Why so much hype?

Redundant and unnecessary.

Brilliant and touching

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I liked the first two, the third not so much. This one, however, worked out fine, even if Nick drank nothing stronger than cider. (Though apple cider comes in both alcoholic and nonalcoholic versions.)Nick brings Nora to Sycamore Springs, the rural town he grew up in, and visits his elderly father and mother. The father is a prominent local doctor who was disappointed that his son chose to become a policeman instead, though Nora responds by telling them what a wonderful detective Nick is-to Nick's embarrassment. Word spreads through town of Nick and Nora'a arrival, and the locals assume they are here to work on a criminal case. Of course, Nick and Nora only came for social reasons-until a man visits the father's house and is shot to death when the front door is answered. Now the pair have a crime to solve.Unlike the previous installments, Asta is helpful this time, and Nick sticks to cider and no longer smokes. The movie was made at the tail end of World War Two, and of course the war effort is a large part of the mystery. And the suspects are more obvious than usual. At least not as convoluted as the third movie.

I've read comments from other reviewers that as the Thin Man series went on, the quality of the movies went down hill. Well you can't really tell by this, the fifth film in the line up, as this one had me fully engaged right from the start. Asta has a fair share of quality time, Myrna Loy adds a layer of 'I Love Lucy' to her character Nora Charles, and lo and behold, Nick (William Powell) runs the entire show on apple cider instead of booze. The venue is also a nice change of pace, as the Charles's head over to Nick's home town in Sycamore Springs for a restful vacation.As usual, there are a whole host of interesting characters on hand, as the inevitable happens and Nick is drawn into a murder case when someone is actually shot on the doorstep of his parents' home! Never before has wife Nora been so animated in her desire to have Nick get involved in a case, as this time it would demonstrate how clever he is to a father who had become disillusioned over his son's choice of profession. But you know, I didn't think it was very admirable the way Nick took his wife over a knee for that spanking - ouch! Can you just hear the wailing of the war on women folks if this was made today?! Here's a question - what's the shortest amount of screen time on record for a character in a movie? Holy smokes, Ralph Brooke, the actor who portrayed Peter Berton might have been visible for about a minute before he got shot! I fully expected that the actor remained uncredited but he's right there in the cast line up. I hope he fared better in his other movie appearances.Here's what I have to admit though. Whenever Nick Charles goes into one of his illuminating explanations revealing the identity of the killer, I just about completely zone out. I suppose I could back track and try to follow the details here but ultimately it doesn't make too much difference. At least this one had that neat back story with the tampered paintings and the espionage angle going for it. What I was really hoping for though was for Asta to come along and take a whizz on the collie in the windmill painting.

