Thin Man series finds success
in husband-wife detective team
Myma Loy will receive a spe
cial Oscar this year at the
Academy awards for her lifetime
achievements. I can give you at
least six reasons why she is
receiving it: “The Thin Man” in
1934, “After the Thin Man” in
1936, “Another Thin Man” in
1939, “Shadow of the Thin Man”
in 1941, “The Thin Man Goes
Home” in 1944 and “Song of the
Thin Man” in 1947.
The Thin Man series featured
Hollywood’s most famous hus
band-wife detective team, Nick
and Nora Charles, as played by
William Powell and Myma Loy.
Dashiell Hammett — author
of “The Maltese Falcon” — sold
his best-selling 1932 mystery
novel “The Thin Man,” to MGM
for $14,000. Director W.S.
(Woody) Van Dyke II immedi
ately showed an enthusiastic
interest in making the film.
However, no one else supported
his enthusiasm, contending that
the detective-mystery genre was
overdone and would fail to
interest moviegoers.
But Van Dyke persisted, as
signing Albert Hackett and
Frances Goodrich to write a
series of scenes emphasizing the
cozy, laid-back marital relation
ship between the mystery-prone
Nick and Nora and their dog Asta
— the same dog-actor featured in
“The Awful Truth.”
The results pleased MGM stu
dio guru Louis B. Mayer, but he
considered the casting of Powell
and Loy as a risk, reasoning that
they were “serious actors” un
suited to the sparkling comedic
content of the film. Finally
j - __
Mayer consented to including
Powell, but refused to cast Loy
until director Van Dyke threat
ened to walk off of the film.
Mayer relented, on two condi
tions. First, Loy was to be cast in
another film, “Stambul Quest.” .
Secondly, she was to start the
film 21 days after filming for
“The Thin Man” was to begin.
Thus, the film was shot in 14
days, allowing 2 days for retakes
— quite a dubious schedule,
considering the picture was a
full-budget “A” movie release for
MGM.
“The Thin Man” proved to be
an enormous box-office hit,
drawing Oscar nominations for
Best Actor for Powell, Best
Director for Van Dyke, Best
Screenplay for Hackett and
Goodrich and Best Picture. The
film was up against tough
competition, being one of 12 pic
tures nominated for Best Picture.
However, “It Happened One
Night,” starring Clark Gable and
Claudette Colbert won for Best
Picture — and also walked away
with four other Oscars.
Like its five sequels, “The
Thin Man” features sophisticated
wit, an involved plot and witty
dialogue. “The Thin Man”
included a wonderful scene shot
from the waist up. The scene is a
bright dog-walking sequence in
which the unseen and always
scene-stealing Asta jerks his
leash in the direction of passing
lampposts and fire hydrants.
The sly and flippant bantering
and bickering between Powell
and Loy make up some of the
highlight of the clever film —
showing the imperfect “perfect”
couple in their fun-loving
relationship of loving cocktails,
tomfoolery, and each other.
In one scene, Powell is called
upon to explain why Asta has rur
into a restaurant while the
sprawling package-laden Loy
makes her first appearance in the
film — again improvised during
the shooting of the film.
“It’s my dog and my wife,”
Powell introduces.
“Well, you might have men
tioned me first on the billing,”
Loy retorts in her inimitable dry
style.
“Well... the dog is well
trained,” Powell answers.
There are often instances of
the ’30s version of a sexual joke.
When the cops crash into Powell
and Loy’s bedroom to capture a
man who had broken in, a police
officer asks Loy, “You ever hear
of the Sullivan Act?”
To which, Loy answers inno
cently, “Oh, that’s all right —
we’re married.”
The constant rapport that Pow
ell and Loy shared on-screen cap
tivated audiences — and studio
head Mayer who casted them
together in 14 films. The films
included such hilarious screwball
comedies as the 1936 films
“Manhattan Melodrama” with
William Powell, Maureen O’Sullivan and Myrna Loy in “The
Thin Man.”
Clark Gable and “Libeled Lady”
with Spencer Tracy and Jean
Harlow, whom Powell was en
gaged to at the time of her death.
Powell and Loy were consid
ered to be one of Hollywood’s
greatest couples, though they
were never married. Although
Powell was only married once, to
Carole Lombard from 1931 to
1933, Powell and Loy always
remained very close.
“We became very close
friends, but, contrary to popular
belief, we were never really
married or close to it. Oh, there
were times when Bill had a crush
on me and times when I had a
crush on Bill, but we never made
anything of it. We worked around
it and stayed pals,” Loy said in
her autobiography.
The Thin Man series spanned
13 years and six films, always
featuring sophisticated mysteries
and the perfected banter and love
between Powell and Loy — as
well as some of the best enter
tainment in filmmaking history.
Stock is a junior English major and a
Dally Nebraskan arts and entertainment
staff reporter and columnist.
Audience not Cry in’
over Drivin’ concert
By Robert Richardson
Senior Reporter
Wednesday night’s concert at
Omaha’s Ranch Bowl was full of
ups and downs, as the Personics
and Drivin’ N Cryin’ rocked with
an audience of about 150.
Local Omaha cover band Per
sonics tried to warm up the small
crowd with tunes from the Cure,
Smithereens, The Cult and Black
Crowes. Like most cover bands,
they lacked the intensity they needed
to pull off such hits. Judging by the
crowd’s reaction, members of Per
sonics probably shouldn’t quit their
day jobs.
But once the main act appeared,
the evening began to rock.
Kicking off its show, Drivin’ N
Cryin’ was everything that the
Personics were not. Drivin’ had an
experienced sound, but its mem
bers also looked hungry, eager to
please.
