(1936)2.5Hans J. WollsteinThe Charleses, Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy), are as charming as ever, perhaps even more so, in this their second whodunit, which almost plays like a Warner Bros. thriller: fast-paced, noisy, and never dull. A huge cast of Runyon-esque supporting characters keeps the pot boiling merrily and the climactic unmasking of the real killer is, for once, quite a surprise. W.S. Van Dyke and his writers knew exactly how to spin such a yarn and get the most out of a breezy story that takes you from stuffy Nob Hill to Chinatown and back. After the Thin Man, incidentally, is the last entry in the series with a title that makes any kind of sense.
