The We're raising a glass this week to Dashil Hammett, creator of Sam Spade and the Fat Man, in honor of his birthday on May 27th.

And raising a glass is appropriate, given that that will be celebrating his birthday with two of his most popular characters,

Nick and Nora Charles, stars of the Thin Man.

The Thin Man was published in 1934 and was the last novel published by Dachel Hammett.

The book introduced readers to Nick and Nora, the former private eye and his wealthy socialite wife. The pair solved a

murder and traded witticisms over several drinks over the course of the book.

Along with their dog Asta, Nick and Nora made the leap to the big screen,

and their film kicked off one of the most popular detective series of the 1930s and 1940s.

The film version of The Thin Man was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and it

starred William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora.

Powell and Loy were one of Hollywood's most popular on-screen pairs and they appeared in 14 films together.

According to Van Dyke, the Thin Man was shot in just 16 days.

Some sources say 12 and some say 14, but anyway you added up it's still impressive.

The film was a smash success and was followed by five sequels, all starring Powell and Loy.

Though Hammett never wrote a sequel to sequels, all starring Powell and Loy.

Though Hamlet never wrote a sequel to the novel, he penned the screen stories for the first two

sequels, After The Thin Man, and another Thin Man. Those screen stories were recently collected in an edition

and they're well worth a read if you're a Hammett fan. A quick note on the title,

The Thin Man in the novel is not Nick Charles, it's actually Clyde Winnet,

the missing inventor Nick is higher to find. However, the title stuck for the subsequent

films and many came to think it referred to William Powell playing

Nick Charles.

...