Based on the Dashiell Hammett novel, this lighthearted and high-spirited adaptation is not boozier than its source text, but it is significantly fizzier and much bubblier. But when Wynant’s secretary Julia Wolf is found murdered, evidence suggests that Wynant may be the culprit, and Nick (who, as a former PI, does a lot of the fieldwork) finds himself investigating the same case from several different, baffling angles. Van Dyke’s 1934 classic noir-comedy, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as the hard-drinking, nonstop-bantering leisure class amateur detective couple Nick and Nora Charles, begins just before Christmas, when Nick is reluctantly enlisted by a young woman to find her missing father, the eccentric inventor Clyde Wynant. Please enjoy the following detective movies, noirs, con stories, and sinister musicals to help you, less conventionally, ring in the holiday season. But there are many more movies that unfold their tales of corruption, mystery, and danger against a backdrop of twinkle lights and Salvation Army Santas. Last year, our editor Dwyer Murphy put together a handy list of 10 thrillers from Three Days of the Condor to The French Connection to The Godfather that all stage their grit and murder during the glitz and merriment of the season, and are probably not really “about Christmas” in the traditional, generic way. Some are “about” crime during Christmas, like Home Alone or Bad Santa or The Ref, while some others’ interaction with “Christmas movie” themes are somewhat debatable, as in the notable cases of Die Hard and Lethal Weapon. Folks, there are so, so many crime movies that take place at Christmas.

Capone n noreaga tony pt 2