Alternate Best Supporting Actor 1936: James Stewart in After the Thin Man

James Stewart did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying David Graham in After the Thin Man.

After the Thin Man is the very enjoyable film that continues the adventures of the sleuthing husband and wife team of Nick (William Powell) and Nora (Myrna Loy).

With every Thin Man film there is a group of supporting players, often regulated to only a single film, who are in some way associated with the soon to be deceased figure who's murder the two N's will need to solve. James Stewart plays David the man who's actually in love with a woman Selma whose philandering husband who seems to be just setting himself up as the man to be murdered. This is one of Stewart's earliest performances but he's already got the aw shucks down to a t. Stewart brings his usual likability to this role even and does make David seem to be such a charming man, and it seems to become so obvious that Selma should be with him. After all Stewart's portrayal of sweetness just seems so genuine that it would take a great deal of effort not to believe him. Stewart even makes it so David seems to fit right in with hanging out with Nick and Nora as there is such a warm ease about his presence. To be honest you could not find someone better than James Stewart to instantly establish a trust with.

Of course there is technically speaking plenty to suspect David of even though his affections for Selma seem so honest, since he must deal with her husband who is of such low character he's willing to give up Selma, but only if he's paid off. Stewart is quite good here because he does not allow himself to be merely some throwaway character in the film, even though most the supporting players technically speaking are here in terms of what one really watches the film for, Stewart does do well though in the scenes where David deals with her husband. Again Stewart very honestly depicts the struggle of the man as he agrees to the odd ransom while being sickened by the whole thing. Of course Stewart does not overplay his hand actually as you believe he's simply paying the ransom but that certain discontent might merely not be about hating the husband. Well the husband is not long for the world anyways and he ends up dead being shot by an unknown assailant, just before his wife was going to shoot him. Luckily for her David, one again seeming quite honest as played by Stewart, tells her to run while he will dispose of the gun, even though it was not even used for the killing.

Well if you have not guessed who the killer is, I'll help you, the prime suspect is an obvious criminal type who's just so obviously guilty of something that you know he could not possibly be the killer in this film. Well that only suspect left that would make any sense would have to be David, but he's played by Jimmy Stewart, how could that be? Stewart helps things out in his favor some more by being so earnest in his confusion of any revelations and fear for what might happen to Selma, which means he could not possibly be the killer. Well after some usual deductions by Nick and watching for the inevitable minor slip up, involving the type of facial hair on a dead man, it is revealed that David did murder Selma's husband as well as few other people to keep covered up, and planned to see Selma hang for it due to having jilted him for her husband originally. Stewart's psychotic breakdown happens to be particularly disconcerting since not only does it work as a surprise to see that the aw shucks Stewart has only been a lie in the film, but also because Stewart can be quite intense when he wants to be. That's the case here as he effectively becomes a violent mess in just a matter of seconds, making the most out of the killer revealed moment. Stewart's role overall is not particularly substantial, as the Thin Man series is more noted for the interactions between Nick and Nora than the mysteries themselves, but he makes the most of it.