared and feels that he does not belong with these real criminals. Hitchcock filmed the emotions of Montgomery Cliff’s character the same way three years previously in I Confess.

            Going for broke on realism, Hitchcock actually filmed The Wrong Man in New York City in the same neighborhoods the events really took place. He even used the actual home where Rose goes and had the actual doctors playing themselves. Vera Miles and Henry Fonda spent some time with the real Balestreros before shooting began. The real guilty man was caught by the woman who owned the deli but instead of holding the knife away from the man she had the knife against his stomach which made the man so scared that he did not move and the husband was easily able to keep the man down until the police came. Like in the film the man said “Let me go. My wife and kids are waiting for me.” Hitchcock told Truffaut that this line would never be written into a movie for how ridiculous it sounds but it just worked.

            One problem Hitchcock finds as a weakness in the film is the interruptions of Manny’s story to show how Rose is gradually losing her mind. I do not find these interruptions as a weakness. Yes they are interruptions they come at not the greatest moments for the flow of the story sometimes but I feel they are important. Showing Rose losing her mind over this is important; this is just one of the things that Manny has to fear. Vera Miles was excellent as Rose. The scene in the lawyer’s office when she is starting to slip was done so well; you can actually relate and understand her feelings of despair and hopelessness and of feeling stuck. She sits in the chair feeling numb. Hitchcock wanted to make Vera Miles his next Grace Kelly and you can tell by this film she could have been his next great  muse; her acting was fantastic (she was only 27 when she made this).

            The Wrong Man, while it may be underrated, is still a very good Hitchcock film. It is an unconventional Hitchcock movie which is probably why many do not like it; but from it being different from all his other films that is what makes The Wrong Man so good. The film is chilling because it is so real. We can relate to the working man and the problems of having debts, we can relate to the hopelessness, the nervousness, the sadness, and the frustrations of the characters. Truffaut points out the Hitchcock that in the hands of a lesser director this movie would not have worked out at all. But of course Hitchcock being the Master of Suspense and the greatest director of all time he made The Wrong Man work, he made this true story suspenseful and frightening.