Nick and Nora Charles the bantering, romantically involved detective duo has become a well-used trope in literature, stage, screen, and television ever since. The characters first appear in Dashiell Hammett's best-selling last novel "The Thin Man" (1934). Nick is an alcoholic former private detective who retired when he married Nora, a wealthy Nob Hill heiress. Hammett reportedly modeled Nora on his longtime partner Lillian Hellman, and the characters' boozy, flippant dialogue on their relationship. (The novel also mentions that Nick was once a Pinkerton detective, as was Hammett.) The novel is considered one of the seminal texts of the hard-boiled subgenre of mystery novels,
Nick Carter, Master Detective (film) Nick Carter, Master Detective (film) Nick Carter, Master Detective is a 1939 film starring Walter Pidgeon in the title role. Carter investigates espionage at an aircraft factory. Pidgeon and Donald Meek went on to reprise their roles in two sequels, "Phantom Raiders" (1940) and "Sky Murder" (1941). Nick Carter boards an airliner with John Keller, the inventor of a revolutionary new aircraft. The pilot makes an unscheduled landing so that his confederates can try to steal Keller's plans, but Carter holds them off, and stewardess Lou Farnsby manages to fly them to safety. Carter, posing as "Robert Chalmers", the new