The Thin Man (film) and Canada and $605,000 elsewhere. It made a profit of $729,000. The trailer contained specially filmed footage in which Nick Charles (William Powell) is seen on the cover of the Dashiell Hammett novel "The Thin Man". Nick Charles then steps out of the cover to talk to fellow detective Philo Vance (also played by Powell) about his latest case. Charles mentions he hasn't seen Vance since "The Kennel Murder Case", a film in which Powell played Vance. "The Kennel Murder Case" was released in October 1933, just seven months prior to the release of "The Thin Man". Charles goes on
Ballad of a Thin Man at that time. Obviously there must have been a tremendous amount of them for me to write "that" particular song. It was like, 'Oh man, here's the thousandth Mister Jones'." In the John Lennon-penned Beatles song "Yer Blues", Lennon describes the character as feeling "suicidal, just like Dylan's Mr. Jones". Dylan critic Mike Marqusee writes that "Ballad of a Thin Man" can be read as "one of the purest songs of protest ever sung", with its scathing take on "the media, its interest in and inability to comprehend [Dylan] and his music." For Marqusee, the song became the anthem of