Tales of Manhattan
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
Based on the Mexican writer Francisco Rojas González's novel, Historia de un frac ("Story of a Tailcoat"), the stories follow a black formal tailcoat cursed by a cutter as it goes from owner to owner, in five 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 by a jealous husband 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 fiance (Cesar Romero) enlists his best man (Henry Fonda) to help bail him out. Things don't go as expected when Rogers falls in love with Fonda and dumps her boyfriend.
The third tale stars Charles Laughton as Charles Smith, a poor but brilliant musician, composer and conductor 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. In a poignant moment, the orchestra's Maestro (Victor Francen) empathizes with Smith, removes his own tailcoat, and begs him to continue; the "gentlemen" in the audience remove their own tailcoats in a show of solidarity.
The fourth tale stars Edward G. Robinson as an alcoholic former lawyer who takes a last shot at life by borrowing the tailcoat from a rescue mission to attend his 25th college reunion. The lawyer tries to convince his former classmates that he is successful, but one of his classmates (George Sanders) knows that Robinson was disbarred for unethical behavior. When a guest loses his wallet the group hold a mock trial where Robinson ultimately decides to admit that he is a derelict. The next morning his classmates come to his mission where he is offered a good job, and is back on the road to respectability.
The final tale involves a thief (J. Carrol Naish) who steals the coat from a second-hand shop to commit a robbery at a gambling party where everyone is in evening dress. In his escape by plane, the jacket catches fire and the panicked thief throws it out with $43,000 still in the pockets. The day before Christmas, Luke (Paul Robeson) and Esther (Ethel Waters), a poor black couple, find the jacket and money. They take it to their minister (Eddie Anderson) to give to his congregation to buy what they pray for. An old farmer (George Reed) tells Luke that the only thing he prays for is a scarecrow. They take the shredded jacket and make a scarecrow out of it.

Review: "Tales of Manhattan" is the best of the anthology films, following the adventures of a tuxedo's tailcoat as it passes through the hands of several diverse people in New York.
There's Charles Boyer, the Broadway actor who is carrying on an illicit affair; there's Henry Fonda who is helping Cesar Romero get out of a sticky situation with his fiancee Ginger Rogers (along the way, Fonda and Rogers fall in love and have one of the best-written love scenes to ever hit the screen); there's Charles Laughton who seeks one shot at glory conducting an orchestra; and, in the most touching and rewarding of the tales, there's Edward G.
The all-star cast give great performances in five well-written stories.The film's theme has to do with the American Dream and what it really means.
The movements of an accursed tail coat about the Big City, and the lives of those who use it, becomes part of the TALES OF MANHATTAN.Fox Studios and director Julien Duvivier fashioned this most enjoyable film.
The all-star cast gives worthy performances which keeps the viewer's attention right to the very end.SEQUENCE ONE An actor and his lover (Charles Boyer & Rita Hayworth) are confronted by her quietly sadistic husband (Thomas Mitchell).
An unbilled Robert Greig appears as the corpulent creator of the elegant tail coat.Most of the action in this sequence takes place at an estate outside of Manhattan.SEQUENCE TWO A shy fellow (Henry Fonda) tries to help his friend (Cesar Romero) out of a jam with his suspicious fiancé (Ginger Rogers).
Gail Patrick appears as Rogers' nosy gal pal; Roland Young plays Romero's protective valet.A quite different tail coat is the center of the plot here, which can become a bit confusing.SEQUENCE THREE A poor composer (Charles Laughton) finally has the opportunity to conduct his magnum opus at a concert.
An unbilled Dewey Robinson plays the bullying owner of a small café.Laughton is magnificent, as is to be expected, giving another master class in how to turn a small part into something very special.SEQUENCE FOURAfter being spiffed-up and accoutered in the tail coat, a skid row bum (Edward G.
Harry Davenport appears as a wise old professor; George Sanders snarls his way through his role as Robinson's old antagonist.Robinson & Gleason do some impressive acting, making their characters come alive.SEQUENCE FIVEAn eccentric professor (W.C. Fields) gives a temperance lecture to a gathering of high society swells, not knowing that the coconut milk has been liberally spiked.
The short song at the very end is the only occasion Robeson and The Hall Johnson Choir ever sang together on film--and, unbelievably, Miss Waters isn't allowed to sing at all.********************Director Duvivier and stars Boyer, Robinson & Mitchell would travel to Universal Studios to make another sequential film, FLESH AND FANTASY, in 1943..
