Becoming Nick and Nora

Book excerpt: As Nick and Nora Charles in the six Thin Man movies from 1934 to 1947, the team of William Powell and Myrna Loy showed that marriage didn’t have to mean the end of the romantic comedy. From the comedic delight that was the initial The Thin Man through its five sequels as well as eight other films (including the Oscar-winning The Great Ziegfeld and Manhattan Melodrama), Powell and Loy were cemented in the public imagination as Hollywood’s happiest married couple. In Becoming Nick and Nora,comedy writer and Hollywood historian Rob Kozlowski follows the winding path that Powell and Loy’s screen personas took over their careers. Studios originally cultivated the two as villains in the silent era: Powell as a mustachioed, swashbuckling fiend and Loy as an “exotic” adversary. With the rise of talkies, the two managed to broaden their range beyond villainous stereotypes, but it took several false starts before they achieved their lasting legacy as Nick and Nora. Packed with behind-the-scenes details and memorable characters, this is a lively look at two tinseltown icons and a film series that remains beloved nearly a century later.