Romance in Manhattan

Francis Lederer spent years of work to come up with the $50 he has to have to enter the United States as an immigrant. He even built up an $8 reserve on top of that. When the authorities at Ellis Island tell him it's been raised to $200, he's disconsolate. He jumps out of the porthole and swims, exhausted to land.... and discovers he has lost his $58. He wanders the street and sneaks into the back of a burlesque house, where Ginger Rogers stakes him to a couple of doughnuts and a couch in the room she share with her brother, Jimmy Butler.

It's a very sweet movie, with the men who administer the laws not cruel, not impatient, just doing their jobs. Certainly how you read that depends a lot on how you feel about immigration, but to me that makes it worse; Lederer is so anxious to be an American, that only the cruelest person could deny him that boon; fortunately for these uncaring bureaucrats, it's not them, it's rules. Under the Production Code, there was no way they could be villains. The fact they were sending him back to a Europe that in four years would be at war would not occur to them, and if it did, what could they do about it? At least in the movie, it turns out well for Lederer.

With J. Farrell MacDonald, Helen Ware, Donald Meek, Sidney Toler and Oscar Apfel.

This delightful work details the struggle of a Czech illegal immigrant, Karel Novak (Francis Lederer), to remain in the United States during the Depression, with a sparkling script limning the cultural impact of New York City upon the newcomer. Stephen Roberts directs with his customary skill in one of his final films (he died shortly after at the age of 40) and avoids both the hyperbolic and hypocritical, particularly significant when we are given the insincerity which marks the current immigration debate with its rough moral equivalence. The Bohemian-born Lederer's strong performance is quite probably his best, with an excellent and witty scenario providing the cast, which includes many of RKO's many contract players, an opportunity to create characterizations that are well-defined. Ginger Rogers nicely portrays Lederer's love interest and there is excellent acting from Sidney Toler and J. Farrell MacDonald as two of a contingent of New York's Finest (all Irish, of course) whose assistance is crucial to the process of bringing the complicated events to a suitable climax. Superlative editing by Jack Hively must be recognized as must the top-flight camera-work of Nick Musuraca, each contributing mightily to a film which should be better known.

I have seen over 2,000 classic films in the last 6 years, and somehow I let this one slip by me. It is rare that I uncover a new classic film favorite, but I did with this film.

"Romance in Manhattan" works so well thanks to the wonderful performances by Ginger Rogers and especially Francis Lederer. I would have loved to see him hit stardom, but he had a long career and lived 100 years despite not becoming a household name. Lederer is so charismatic and handsome in this film with such an exuberant spirit. A young Ginger Rogers is lovely, has great chemistry with Lederer, and is a loving sister.

There are two subplots, but this is mostly about a man coming to America to live the "American Dream" which he does while finding romance along with it. If that appeals to you, then I highly recommend this delightful little gem.

A sensitive and skillful performance by Francis Lederer makes this minor film enjoyable enough to sit through. He plays a Czech immigrant who escapes deportation back to his native land by jumping ship, ending up penniless but full of spirit on the bustling streets of New York City. Soon he encounters a kindly chorus girl (Ginger Rogers) who takes him home and with the help of her 11-year-old brother helps him find work. The dialogue is peppered with lines about the state of the economy in 1934, an understanding of how difficult it was to find a job and even wry commentary on New Deal federal policies (someone on the writing team had to have been a Republican). Otherwise, the impact thins as the plot thickens. We are supposed to believe, in line with the moral code of movies at that time, that Lederer willingly agrees to sleep on the roof of Rogers's apartment building for months, coming inside to the stairs only when it rains. Somehow the summery weather never seems to change even though a significant stretch of time evidently passes during which he rises from newspaper seller to taxi driver (even "scabbing" during a strike), sporting an ever-improving wardrobe, savings account and self-confidence. To top it all off, he is helped out of legal snags relating to his immigration status (and marriage to Rogers) by the convenient fact that Rogers just happens to be very good friends with a sweet Irish cop who has connections in the municipal power structure; call it corruption for good ends.

Lederer's progress through the streets of New York City is represented by crudely staged actions in front of rear projections. Interior scenes, however, are handled imaginatively and catch the eye. Ginger Rogers is only secondary here, but when you see how many films she cranked out during this period, you have to allow her some slack. Lederer gets top billing and deserves it.

I love this little movie. Ginger Rogers is at her best here -- sweet, engaging, human -- and Francis Lederer is perfect as the illegal alien with a huge heart. As a Ginger Rogers film, this ranks right up there with Primrose Path and Roberta in my Hall of Favorites. Romance in Manhattan creates a mythopoeic USA that triumphs over Depression era America through a large dose of Hope. Folks in 1935 probably needed a film like this, but I think it works well to mute the horrors of 2020 also. See it.