1933: The Thin Man
Author: Dashiell Hammett
The blend of hard-boiled detective fiction and screwball comedy of The Thin Man seemed like a perfect representative for 1933.
Dashiell Hammet’s The Thin Man was his last novel. Hammet, along with Raymond Chandler, was one of the pioneers of the hard-boiled detective novel which has so influenced American popular culture. The Thin Man was a bit of a departure, in its relative lightness, but some of the essential hard-boiled characteristics remain.
The Thin Man was adapted as a film in 1934, starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, whose chemistry and capacity to improvise irreverently were so popular that the single novel led to a half dozen movies altogether, made throughout the 30’s and 40’s.