After the Thin Man

Nick and Nora Charles return to San Francisco after solving a celebrated murder case, hoping to settle back into their life of leisure. Their plans are interrupted when Nora's relatives ask for help: her cousin Selma's husband Robert has been missing for several days. Nick is reluctant to take on another investigation, but the family's distress draws him in. When Robert turns up dead, suspicion falls on those closest to him, and the case widens to take in a nightclub singer, her brother, an old flame of Selma's, and the family's domineering matriarch. Nora joins the inquiry with enthusiasm, and the couple works through a tangle of jealousy, blackmail and hidden relationships. The film is based on a story by Dashiell Hammett, continuing the characters he created.

W.S. Van Dyke directed, with Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett writing the screenplay and Hunt Stromberg producing for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was the fourth of the nine films Van Dyke directed across the chronological span covered here, arriving between The Thin Man and San Francisco. William Powell and Myrna Loy reprise their roles as Nick and Nora, with James Stewart as David Graham, Elissa Landi as Selma, Joseph Calleia as Dancer and Jessie Ralph as Katherine Forrest. The credited cast numbers 49.

The film took about 3 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.6 out of 10 from roughly 13,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.3 from around 206 votes. A critics' rating of 7.9 from 27 reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.