Themes: Otherwise Engaged, Infidelity, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton
Release Year: 1942
Country: US
Run Time: 118 minutes
Plot
Tales of Manhattan is a sumptuous multipart film centered around a formal tailcoat. The coat is specially designed for stage actor Charles Boyer, who wears it during a rendezvous with his lady friend (Rita Hayworth). The lady's husband (Thomas Mitchell) shoots Boyer, thus the tailcoat is damaged merchandise and sold at a discount to a bridegroom (Cesar Romero). When the groom's peccadillos catch up to him, the bride (Ginger Rogers) chooses to marry the best man (Henry Fonda) instead, and the coat is shipped off to a second hand store. It is purchased by a would-be composer (Charles Laughton), who wears it the night that he is to conduct his first symphony; alas, the coat is too tight and tears apart, nearly ruining the conductor's debut. Stitched back together, the coat is donated to a skid row mission, wherein the kindly proprietor gives the coat to a down and out drunkard (Edward G. Robinson) so that the shabby gentleman can attend his 25th college reunion. Later on, the coat is stolen by a crook (J. Carroll Naish) in order to gain entrance to a fancy charity ball. The crook holds up the ball and stuffs the loot in the pockets of the coat, but while escaping in an airplane he loses the outer garment. The coat floats down to an impoverished African American shanty community; a farmer (Paul Robeson) decides to distribute the "money from heaven" amongst his needy neighbors. At the end, the tattered coat adorns the shoulders of a scarecrow. Tales of Manhattan is one of the best "portmanteau" dramas turned out by Hollywood; it was directed by French expatriate Julien Duvivier, a past master of the multi-story technique. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the better anthology films, Tales of Manhattan benefits from Julien Duvivier's assured direction, which confidently melds the disparate stories (and their different tones) together in an effortless and surprisingly satisfying manner. There are almost inevitably problems with multi-part films of this sort, and Tales certainly has them, including a tendency to sacrifice characterization to the mechanics of the plot and a "broad stroke" approach to dialogue. This accounts for excessive sentimentality in the Edward G. Robinson sequence, as well as for the fact that the climax on the Charles Laughton sequence comes across as somewhat corny and contrived; it isn't presented with sufficient nuance. On the whole, however, Tales's considerable assets make up for its flaws; chief among the assets, of course, is the all-star cast, many of which turn in especially fine performances. Laughton is particularly fine, employing a vulnerability that he often eschewed, and giving fine shadings to the character, despite the scant screen time allotted him. Robinson is also in fine form, making the most of his big confession scene, as well as his wordless final scene, and Henry Fonda and Ginger Rogers do extremely well with their mutual seduction scene (a scene in which Duvivier lingers obsessively over the sparkle in both actors' eyes.) Paul Robeson creates a toweringly gentle character, and he, Ethel Waters and Eddie Anderson somehow manage to keep the final sequence from crossing the line from folksy to stereotyped. Elegantly appointed, Tales is a delightful bauble for viewers in search of a light divertissement. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Richard Day - Art Director, Oleg Cassini - Costume Designer, Irene - Costume Designer, Bernard Newman - Costume Designer, Dolly Tree - Costume Designer, Gwen Wakeling - Costume Designer, Charles Hall - First Assistant Director, Robert Stillman - First Assistant Director, Julien Duvivier - Director, Robert Bischoff - Editor, Sol Kaplan - Composer (Music Score), Eddie Paul - Musical Direction/Supervision, Guy Pearce - Makeup, Boris Leven - Production Designer, Joseph Walker - Cinematographer, Sam P. Eagle - Producer, Boris Morros - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, W.D. Flick - Sound/Sound Designer, Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer, Edmund Beloin - Screenwriter, Ben Hecht - Screenwriter, Samuel Hoffenstein - Screenwriter, Buster Keaton - Screenwriter, William Morrow - Screenwriter, Donald Ogden Stewart - Screenwriter, Lamar Trotti - Screenwriter, Laszlo Vadnay - Screenwriter, Henry Blankfort - Screenwriter, Ladislas Fodor - Screenwriter, Laszlo Gorog - Screenwriter, Ferenc Molnar - Screenwriter, Alan Campbell - Screenwriter
The stories follow a black formal tailcoat as it goes from owner to owner, in four otherwise unconnected stories.
