The most amazing thing about 1936's "After the Thin Man" is not that it remains a sparkling, engaging entertainment almost 70 years after it was released, but that it is nearly as good as 1934's "The Thin Man," the first movie based on Dashiell Hammett's husband-and-wife detective team Nick and Nora Charles.

Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora — perhaps the wittiest, most compatible married couple depicted on screen — "The Thin Man" captures between-the-wars, jazz age sophistication — or at least the movie fantasy of it.

"The Thin Man" and its five sequels are in "The Thin Man Collection" (Warner), an easy candidate for box set of the year.

The blending of screwball comedy with murder mystery; the wonderful performances of Loy and Powell; the colorful supporting characters — beginning with their dog, Asta, a great screen pooch — they're Hollywood perfection.

Yet even if you have seen those films dozens of times but have missed or forgotten the other four — prepare yourself for some true summer fun.

The third film, 1939's "Another Thin Man," takes the family to Long Island so Col. McFay (C. Aubrey Smith) can go over the family's financial matters, something Nick is loath to do. But then the colonel's life is threatened, a body turns up on the road and what are the Charleses supposed to do?

"Shadow of the Thin Man," from 1941, which sends the pair to the racetrack to solve a jockey's murder, was the first film not based on a Hammett story and the last to be directed by Van Dyke. 1944's "The Thin Man Goes Home," in which a trip to Sycamore Springs to visit Nick's parents is rudely interrupted by skullduggery, maintains the standards of the series, while shifting the balance in favor of the comedy.

"Song of the Thin Man" from 1947 is a personal favorite. Set primarily in smoky New York jazz clubs, it begins with Gloria Grahame singing "You're Not That Easy to Forget," and before the final case is solved, Jayne Meadows, Marie Windsor and Keenan Wynn appear.

But the song isn't over, because Warner has surpassed even its high standards in compiling the box. A seventh disc brings together two fine documentaries on Powell and Loy, while scattered through the other discs are all manner of "Thin Man" and period extras, including a Lux Radio Theater adaptation and an episode of the 1950s TV series starring Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk.