Surprise Guilty Party

Someone clever has done it--but whom?
Gather everyone, all in a room
Who committed the crime
Will admit it in time
Though it's never the one you assume.



Whodunnits and mysteries often employ a penultimate scene where the detective gathers all the suspects together. Here Nick and Nora Charles hold a dinner party in The Thin Man (W. S. Van Dyke; 1934). David Cairns came up with the title, and he's also guilty of suggesting the scene.

Nick and Noway

The facts of life cannot be stated
So alternate means are created.
If a lady expects,
She didn't have sex
But was artfully insinuated.

Donald B. Benson

After the Thin Man (W.S. Van Dyke; 1936) closes with Nick asking Nora why she is knitting booties. “And you call yourself a detective…”

Myrna Loy

The "perfect" screen wife, Myrna Loy

The dream of both Thin Man and boy 

She's charming and witty 

and...perfectly pretty 

Her deft repartee is a joy.

 

Before she was typed as a wife
she lived an exotic screen life
As Asian and vamp
she flirted with camp
Her gypsy caused marital strife. 

As Nora, with Asta and Nick 

her wit was both wicked and quick 

Her banter as sly 

as Martini’s were dry 

The tub-full they drank did the trick.