THE COMPLETE THIN MAN COLLECTION

THE THIN MAN: “Bright, peppy and clever, The Thin Man remains a strong film. It has aged little over the last 90 years and it continues to provide a fun and distinctive experience.”

AFTER THE THIN MAN: “Many folks seem to regard After the Thin Man as a film as good if not better than its predecessor but I don’t agree with that. I thought After was a fairly lazy rehash of the original and it lacked much of the same spirit or creativity.”

ANOTHER THIN MAN: “After the initial sequel to The Thin Man sputtered, I hoped the third would recapture the franchise’s strengths. Unfortunately, Another Thin Man becomes a lackluster, muddled mystery without the character-based sparks that made the original movie so much fun.”

SHADOW OF THE THIN MAN: “While Shadow of the Thin Man never excels, it offers reasonable entertainment. Despite a clunky murder story, the film comes with enough light charm to make it moderately enjoyable.”

THE THIN MAN GOES HOME: “With The Thin Man Goes Home, we get a likeable enough mix of comedy and detective story. Nothing here excels but the movie gives us a fun, breezy 100 minutes of entertainment.”

SONG OF THE THIN MAN: “13 years after it debuted, the Thin Man franchise wound up with Song of the Thin Man. Though not a great entry in the series, Song offers enough light charm to become a likable effort.”

The Set:

In 1934, Dashiell Hammett published a novel called The Thin Man about a couple of party-loving married sleuths who find themselves unwillingly drawn into many a mystery. The same year brought a cinematic adaptation with William Powell and Myrna Loy as the leads.

The Thin Man became a cinematic hit. That launched five sequels that started with 1936’s After the Thin Man and finally concluded with 1947’s Song of the Thin Man.

For full information on the individual films, please consult my reviews of those sets via the links above. Please note that the picture/sound/bonus grades found above represent an average for the six movies.

The “Complete Collection” package provides nothing unique in terms of content. We get no new featurettes or retrospectives or the like.

However, it does present the whole run of Thin Man flicks at a bargain price. Whereas each one retailed for $21.99 individually, the six-film Collection comes with an MSRP of only $49.98, which sounds like a steal if you need three or more of the movies.

Although the quality of the six tales in “The Complete Thin Man Collection” varies, most work pretty well. The two leads help carry the films even when the stories themselves might falter and we find plenty of entertainment across the franchise’s 13-year run. The Blu-rays offer consistently good picture, more than adequate audio and a smattering of supplements. For $50 or less, this winds up as a great purchase.