THE THIN MAN GOES HOME (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944), directed by Richard Thorpe, returns William Powell to his popular role of Nick Charles, with Myrna Loy back on screen for the first time since the last installment of SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN (1941). Unlike other screen detectives in series films of "Charlie Chan," "Sherlock Holmes" or "Boston Blackie" having two or three theatrical releases a year, "The Thin Man" has a rare distinction, next to the MGM Tarzan series of the 1930s and 40s, to come up with a new installment once every two to three years. For this fifth of six entries, the original screenplay by Robert Riskin and Dwight Taylor attempts in following the basic pattern more on the initial films, THE THIN MAN (1934) and AFTER THE THIN MAN (1936) by emphasizing more situations on Nick and Nora as opposed to ANOTHER THIN MAN (1939) and SHADOW (1941) where time-out for parenting takes place in between comedic antics and crime solving. With Nick Jr. being "away in school" this time around, Nick, Nora and their dog, Asta, become the center of attention again, sharing their scenes with newly developed characters, namely Nick's parents.The story gets underway where Nick and Nora (William Powell and Myrna Loy) at Grand Central Station getting train tickets from New York to Sycamore Springs where they plan to vacation with Nick's parents, whom he hasn't seen in years. Situations arise when coping with both overcrowded station and train while attempting to sneak their Scottish terrier, Asta, on board where at one point, pass the dog off as a baby. Once at the home of Nick's parents, Doctor and Mrs. Bertram Charles (Harry Davenport and Lucile Watson), their vacation of peace and quiet turns to crime solving when Peter Berton (Ralph Brooks), a landscape painter, is suddenly shot and killed by a silencer on the doorstep of Dr. Charles. With Nick's birthday approaching, Nora buys a painting of a windmill from Willie Crump (Donald Meek), who originally promised it to Edgar and Helena Draque (Leon Ames and Helen Vinson). Because the painting holds an important clue to the mystery, Draque follows Nora hoping to buy it from her while Nora follows Nick's friend, Brogan (Edward Brophy), a traveling greeting card salesman, whom she suspects to be the killer. Going on with his sleuthing, much to the dismay of Police Chief MacGregor (Donald MacBride), Nick stumbles upon another murder, that of "Crazy Mary" (Anne Revere), a town character living in a shack, who may have some connection with Peter Burton. By gathering prominent citizens for questioning, including Laura Ronson (Gloria DeHaven), a society girl; Sam Bronson (Minor Watson), her father; Doctor Bruce Clayworth (Lloyd Corrigan), Nick's former classmate; Willoughby (Morris Ankrum), Nick risks his father's chances of receiving financial support for a new hospital, causing more complications between father and son. With some more mystery to uncover, it appears Nick and Nora don't get to see much of Sycamore Springs.While there was never any mention about Nick's parents and his background, much of it is brought out in this installment. It's revealed that Nick's father has always wanted him to become a doctor like himself, not his true profession of a "policeman." Nick, usually having a passion for liquor, has "reformed" by drinking only cider. His deductions in crime solving still rank high as in previous installments, and is no disappointment here. The performance of Nora, on the other hand, is slightly altered from fun-loving sophisticate to silly spouse. Her demonstration and re-enactment on Nick's previous cases to her in-laws doesn't come off as funny as it deserved to be. One scene where Nick paddles Nora on her behind with a folded newspaper may seem out of character, but the use of assortment oddball characters as "Crazy Mary," Brogan and Hilda (hilariously played by Anita Bolster), the housekeeper, is a welcome traditional trait for this series.With more comedy inserted into the mystery than before, some slapstick was thrown in for good measure, ranging from Nick's pratfall at while trying to keep Asta from running loose at the train station, to Nora unwittingly becoming part of a wild jitterbug dance with a young sailor at a nightclub. As mentioned earlier, there's no Nick Jr. in this installment. Had Little Nicky been written in as part of the family vacation, it's a wonder whether Dickie Hall from SHADOW would have resumed his cutesy role, or offered to another boy actor in the Nicky age range of eight as Jackie "Butch" Jenkins could have been a possibility. Overall, the absence of Nicky Jr. did help keep the story on a balanced level. Still quite overlong at 100 minutes, THE THIN MAN GOES HOME, though not in the same league as the initial two produced a decade ago, is, for fans of the series, really not so bad.Distributed to home video in the 1990s and later DVD as part of the "Thin Man" collection a decade later, this and other "Thin Man" mysteries can be seen frequently on Turner Classic Movies cable channel. Next chapter: SONG OF THE THIN MAN (1947). (***)

If a Thin Man movie is on, it's always watchable. What gets me is that in movies these days if the plot runs thin, the director warms up some pixels and amps up the special effects.Back in the day, when the plot got thin, there weren't a lot of optical effects, so the director leaned on the writer and actors and got great dialogue and snappy acting.This Thin Man has a plot as thin as a 1940's projection screen. As long as Nick, Nora, and Asta, and the supporting cast is up for the fun and mayhem, though, plot doesn't seem to matter so much.I thought the last reel dragged on in comparison to the rest of the film, but there are some great scenes and snappy jokes throughout the film.And where do sailors learn to dance like that?!?