Five movies into any series and the novelty will start wearing off. Unfortunately, that’s as true of The Thin Man series as anything else. Nick and Nora are as charming as ever in The Thin Man Goes Home, but this entry doesn’t bring a lot that’s new in the way of laughs.
It tries. The story’s about Nick and Nora’s going to visit his parents in the small town where he grew up (the series titles having cleverly transferred the Thin Man nickname to Nick with Another Thin Man). His folks aren’t rich, but they’re respectable; especially Nick’s pop, who’s an influential doctor in the community. While the folks are pleasant and genuinely happy to see their son and daughter-in-law, Nick clearly has daddy issues right from the start. He’s giving up drinking for the duration of the visit and instead pulls swigs from a flask of apple cider. It’s a ballsy move to rob the main character of his funniest trait. Unfortunately, it doesn’t pay off comedically.
Nick’s best gags have always been his search for the next drink and his drunken endurance of insufferable people. Here, he soberly faces likable people and tries to get them to like him. It’s a sad position for the once great detective to be in.
At least the movie leaves Nick Jr. back in New York for the trip. And the mystery is a fun one featuring a mysterious painting and a murder that takes place literally on Nick’s doorstep. Murder mysteries of the 1940s are cheap, however. What sets this series above the others is Nick’s being at the top of his game, and The Thin Man Goes Home doesn’t offer that. I wish he’d stayed in New York. —Michael May