utgard14 The sixth and final Thin Man film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as everyone's favorite husband and wife detective team, Nick and Nora Charles. Unfortunately the series does not go out on a high note as this is the weakest Thin Man film by far. The story has Nick investigating a bandleader's murder in order to clear a friend's name. A darker atmosphere, some uninteresting supporting characters, and jazz music that did nothing for me (including the ironically forgettable song "You're Not So Easy to Forget") makes this one a bit of a slog to get through. The biggest problem is that Nick and Nora just seem kind of dull. Also the way they're portrayed as two people out of step with what's cool just makes them look old. Yeah they're maturing and have a kid and all that but I don't like to think of the Charleses like the rest of us. They should always be witty, fun, and adventurous. The rest of the cast includes Gloria Grahame, Keenan Wynn, Patricia Morison, Leon Ames, Jayne Meadows, and Ralph Morgan. Dean Stockwell plays Nick, Jr. and does a good job. It's the one I've rewatched the least because it just doesn't feel like a Thin Man film to me. Still, it's something every Powell and Loy fan will want to see at least once.

binapiraeus Aboard a gambling ship where Nick and Nora are invited by rich David Thayar, the atmosphere is obviously pretty much poisonous - and by the end of the night, it becomes murderous, too: band leader Tommy Drake, hated by just about everyone on board, is shot. And suspect number one is - Phil Brant, who just married secretly Thayar's daughter Janet. So the newly-weds seek help from Janet's friends Nick and Nora; but instead, Nick turns Phil over to the police - but why? Because he wants him in a safe place, since he's afraid somebody might kill him - and a prison cell IS (temporarily, at least) a safe place...And then Nick and Nora start their investigations - and very soon we've got a whole bunch of suspects: clarinetist Buddy Hollis, who's become an alcoholic since Drake stole his girlfriend, the beautiful singer Fran (a great performance by Gloria Grahame!), gambling boss Al Amboy, whom he owed a lot of money, and of course Thayar, who disapproved of his daughter's marriage and might want to get Brant out of the way...And then there are the members of the band, of course, who haven't actually got a motive, but certainly hated their 'boss' enough to actually celebrate his death - but here the fun begins: Nick gets the second clarinetist, 'Clinker', to help him search for the vanished Buddy Hollis (he found a razor blade at the scene of the crime, and every clarinetist uses one for cleaning his instrument...); and so we (and Nick and Nora, who don't seem to be very up-to-date anymore on the latest music hits and musicians' slang) get a chance to see some really crazy jam sessions! But then things become serious again: they find Buddy in an asylum, completely deranged by now, then Fran is mysteriously stabbed in her apartment - and when Nick and Nora come back home, where they had left Nickie Jr. in Janet's care, they find them both missing... Could she possible be wanting to take revenge for the way Nick treated her husband?? Although at times a bit too melodramatic and complicated, even this last one of the 'Thin Man' films provides many different elements: a shade of Noir, a glimpse into the jazz world, some humor, some suspense, a quite intriguing plot, and good solid performances.The sad thing about this movie, though, is that the carefree, nonconformist, cheeky Nick and Nora that we knew at last are turning 'typically American', almost bourgeois: they've become rather strict parents (Nick spanks Jr. when he tries to sneak out to play baseball instead of practicing piano), and compared to the 'hep cats' of the band, with first and best Keenan Wynn as 'Clinker', they look - almost intentionally - pretty old-fashioned and stuffy. All this is a mirror of the general atmosphere in the US society toward the end of the 40s, of course; but it also shows that the good old days of crime comedy were coming to an end - and this film is kind of a 'swan song' for that great genre that had blossomed in the 30s and early 40s...

maybe730 This is the last of the Thin Man movies but the first in the series I didn't like. I've found these movies work best when Nick and Nora are together as much as possible. The appeal for me is their banter and chemistry with each other and their paired interactions with others. But in Song they're rarely together in the first half of the movie and in the second half they're just sort of beside each other. Myrna Loy's delivery is still perfect but the writers forgot to give her anything funny or clever to say. She's in the background for most of the movie. And William Powell's delivery is a little tired. He's a little slower, less energetic than in the other entries. There's also a lot of musical interludes and a strange lack of alcohol consumption in this film. The lack of drinking in the previous movie was a funny on-going gag but here it's just noticeably absent. In fact this really could just be any movie starring Loy and Powell instead of a Thin Man flick. But at least Asta's still cute.

Neil Doyle It was inevitable that "The Thin Man" series would run out of steam eventually and this last entry is probably why both Powell and Loy never made another one. The background for this mystery is a gambling boat with jazz musicians giving the film a very dated look because of all the jive talk, circa 1940s.And as usual, there are more suspects than there are murders, with Asta and Mrs. Charles trying to help Nick solve the crime. MGM spared no expense in giving the film a glossy, polished look and a sparkling supporting cast--PATRICIA MORISON, LEON AMES, GLORIA GRAHAME, KEENAN WYNN, DEAN STOCKWELL (then 11) and PHILIP REED.The problem is the usual flaw in these Nick and Nora mysteries--the viewer never gets enough clues to solve the crime along with the two sleuths. You're just along for the ride as the two deal with a host of unpleasant characters, among whom is a murderer who invariably slips up in time for Nick to solve the crime.Summing up: Good chemistry between Loy and Powell is still there, but they get little help from a tiresome script.