At the start the first tale runs the gamut of intense romantic intrigue, with a suave Charles Boyer drawn to beautiful Rita Hayworth, and Thomas Mitchell as the husband with a few ulterior motives of his own in mind.
The final Manhattan tale, starring Paul Robeson and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, has dialogue that is both amusing and touching at times.
I would also agree that stylistically, this film is reminiscent of IF I HAD A MILLION, though the stories in Tales of Manhattan are generally less funny but more polished.The one portion of the movie that really stood out for me was the one featuring the down-and-out Edward G.
At it's best, this kind of movie manages to integrate the stories in some way (think of the plot of GRAND HOTEL or DINNER AT EIGHT, where the problems of different groups of characters manage to intertwine in a confined space - another example (though a non-Hollywood film) is the British horror classic DEAD OF NIGHT).
This is the only film that had Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Roland Young, Eugene Pallette, Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Cesar Romero, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Victor Francken, Edward G.
Carroll Naish, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Eddie Anderson, and Clarence Muse in one picture - even though they were in different stories.But the running thread is weak.
That the actors who get the "tails" (Boyer, Romero, Laughton, Robinson, Fields) do not fit the same size clothes does not seem to be taken into consideration.
Dramatically the two best stories are the ones about Robinson pretending that he is not an impoverished bum, when attending the reunion of his college classmates (one of whom, Sanders, is an old rival who suspects the truth), and the first story about the purchase of the cursed set of "tails" by Boyer, and his subsequent discovery of the unworthiness of his lover Hayworth (who is left humiliated with her husband Mitchell).
After one seeing, this movie is one of my top favorites.It's six or seven short stories with perhaps the most astounding cast in history.I loved Charles Laughton as an impoverished composer getting his big chance from a Toscanini-type martinet conductor.
Probably the best segment is the opening one, with Rita Hayworth (at her most glamorous), Charles Boyer (who is a bit too dramatic), & the ever effective Thomas Mitchell.
The film ended strongly with an all-black segment featuring Paul Robeson/ Ethel Waters/ Rochester, with the great Clarence Muse in a small part.
This one's about a woman (Ginger Rogers) who suspects her fiancé (Cesar Romero) is cheating after finding a love letter in the pocket of his coat (same coat from before), which leads to her taking a second look at his best man (Henry Fonda).
Also Ginger Rogers sports one of the ugliest hairstyles I've ever seen.The third story has a struggling composer (Charles Laughton) getting his big chance to conduct his own composition in front of a large audience.
Again, I don't want to spoil too much because of how good this one is, but it's another one that pulls at the heartstrings.Next is an interesting story in that it was originally cut to reduce the running time but has since been restored to the film, despite apparently missing a part at the end that connects it to the next segment.
Paul Robeson, a devout communist who liked the story's 'community before the individual' philosophy, was so disappointed by the finished product and its stereotypical depictions of poor blacks that he would never make another Hollywood movie.In addition to the stars I've listed already, the cast includes many wonderful supporting actors like George Sanders, Victor Francen, Eugene Palette, Roland Young, Elsa Lanchester, Harry Davenport, James Gleason, Phil Silvers, Gail Patrick, and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson.
They are: Charles Boyer as a suave actor wooing married Rita Hayworth, Henry Fonda as a nerd who stops Ginger Rogers from marrying skirt-chaser Cesar Romero, Charles Laughton as an aspiring musician, Edward G.
Robinson as an unemployed alcoholic about to attend his class reunion, and Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters as poor black farmers (another story starring W.C. Fields was trimmed in 1942 but later became available on home-video--it adds nothing).
I found the fabric (sorry for the lame pun) that connects the otherwise unrelated tales intriguing in a slightly cornball way.I strongly recommend this film for many reasons, most notably its cast which includes Elsa Lanchester, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, Rochester ...
First segment stars Charles Boyer as an actor in love with Rita Hayworth who is married to Thomas Mitchell.
Second segment has Ginger Rogers finding what her fiancée Cesar Romero does when she's not around so the latter tries to pawn his coat with the incriminating evidence to future best man Henry Fonda.
Third segment has Charles Laughton leaving his honky tonk playing days behind when he gets his dream job of conducting a symphony though he has to find a coat first of which one is given by his real-life spouse Elsa Lanchester.
