The Girl from Manhattan

THE GIRL FROM MANHATTAN is the most obscure film in the filmographies of both Dorothy Lamour and Charles Laughton so I wasn't expecting much but surprise - this is a charming if modest little movie with a wonderful cast doing some of their best work. Lamour stars as a successful fashion model who returns to her hometown to visit the uncle who raised her, Ernest Truex, the proprietor of a run-down boarding house. Dottie knows he's not making much money so she's been sending him funds to keep the house going only to discover the soft-hearted uncle has been using the money to finance the pipe dreams of his elderly boarders who don't even have the dough to pay rent to him. As a result uncle has not been paying the mortgage and the house is now scheduled to be in foreclosure. Also back in town is Dorothy's childhood fame, former football star George Montgomery now about to start a career as a minister in the town's 150-year-old church, only to find the parishioners are ready to sell the old historic church to a local businessman who also owns the boarding house, the land on which he has promised to donate for.the new church. Bishop Charles Laughton is kindly guiding Montgomery in his new calling but a little concerned about him possibly getting tangled up with New York fashion model.

Dorothy is a vision in this movie in smart if conservative clothes and gives a nice performance. I was pleased to see the big cast of character actors directed into giving restrained performances and not hamming it up for laughs. It was also nice to see the obviously villainous property owner played with a light touch and not the cartoonish bad guy with horns often seem in these Capraesque dramas. Charles Laughton also nicely underplays his role. Director Alfred E. Green even gets Hugh Herbert to calm down (for the most part) and give a real performance, not just his stock schtick comedy. Constance Collier plays a faded actress with illusions of starting a late life career as a playwright in a role that recalls her famous work in STAGE DOOR and she's.charming as is Sara Allgood in one of her last roles as Laughton's housekeeper. Elderly character Adeline De Walt Reynolds has a moving scene as a very aged churchgoer (said to be 93 although Ms. Reynolds herself was only a babe of 85 at the time) who regularly visits the old church quite late at night for comfort. George Montgomery does some of his best work as the low-key preacher man and his and Dottie's romance is quite chaste but quite sweet. I enjoyed this little movie and it was pleasing to see so many nice people in one film.

This B-picture from 1948 doesn't really do anything to showcase anyone's talent, and it's a wonder Charles Laughton even made an appearance. Perhaps he was trapped by a contract or made someone at the studio mad. This is one of those "colorful characters in a small town" movie that doesn't leave a lasting impression and doesn't really endear you to any one of the colorful characters.

George Montgomery takes the lead as a football player turned reverend, and as he returns to his small town, he gets mentored by Charles Laughton, a bishop. Dorothy Lamour, who usually is only put in a movie because of her good looks, isn't given much of a love story-since her love interest is a man of the cloth. She has her own little hurdles to handle while she's in town, since she is the titular character and not used to small-town life, but I can't really remember any of them. Unless you love Dorothy and want to sit through all her movies, even the bad ones, I wouldn't recommend you watch this one tonight.

Back in 1987 Charles Laughton's biographer Simon Callow cited this sub-Capra fluff as the Laughton film absolutely nobody had ever seen. Talking Pictures has once again come to the rescue and one can now see exactly why it resides in such obscurity.

Although named for Dorothy Lamour's character the real star is George Montgomery as a virile former sportsman turned clergyman, whom Laughton sagely advises to "Try for that touchdown" when Montgomery comes to the aid of little man Ernest Truex threatened with foreclosure.

Ironically the villain of the piece is in cahoots with a bigger, flashier church; a lesson today's evangelicals could learn from.

I haven't seen the film since 1948 and the only thing I remember is the "mink coat/synthetic mink coat" dialog between Dorothy and Charles Laughton: The Bishop, eying the coat, asks..."has it suddenly turned cold out"? Carol, wearing the mink, explains that she drove in with her convertible top down but realizes instantly that the suspicious, curmudgeonly old Bishop KNOWS how beautiful New York models GET mink coats, offers that it isn't real mink, but synthetic and given to her for modeling it. Carol departs; The Bishop picks up the telephone and dials a number. "Fred... this is the Bishop..... Is there such a thing as synthetic mink"? (scoffingly--Fred you're going to think I'm daft for even asking a question to which I already know the answer) We don't hear the reply but Laughton's reflective face, voice and manner make the movie for me. Sure it is a knock-off on the popularity of "Going my way" but when has Hollywood ever failed to cash in on a good thing and Laughton, here, is as memorable as Orson Welles working in other peoples' less than stellar films. I will suggest to TCM that they run the film so I can see it again.

The Girl from Manhattan (1948)

I feel like an ogre saying this is a goodie-goodie movie, and that is just a bore. It isn't bad deep down, not in any one way, and it moves along reasonably, the acting fine if unexciting, the filming solid if routine. But none of it is exceptional, even the leading role played by the title character, the super model of 1947 (in the movie): Dorothy Lamour. Charles Laughton as the bishop is impeccable but he's purely secondary.

What holds it back most is just the story, about some people who are misfits and yet lovable in their quirks, and who are facing eviction from their old boarding house. The local church, of all things, wants the land where they live and a local real estate bad guy is orchestrating the eviction. All of this has shades of two Frank Capra movies, "It's a Wonderful Life" (with the community pulling together to save a good, selfless man and his house) and the rather zany "You Can't Take It with You" (with a nutty family all living together being nutty and oblivious to the real world). But the writing here is neither impassioned enough, nor funny enough, nor just plain original and warm enough to rise above. It trods along dutifully.

The main character beside Lamour is a man who seems to have the poise and good looks to take command of his leading role but he is just lifeless on screen, and that's George Montgomery. I don't think even Jimmy Stewart (who was in both the Capra movies, by coincidence) could have lifted up this whole affair, but you can picture a much more moving and convincing and entertaining movie with him in Montgomery's place.

Of course, we know whose side we are on. The story of these good people being threatened by greed makes you root for them against the church meanies (shades of "The Bishop's Wife" also appears in this aspect). But I had to keep consciously trying to get involved, which isn't how a movie should work. I wanted to like it. Even the dramatic turning point toward the end is dull as old bread, in the writing and the delivery. The director, Alfred E. Green, is known for quantity over quality, and is really a 1930s director, which might say something about his approach in filming as well as subject matter. Though he helped Bette Davis launch her career in 1935, by 1948 he was at the end of his career in films. It's nothing much, enjoyable if you are open to something sweet and plain.