Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett are still writing the third of MGM's series. Nick and Nora have been touring America with Nick Jr and Asta, and "Nick was sober in San Diego". Thereafter the couple's drinking has been toned down radically as they become involved in plot to murder C. Aubrey Smith (because he shouts at everyone), though there is the usual nightclub scene (the 'West Indies', featuring some very unusual dancing).
With Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger (somewhat mad-looking detective), Ruth Hussey, regular Nat Pendleton, Sheldon Leonard and Don Costello as creepy villains, Patric Knowles and Tom Neal as the nice boys, and Marjorie Main fun as a forthright landlady. The murky plot - in which all the attendants of the denouement look as guilty as one another - is from Dashiell Hammett.
Photographed by Oliver T Marsh and William Daniels.
Asta provides most of the laughs and has a great relationship with Nick Jr:
The real Asta (real name Skippy), who starred in
Thin Man I &
II also appears in
The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, and
Topper Takes a Trip but had actually retired by now, and therefore there's some mystery as to which wire haired terrier this actually was. He's very acrobatic, anyway.
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