History in Vogue discussion

Spoiler : Because the last section was so short, I have combined them into one. Don't read unless you have finished the book, or are already familiar with the ending.

The investigation into Wynant's disappearance continues. Nick and the detective put the pressure on an informant who ends up dead. Dorothy continues in her hysterics and informs Nick her brother Gilbert has been meeting their father, while Mimi seduces her way out of trouble with the help of Clyde's watch chain found on Julia's body. After being roughed up by the cops, Gilbert tells Nick he hasn't actually seen his father, but has been in contact with him through letters. Nick is summoned to Mimi's house under the pretense that Clyde had just been there to leave money for her and the children. When the detective arrives with news that a third body has been found under the floor of Wynant's workshop, Nick deduces that the body is in fact Wynant, who has been dead all along, and the killer is actually the lawyer, Macaulay. Mccaulay and Julia had been stealing money from Wynant. He then murderd her and Clyde, then posed as him to contact his family making it look like he had gone into hiding, with the help of Mimi, who had believed Clyde guilty all along, by bribing her to help him in return for splitting Clyde's estate.

Mimi becomes even worse. She's very selfish. The whole business with the chain was very strange. Chris as a bigamist was a bit of a surprise. He doesn't choose his wives very wisely. He's going to have a rough time.

Finally, Nora enters into the detecting with a piece of information of her own.

The mystery got incredibly complicated. I remembered from the movie that Wynant was dead so all the letters from him and his supposed appearance confused me. I thought he was killed later in the story but all that turned out to be red-herrings. Very strange.

I just finished the entire book.

It didn't inspire much comment/discussion from me.

I will look into seeing the movie.

The first two movies are wonderful. After that the censors got ahold of the script and dumbed down the jokes but the later movies are still better than any comedy movie today. The best of the best screwball comedies include The Thin Man, His Girl Friday, Philadelphia Story, Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night.

Yeah, I was a little disappointed as well, it just doesn't hold up to the films. So many of you have said how much you enjoyed The Maltese Falcon, I'll probably give that a try at some point.

My favorite of The Thin Man movies is After the Thin Man, because of Jimmy Stewart. Love His Girl Friday, Philadelphia Story, and Bringing Up Baby, but my favorite of the Hepburn/Grant pairings has to be Holiday. The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer with Grant and Myrna Loy is also really good, and I was a Male War Bride is hilarious.

Marie wrote: "Yeah, I was a little disappointed as well, it just doesn't hold up to the films. So many of you have said how much you enjoyed The Maltese Falcon, I'll probably give that a try at some point.

My ..."

It comes to me now that all of the hype I've heard in the past was about the movie, not the book. Yeah, I have to say that I don't know if this book was really all that good. Wasn't much there for the reader to work with to figure it out alongside the detective, and what there was was so tangled and confusing that it would have been hard to see, anyway.

Agreed about After the Thin Man. That's the best in the series but I love the jokes in The Thin Man. His Girl Friday is another instance of the movie being better. I saw a play based on The Front Page and His Girl Friday. It was OK but not as great as the movie. ANYTHING with Cary Grant is fabulous!

It is a rare treat when the movie outshines the source book. I actually think "The Shining" was one of those, though this opinion might put me at odds with other King fans.

What movie with Jimmy Stewart isn't great? : )

Erik wrote: "It is a rare treat when the movie outshines the source book. I actually think "The Shining" was one of those, though this opinion might put me at odds with other King fans.

What movie with Jimmy ..."

You know, Erik, I"m even more odd. I loved both The Shining book AND the original Kubrick film, for different reasons, even though I know King didn't like the film. How's that!?