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In the 1940s there was a brief enthusiasm for movies about crime solving newlyweds. These films were generally breezy and fast-paced, balancing tropes from screwball comedy, noir, and whodunnits. Examples include No Hands on the Clock (1941) and Having Wonderful Crime (1945).
No Hands on the Clock is almost archetypal of this genre. The script is loosely based on a hard-boiled novel by Geoffrey Homes (AKA Daniel Mainwaring). Screenwriter Maxwell Shane and director Frank McDonald replaced Homes’ grittiness with flirtation, flippancy, and freneticism.
This genre owes a lot of its popularity to the success of Dashiell Hammett’s best-selling novella The Thin Man and the subsequent movies inspired by his characters Nick & Nora Charles. Hammett’s very contemporary view of marital camaraderie proved wildly attractive to audiences.
The Charleses, although beloved by audience and acclaimed by critics, were products of Hammett’s noir sensibilities. They drank incessantly, and joked about class and morality in ways that made the Middle-American bourgeoisie uncomfortable.
Hollywood instinctively softened The Thin Man films’ cynical edges. Later series about married amateur sleuths (Mr. & Mrs. North, Hildegarde Withers & Inspector Piper, Gypsy & Biff Brannigan, etc) lean toward
Screwball comedy, a genre which also
dealt with issues of sex & class
Screwball comedy, a genre which also
dealt with issues of sex & class
The “newlywed amateur detective” genre actually owes quite a bit to author Craig Rice (AKA Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig), “the Dorothy Parker of detective fiction” who became so popular in the late ‘40s that she actually made the cover of Time Magazine.
Rice wrote Having a Wonderful Crime, Home Sweet Homicide, and Mrs. O'Malley & Mr. Malone, all of which were filmed. She unofficially edited both detective novels written by her friend Gypsy Rose Lee, which involved the wisecracking burlesque double-act Gypsy Lee & Biff Brannigan.
A brief list of books relating to this genre should include: The Thin Man, Theodora Dubois’ Armed with a New Terror, Kelley Roos’ If the Shroud Fits, Craig Rice’s novels about Jake & Helene Justus, and the stories about Pam & Jerry North written by Frances & Richard Lockridge.
For verisimilitude, Dashiell Hammett based Nick & Nora Charles upon his 30 year long relationship with author Lillian Hellman.
The Thin Man screenplays, although written in close collaboration with Hammett, were by Frances Goodrich and her husband/writing partner Albert Hackett.
The Thin Man screenplays, although written in close collaboration with Hammett, were by Frances Goodrich and her husband/writing partner Albert Hackett.
Aside from Nick & Nora, America’s most popular and iconic married amateur sleuths might just be Pamela and Jerry North. This wildly popular series was written by Frances & Richard Lockridge, a married couple who had met while working as reporters for The Kansas City Star.
