Toby McLean, a reckless sports writer on a New York City newspaper, covers the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey heavyweight-championship fight in Philadelphia. There he meets Ann Vaughn, a feature w... Read allToby McLean, a reckless sports writer on a New York City newspaper, covers the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey heavyweight-championship fight in Philadelphia. There he meets Ann Vaughn, a feature writer for another newspaper, and they get married after a whirlwind romance. The romance b... Read allToby McLean, a reckless sports writer on a New York City newspaper, covers the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey heavyweight-championship fight in Philadelphia. There he meets Ann Vaughn, a feature writer for another newspaper, and they get married after a whirlwind romance. The romance begins to wane nearly as fast as it blossomed but, directly and indirectly, is salvaged by ... Read all
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- One of the Sherman Sisters
- (as Four Aalbu Sisters)
- One of the Sherman Sisters
- (as Four Aalbu Sisters)
- One of the Sherman Sisters
- (as Four Aalbu Sisters)
- One of the Sherman Sisters
- (as Four Aalbu Sisters)
- Jack Dempsey
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Football Game Spectator
- (uncredited)
- Undetermined Role
- (uncredited)
- Referee
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Gene Tunney
- (archive footage)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
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Featured reviews
Foster's character is as a sportswriter, and there are some fascinating shots at Yankee Spring training camp in Florida with a look at Babe Ruth and a fleeting glimpse of Lou Gehrig. There is also some footage of the Dempsey-Tunney fight in 1927. On the whole, the film was good - I gave it a rating of six. I sometimes think that an old picture may have several worthy landmarks, mileposts and noteworthy appearances, but age alone does not make a good picture. Some relics are just old artifacts.
In the early-talkie manner, there's a rather stilted, interior-bound quality to the action, with dead-air sound (actually downright poor sound in the transfer I saw, but that might just have been the fault of a poor dupe) and very little background music. This movie actually could have used a nightclub song or production number or two to liven it up; it's not quite serious enough to be involving as a drama, and not quite diverting enough to be a comedy. (Rogers does sing what might as well be the anthem for characters like hers, "I've Got 'It' But It Don't Do Me No Good," but just by herself at a living-room piano.) There's brief curiosity value in the appearance by "The Four Sherman Sisters," a quartet of pretty (alleged) siblings, but they don't perform, either; they just sling around a few weak quips and get drunk with Foster and his best pal Charles Ruggles (who's had better material, too).
There isn't anything very notably "pre-Code" about this feature unless you count the alcohol consumption, whose depiction would soon get cleaned up by the Production Code. Nor does the movie exactly capture much of a Manhattan feel, as there's little exterior footage. Foster plays a sports writer, so there's fleeting interest in (very brief) clips of various sporting events that were presumably shot for newsreels rather than specifically for this feature.
The movie's major plus is Colbert, who looks great and treats the goings on with a common- sense unflappability that suggests her heroine is considerably smarter than the callow husband she nonetheless stays loyal to. (Their marital conflicts are predictably resolved by a crisis that drops out of nowhere to re-strengthen their vows.) Co-star Foster would soon leave acting for a long, successful if seldom distinguished career directing mostly B movies and television episodes.
It's a competently written screenplay from Katherine Brush's novel, and director Monta Bell does a good job with the serious sections. However, Charlie Ruggles as Foster's fellow sports writer is largely wasted as the knowing observer who says nothing. Foster and Miss Colbert were married when this was made. If that added to their pairing, or it was simply good acting on their parts, I can't tell.
Foster would continue to play the young lover for a few years, then disappear behind the camera, directing mostly B pictures and television episodes. He died in 1976, aged 72.
Having read and liked the book (A thoroughly forgotten fluffy bestseller of the 20's) of the same title, I was interested in how it would be made into a musical. It's not really a musical though, like the IMDb says; it's a drama with a few songs thrown in here and there. It wasn't a bad movie, actually a lot better than a lot of early talkies. Surprisingly, it's very faithful to the book. Claudette Colbert and the rest of the cast are solid; Ginger Rogers is fun and it was cool to see her so young and still red-headed. She performs an utterly charming song, "I Got It But It Don't Do Me No Good".Norman Foster is fine, but often comes across as whiny and a bit wooden. Still, Young Man of Manhattan is a great one for 1930, and worth seeking out for the stars.
It's an early film so the sound quality is poor and it's curious to hear Ginger Rogers speaking in a cutesy, baby-voice. Still, the cast do well and Colbert is good in the lead role. I think that they could have come up with a better title than "Young Man Of Manhattan". The film is OK.
Did you know
- TriviaOne of over 700 Paramount productions, filmed between 1929-49, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since. However, because of legal complications, this particular title was not included in the original television package and may have never been televised.
- Quotes
Puff Randolph: Cigarette me, big boy.
- SoundtracksI've Got 'It' But 'It' Don't Do Me No Good
(uncredited)
by Irving Kahal, Pierre Norman and Sammy Fain
Performed by Ginger Rogers
Details
- Runtime
- 1h 19m(79 min)
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1