A decade after the series started, 1944 brought The Thin Man Goes Home. This delivers the fifth of the franchise’s six flicks.

Along with his wife Nora (Myrna Loy) and loyal pooch Asta, famed detective Nick Charles (William Powell) returns to his hometown of Sycamore Springs to visit his parents. Unfortunately, his physician father Bertram (Harry Davenport) remains unhappy that Nick didn’t follow in his career footsteps, so Nora tries to redeem her husband in his pop’s eyes.

Nick soon finds himself back on the job. When a murder occurs in peaceful Sycamore Springs, Nick hops onto the case – and hopes to finally impress his father to boot.

Although I enjoyed the first Thin Man, the subsequent two chapters did less for me. I found 1936’s After the Thin Man and 1939’s Another Thin Man to deliver lackluster adventures.

Though not great, 1941’s Shadow of the Thin Man offered a moderate rebound. That left me hopeful that Home might give us another genial and likable Thin Man tale.

And that it does, albeit not via a story with a ton of consistency. Home takes its sweet time to get into gear, and even when it does so, the movie still feels loose and somewhat aimless.

Home goes almost half an hour before the mystery side of the plot emerges. During the first act, we spend more time with character elements and comedy.

These work pretty well, and I like the fact Nora gets more to do than usual. Nora tends to take too much of a backseat to Nick in these movies, whereas Home allows Mrs. Charles a more active part in the story.

I like the look at Nick’s family, and the character orientation seems engaging. It almost disappoints when the mystery side of the movie finally comes to light.

Not that this means I find the final 70 minutes to flop, as Home remains pretty entertaining. The biggest issue comes from the semi-incoherence of the criminal exploration, as the investigation tends to meander.

Still, Home throws out enough quirky character material and plot twists to keep us with it, and both Powell and Loy seem surprisingly engaged given how many times they’d played these characters. Neither sets the screen on fire, but they offer quality performances as our leads.

Five films into the series, it seems inevitable I’ll never enjoy a Thin Man movie as much as the original, and Goes Home doesn’t threaten the 1934 flick’s status as best of the bunch. Nonetheless, it becomes an entertaining mix of comedy and detective material that keeps us with it pretty well.

The Thin Man Goes Home appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film looked quite good.

In general, sharpness satisfied, as the movie usually appeared well-defined. Some softness popped up for the occasional shot, but the majority of the flick boasted nice delineation.

Shimmering and jaggies remained absent, and edge haloes also failed to appear. The movie’s grain structure felt natural, and print flaws didn’t mar the proceedings.

Blacks appeared deep and dark, and contrast came across well. Shadows held up nicely as well. The movie still gave us a positive presentation.

Similar thoughts greeted the sturdy DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Home, as it held up nicely over the decades. Speech could seem a bit thin, but lines were intelligible and concise enough.

Music and effects displayed the expected restricted dynamic range, but they showed acceptable clarity and didn’t suffer from distortion. The mix lacked pops, clicks, hum, or other defects. This was a more than competent track for a movie from the 1940s.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get two vintage shorts from 1944. Why Daddy? goes for nine minutes, 44 seconds and presents Robert Benchley in his recurring role as Joe Doakes.

Know-it-all Doakes feels he can excel on a radio game show, but when he appears, he flops – in a comedic manner, of course. Benchley amuses in this enjoyable reel.

We also get the animated Screwball Squirrel, which spans seven minutes, 25 seconds and comes from noted director Tex Avery. Sassy Screwy Squirrel battles with a dim-witted bird dog.

Avery seems to take aim at Disney via an intro with an adorable rodent, as the short then goes straight to the more violent antagonism we expect. Nothing remarkable occurs but the cartoon offers reasonable entertainment.

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. The Blu-ray brings well-reproduced picture and audio along with a few bonus materials. Though late in the franchise’s run, Home satisfies.