If Hollywood can't be given credit for anything else, it at least deserves praise for its ability to recognize a good thing when it finds one. And when it filmed the first Dashiell Hammet "Thin Man" picture several years ago, it hit on something that is still firing away on all cylinders. "The Shadow of the Thin Man," the latest of the series, is conclusive proof that the throngs of film fans who flock to see Nick Charles solve murder after murder in his individual and somewhat alcoholic way are not going to be disappointed for a long time to come. More of them, cast in the same dizzy mold, seem to be in order.

The story of this latest of his adventures isn't anything startlingly new, nor should it be. Instead, Nick and Nora Charles amuse themselves and the audience in their accustomed breezy fashion. All of the superb minor characterizations are present here again, and while you may have seen them before, you've never seen them funnier.

The plot is, as usual, the least important of the ingredients. Instead, the subtle wit at which William Powell and Myrna Loy have become past masters serves to spice up a thoroughly amusing film. And even their happy marriage is still as palatable to audiences as it ever was.