The first is a love triangle between Charles Boyer, Thomas Mitchell, and Rita Hayworth. Boyer plays an actor who gives his finest performance when he's shot while wearing the jacket.
The second tale is a comic story featuring Ginger Rogers who finds a romantic love letter in her future husband's jacket. Her boyfriend (Cesar Romero) enlists his best man (Henry Fonda) to help bail him out. Things don't go as expected when Rogers becomes attracted to Fonda and dumps her boyfriend.
The third tale stars Charles Laughton. He plays a poor but brilliant musician whose one big chance at fame and recognition is in jeopardy. While he attempts to conduct the small jacket rips and the audience erupts with laughter. But he nevertheless triumphs.
The fourth story stars Edward G. Robinson as an alcoholic bum who takes a last shot at life by borrowing the tailcoat to attend his 25th college reunion. The lawyer tries to convince his former classmates that he is successful, but ultimately decides to admit that he is a bum. He is offered a good job, and is back on the road to respectability.
A fifth story involves a thief stealing the coat from a second-hand store and then commits a robbery at a fancy ball. When he attempts to escape by plane, the jacket and the money fall out . A poor African-American couple (Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters) in a deep South shanty community finds the jacket along with the over $40,000. They take it to their minister (Eddie Anderson) who gives out the "money from heaven" to people so that they can buy what they prayed for. After distributing the cash, the minister asks loner Christopher (George Reed) what his wish was. He says he prayed for a scarecrow for the fields. They take the now practically shredded jacket and make a scarecrow out of it. This section of the film, which featured what were considered crude black stereotypes even in 1942, came under severe criticism from both Edward G. Robinson, and especially, Paul Robeson, a champion of good film roles for blacks. The sequence was, in the past, sometimes cut from television showings, giving the film a very abrupt ending.[citation needed]
Paul Robeson's reaction to the final cut
Tales of Manhattan was Robeson’s final attempt to work within Hollywood after refusing lucrative film offers for over three years and Robeson was deeply disappointed with the film. He initially thought the depiction of the plight of the rural black poor, shown in the film as investing the bulk of their windfall in communal land and tools would demonstrate a share-and-share-alike way of life. Although he attempted to change some of the film’s content during production, in the end he found it "very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition... the same old story, the negro singing his way to glory"[1]
Some reviewers and black entertainers including Clarence Muse, noted that the film exposed Blacks’ living conditions under the sharecropping system, but Robeson was so dissatisfied that he attempted to buy up all the prints and take the film out of distribution. Following its release, he held a press conference, announcing that he would no longer act in Hollywood films because of the demeaning roles available to Black actors. Robeson also said he'd gladly picket the film along with others who had found the film offensive.[2]
Deleted scene
A sixth story was to star W.C. Fields. This sequence would have been fifth in the plot and was cut when the film was released to reduce running time. It was the easiest tale to cut without losing continuity, and ironically it was by far the funniest. Phil Silvers and Margaret Dumont also appear. Some sources indicate the "running time" was a convenient excuse; others among the cast were not too crazy about the Fields sequence stealing more than its fair share of thunder. The cut sequence has since been restored, though it is apparently incomplete. Publicity stills indicate a "set up" scene wherein Fields is talking to Dumont (prior to getting the suit from Silvers' store), who is seated in the back of her limo. This evidently led to the lecture later at her home, and explained his need for the coat; the sequence picks up as the limo speeds off, with no rationale now for what follows. The ending is seemingly also truncated; how does the tailcoat get back to Silvers' store in order for it to be stolen? This sequence was discovered in the Fox vaults in the mid-1990s seemingly intact and used in a special spotlighting cut sequences from the studio's films. It was later included as a supplement on the VHS release of the film, but not restored to its proper place in the film.[citation needed] The Fox Movie Channel runs the film in its entirety, with all six stories intact and in their intended sequence.
References
^ Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson,1989 pgs 259-261The Discovery of Africa
^ Duberman, Martin. Paul Robeson,1989 pgs 259-261The Discovery of Africa