They ripped through two songs
before they acknowledged being
in Omaha. After a big cheer from
the audience, Drivin’ N Cryin’
started to play several songs from
its latest release, “Fly Me Coura
geous.”
“Chain Reaction” was a clean,
enthusiastic mix of rock. The tempo
was broken up by a strobe light
blinking on and off. It could have
made for a disillusioning effect,
but the song was anything but
overdone.
Proving its versatility, Drivin’
shifted into a slower gear as it
moved to “Let’s Go Dancing.”
Vocalist Kevin Kinney’s nasal
scratch vocals added depth to his
strong straight shooting voice. He
sang each song with conviction.
In a pre-show interview, guitar
ist Buren Fowler said the band could
rock as hard as any other band. He
was proven right, as Fowler com
bined with Kinney on guitar. They
made a strong dual string effort
and never stepped on each other’s
riffs.
Clearly the best song of the night
was the band’s second encore per
formance, “Straight To Hell.”
Kinney and Nielsen provided for a
sweet harmony, one that is rare in a
stage show. During this song, it
was clear that Drivin' N Cryin’
was having just as good a time as
the audience.
Drivin’ N Cryin’ is not com
posed of musical geniuses, but band
members did provide the audience
with an all-around good show. These
guys were true professionals.
Fifth
Continued from Page 9
that bitch “Ain’t Nothin’ But a Word
to Me.”
That is the whole problem: Misog
yny may mean nothing to this pair,
but all women are hurt by attitudes
like this: “Grab a bitch by the throat/
And slam her ass ...”
Yeah, I hear you telling me about
how you’ve got a ho every night and
everywhere and that you know how
to control her, but these are more than
words to me.
The goal here is not to establish
my own rating system of whether or
not bands display “correct” attitudes
or “model” behavior, but an album
full of such ideas certainly deserves
commentary.
Too Short is almost more a story
teller than a rapper with his smooth
and soulful sound and long songs, but
I can not see how the same man who
slaps his ’ho around can support the
Slop The Violence movement.
Bryan Peterson is a senior English, psy
chology and philosophy m^jor a«d » Daily
Nebraskan stall reporter and columnist.
Production of ‘Lend Me a Tenor’
lends itself well to Lied audience
By James Finley
Staff Reporter
Most people hate reading promo
tional ads for comedies. They all
employ cliches like “riotously funny!”
and “best I’ve seen in years!”
These insincere and phony phrases
can be justly applied to Wednesday
night’s performance of “Lend Me a
Tenor” at the Lied Center for Per
forming Arts. Overall, the actors
presented a polished and professional
production of this Tony Award-win
ning play. “Lend Me a Tenor” is a
modem version of “Comedy of Er
rors” with a few twists. Tito Mirelli,
also known as “II Stupendo” (Ron
Holgate), is a famous opera singer
coming to Cleveland to perform
“Othello.”
While waiting in his hotel suite,
Tito gets into an argument with his
wife (D’Jamin Bartlett), and then
accidentally lakes too much nerve
medicine. The head of the opera
company mistakes Tito’s comatose
slate for death, and in a panic, gets the
assistant director, Max (Michael
Waldron), to impersonate “II Slu
pendo.” As can be expected, Tito
comes around, and rushes to the op
era.
After the opera, Max returns to the
hotel and discovers that Tito’s body is
missing. As he leaves the room through
one door, Tito enters through another.
Hence, the humor of being the wrong
man in the wrong place at the wrong
time.
Everything works out in the end,
but not without an abundance of
mismatches that keeps the audience
laughing.
The actors all gave respectable
performances, but Michael Waldron
as Max and Ron Holgate as Merelli
were the outstanding members of the
cast.
Waldron had a surprisingly decent
singing voice, and he did a good job
of capturing the mannerisms of a scared
performer. Later in the play, he as
sumed the inflated ego that character
ized “11 Stupendo” excellently.
Holgate managed to keep the gar
gantuan ego throughout the play with
out letting it get obnoxious. Holgate
also was able to play the role more as
“II Stupido” rather than “II Stupendo,”
as the mix-up confuses him more and
more.
The great costumes added to the
situational humor. Both Max and Tito,
dressed for the role of Othello, looked
like bad James Brown impersonators,
but it worked. Seeing them running
around the stage, neither completely
aware of what was going on, was
hilarious. Had the costumes been less -
flamboyant, the comedy wouldn’t have
been conveyed.
One thing that really distracted
from the production was the sound
system. Too many times, it sounded
like the actors were relying too much
on having their voices amplified. They
needed to project belter on their own.
Waldron seemed to be the only per
son who didn’t have this problem.
The next time “Lend Me a Tenor”
is being performed anywhere around
here, someone, please, lend me a ticket.
Marsalis
Continued from Page 9
the aid of Marsalis on the saxo
phone. The world tour was pro
moted by a double-live LP and
accompanying movie, both entitled
“Bring on the Night.”
Although Marsalis’ success
caught on quickly as a jazz saxo
phonist for a pop band, he still
followed modern jazz repertoire
closely, touring with his own band
to promote his “Royal Garden
Blues” LP released in 1986.
1987 and 1988 proved even
busier for the ever-growing success
of Marsalis, who toured with
Sting’s band and his own, as well as
recording the score for Spike Lee’s
critically acclaimed film “Do the
Right Thing.” In his spare lime, he
made acting appearances in “Throw
Momma from the Train” and Spike
Lee’s “School Daze.”
“Crazy People,” which Marsalis
released early last year, has brought
even more attention to Branford’s
talent. He is no longer just
Wynton’s brother, he’s a star by the
merits of his own talents, and the
sold-out Lied audience will expect
him to prove it Saturday night.
