Tales of Manhattan
| Tales of Manhattan | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Julien Duvivier |
| Produced by |
Boris Morros Sam Spiegel |
| Written by |
Ben Hecht Alan Campbell Ferenc Molnár Samuel Hoffenstein Donald Ogden Stewart Lamar Trotti László Görög László Vadnay Buster Keaton (uncredited) |
| Starring |
Charles Boyer Rita Hayworth Ginger Rogers Henry Fonda Charles Laughton Edward G. Robinson Ethel Waters Paul Robeson W. C. Fields |
| Music by | Sol Kaplan |
| Cinematography | Joseph Walker |
| Edited by |
Robert Bischoff Gene Fowler Jr. |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
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Release date
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Running time
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118 minutes 127 minutes (restored version) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $2.6 million (US rentals) |
Tales of Manhattan is a 1942 American anthology film directed by Julien Duvivier. Thirteen writers, including Ben Hecht, Alan Campbell, Ferenc Molnár, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Donald Ogden Stewart, worked on the six stories in this film.
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.
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Wikipedia