What was supposed to be the fifth segment-cut from original release supposedly because it overextended the length-had W.C. Fields buying the coat from Phil Silvers-the only time two lovable con men met on film-before lecturing a hoity toity crowd-of which Margaret Dumont is among them-on the evils of alcohol.
If the jacket has, indeed, some magical properties that should be considered.What is interesting is that the movie now being shown includes a W.C. Fields that was deleted in the theatrical release.In short, watch and enjoy a large cast of Hollywood notables giving great performances .....
ROBINSON who needs the tail coat to attend the 25th Class Reunion with poignant and ironic results; and almost equally effective is a sequence involving CHARLES BOYER, RITA HAYWORTH and THOMAS MITCHELL.
But most of the stories (there are five) are of little consequence in the scheme of things and the film has a finale with the Hall Johnson Choir that is just short of ridiculous.Interesting that GINGER ROGERS and HENRY FONDA share an episode, the first and only time these two major stars appeared together on screen.But beware--it's a shame more attention wasn't given to creating some really good stories for all these talented stars and character actors.
(Duh!)Well, that's exactly what "Tales of Manhattan" is all about and its story is presented to the viewer in 5, 25-minute, interlaced segments that certainly make its point loud and clear.If nothing else - This b&w "WTF!?" comedy/drama was certainly an expensive production and it sure didn't skimp when it came to jumping on the high-fashion bandwagon.IMO - This disappointing picture was just another lame excuse for 20th Century Fox to star lots of big-name actors in one cockamamie picture (in hopes of reaping in huge profits, no doubt).My final analysis - Nothing special here..
Cesar Romero is about to marry Ginger Rogers, but when she finds an incriminating love letter in his coat pocket, he panics and begs his best man Henry Fonda to pretend that the coat and note are his.
I expected an early 40's cheer me up type of film but got a really entertaining look into how a Tops and Tails coat effects the lives of everyone it comes into contact with.I could go into each of the 6 stories but it would take too long.
SEQUENCE A: ("The Final Curtain") Paul Orman (Charles Boyer), a Broadway stage actor, purchases an tail coat in spite of "cursed" rumor.
TALES OF MANHATTAN distribution to home video, does include the now sought-after Fields sequence, which I'll title, "The Lecture on Liquor." In it, Fields plays Professor Diogenes Pothlewhistle who acquires the coat in question from a tailor (Phil Silvers) of Santelli Brothers second hand clothing store to wear for his lecture sponsored by Mrs. Clyborn Langahankie (Margaret Dumont).
In general, TALES OF MANHATTAN, with its assortment of stars, with the leading character being the tail coat, is an interesting idea that gets by on its own merits.
Tales of Manhattan follows the story of a formal cutaway coat as it passes from owner to owner and the consequences to all that come into possession.
All the episodes are pretty good quality although if Tales of Manhattan were made today the last one about the southern sharecroppers with Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters and a whole bunch of black players would be done a lot different now.
It's a dream come true:my favourite French director ,Julien Duvivier ,directing American stars I've always admired.And it is a film made up of sketches,a field where Duvivier bows to no one,in his native country.He had already made "UN Carnet de Bal " and its remake "Lydia" but the American audience never knew that he would take the genre to its absolute limits in the fifties with "Sous le Ciel de Paris" and "La Fete A Henriette" (poorly remade as "Paris when it sizzles ")"Tales of Manhattan" deals with the whims of fate ,a subject Duvivier loved during all his life.Six destinies ,where Duvivier shows his sense of humor ,his complete mastery of the picture,his unexpected twists.The connection between the segments is rather tenuous (a tux),"Manahattan" has not yet the perfection of "Sous le Ciel de Paris".But its eclecticism is stunning,this could be a film equivalent of the Beatles' famous White Album.It takes us to so many places ,from the slums to the bourgeois desirable mansions,from a party at the Waldorf's hotel to a poor village of black people ...One should note that the screenplays are not by Duvivier himself ,and Edward G .Robinson's segment would have been given a harsher treatment in France.Segment one or "the dear hunter" Duvivier casts his compatriot Charles Boyer as a stage actor;This is the well-known tale of the love triangle ,and the mistress is none other than the sumptuous Rita Hayworth.Duvivier gambles on the "acting " thing and he makes it a winner.His technique has something HItchcockesque here when he shows the three characters' hands in close-up.With its reversals of situation,it looks like Shaffer/mankiewicz's "Sleuth" in miniature.Segment two or" the lion does not sleep tonight" A woman (Rogers) is to get married but one of her female friends advises her to have a look in her soon-to-be-hubby's pocket.She finds a " scented bill" which is not a bill at all.Enter Henry Fonda who comes to the fiancé's rescue...a bit Lubischesque.Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.Segment three or "It (used to) fit like a glove" An obscure musician (Laughton) becomes a genius overnight thanks to his symphony .Tonight's the night :in front of a posh audience,he conducts the symphonic orchestra till...The French audience will think of that sequence of "La Fin du jour" (1939)when Michel Simon collapses on stage.And it was Victor Francen ,who after his death ,said to us all "the show must go one" .It is Victor Francen here too and he says "continue" .It's some kind of spoof on "la Fin du Jour" and it's brilliant.Segment four: "Every dog has his day" is my favourite and Edward G.Robinson gives the most moving performance of the whole film.Old University pals throw a party at the Waldorf's.One of them has become a tramp.And there's also a man who knows him and tries to humiliate him (George Sanders,who else?).The way Robinson maintains his dignity is admirable ,even the if the ending is more Capra than Duvivier.Segment five or "Cocoa milk cocktail" :essentially an interlude,it's the shortest part.But this lecture on that enemy which kills slowly (alcohol) by an earnest professor whose audience (posh ladies,chic gentlemen) become all drunk cause the hostess's husband ,a joker,has poured liquor into the cocoa nut milk,is worth the price of admission.Segment six or "the lord moves in mysterious ways" After a hold up ,two men try to get to Mexico,but the plane catches fire and the tux full of dough falls on a field where two black farmers think it is a Godsend.But,says the wife,have we really prayed the Lord for THAT?
Cesar Romero, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Gail Patrick and Roland Young are seen in the second story.
The last one is not too shabby either, it showed performers of the stature of Ethel Waters, Paul Robeson and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson in the last tale, which is a bit too mawkish to end the film.
He cursed that everyone wearing the jacket would endure hard luck.The story really starts off that way with Charles Boyer, portraying a stage actor in the film, being shot by jealous husband Thomas Mitchell over Boyer's affair with his wife-Rita Hayworth.
All of the five stories are a trifle too long, but Julien Duvivier puts his distinctive stamp on several parts of the film, like in a superlative sequence where Ginger Rogers and Henry Fonda practically make love with words, or the inexplicably wonderful spectacle of all male audience members removing their black overcoats after symphony conductor Charles Laughton has done the same.
The best recommendation here is to catch the gamut of stars that appear in this collection of vignettes crafted around the story of a formal tail coat, part of a suit that was 'cursed' when made by Bertoldi the tailor.
Robinson in their stories, and you'd win a trivia bet posing the question of where Cesar Romero, Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers and Roland Young ever appeared together on screen.
Similar to the second sequence with Fonda and Rogers, the final act brings together some of the notable black performers of the day, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters and Clarence Muse, and for me, it's always a treat to catch Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson in a role where Jack Benny isn't around..
Henry Fonda has a hilarious love scene with a co-star, but the best two stories are Laughton's and Robinson's.
The principals are Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, Charles Laughton, Edward G.
The first episode concerns a love triangle between Charles Boyer (the coat's first owner), Rita Hayworth, and the ever-dependable Thomas Mitchell.
It works only too well, as Rogers dumps Romero for Fonda.The coat is then sold to a thrift shop and purchased by Elsa Lanchester for her husband, Charles Laughton, a poor musician making ends meet playing piano in a sleazy restaurant.
Robinson, while also touching friends, lovers and enemies like Elsa Lanchester, Rita Hayworth, Thomas Mitchell, Ginger Rogers, and Henry Fonda.
Robinson and a disturbingly young George Sanders make the fourth tale interesting; W.C. Fields at his Vaudevillian best (along with an embryotic Phil Silvers and a perfectly-situated Margret Dumont) make the fifth part a treat--I'll say more about it in a minute; and the final part (featuring an odd, prefatory episode with a gangster)can only leave the viewer torn, because, while featuring the best African-American talent of the day (Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) it typifies Hollywood's vile attitude toward minorities.
It's a one gag story that seems very forced, and Laughton's performance appears off to me.I agree with many that the highlight of TALES OF MANHATTAN comes in its fourth segment, starring Edward G.
For Fields completists only.Finally, we get a 'folk drama' about rural Southern blacks, starring Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters and Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson.