I mean, does anyone follow these plots? It's from Dashiell Hammett again, adapted by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich and "it got almost unanimously bad reviews: "not as good as its predecessors"; "there is a noticeable lack of sparkle...Nothing seems to click." In later years, the Hacketts agreed with the detractors, saying that the series had been getting "thinner and thinner" and "paler and paler". Hammett was frequently drunk and difficult to work with - the Hacketts had tried to kill it all off by Nick and Nora having a baby - instead they were saddled with having to incorporate him into the script. (This all from 'The Real Nick and Nora' by David Goodrich.) It was their last of the series.
We thought it perfectly enjoyable, though pretty mad. Everyone's in a bad mood and frankly, you don't mind then getting bumped off. As usual the culprit isn't who you think it was at all.
'The MGM Story' reports that it was Powell's first film for two years after a long 'battle with illness', and that audiences were 'delighted'.
Has a weirdly enjoyable rhumba in the obligatory nightclub scene in which Nick explains why he knew Nora was there "You were surrounded by men. I knew there was only one woman who would prove so attractive". She looks satisfied, then he adds "A woman with money".
With Virginia Grey, Otto Kruger, C. Aubrey Smith, Ruth Hussy, Nat Pendleton, Patric Knowles, Muriel Hutchison ('Smitty').
Photographed by Oliver T Marsh and Bill Daniels.
According to IMDB, and to contradict myself, Asta was still Skippy in this and the sequel Shadow.
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