Young Man of Manhattan

I found "Young Man of Manhattan" on YouTube and the copy leaves a LOT to be desired. The sound quality is rather poor and the print is a bit fuzzy. Clearly the film could use some restoration work.

The film stars Claudette Colbert and Ginger Rogers is on hand in a supporting role, though you might not recognize Rogers. This is because this is a pre-makeover movie...one she made when she was a brunette and before she had voice lessons.

Ann and Tobey (Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster) are fools. After knowing each other only a few hours, they marry! But the honeymoon period is brief and the marriage seems destined for divorce court...mostly because Tobey is a moody guy who drinks and isn't good husband material. Some of this might be because she's a reporter and he's a sports reporter and his ego might not like a wife who is every bit as successful...perhaps more so. Do they stand a chance?

This is a decent film BUT I don't recommend you see it unless you find a better copy...the sound is THAT bad. Plus, the acting is only okay....especially in the case of Rogers, who I said is in a pre-makeover film and her voice is less enjoyable in this early movie.

Norman Foster and Claudette Colbert are two news writers who get married. At first all is well, but his sports work keeps him away from home, and her writing attracts attention, a column, an offer to Hollywood, and Leslie Austen. Meanwhile, helium-voiced schoolgirl Ginger Rogers, resentment at his wife's success, and bootleg liquor draw Foster's attention.

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.

Ann (Claudette Colbert) and Toby (Norman Foster) are journalists who meet, fall in love and marry. Toby meets Puff (Ginger Rogers) after one of his assignments and decides that she will be the inspiration behind a money-making story. However, when Puff is introduced to Ann, Ann has the same idea about a story with Puff as the main character. Toby throws away his yet unstarted manuscript as Ann is a far more efficient and ambitious story-teller. While she spends her time forging ahead with her career, Toby is happy to just get by. He also meets up with Puff after Ann has told him not see her again. This leads to a separation. Will Ann take him back....?...

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.

YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN is a highly entertaining comedy/drama early talkie particularly notable as the only film real-life married couple Norman Foster and Claudette Colbert made together. The duo star as newspaper reporters who meet as each is covering a boxing match (Foster is a regular sports reporter, Colbert is a multi-interest writer). With a major rainstorm going on (apparently, the fight is an outdoor match as the spectators get soaked!), Foster invites Colbert up to his nearby apartment to work on the story since she has to make the morning edition of her paper. Norman is instantly bewitched by this beautiful, intelligent "career girl" and proposes marriage before Claudette can pull the last sheet out of her typewriter.

Within the week they are Mr. and Mrs. but their whirlwind of love has potential problems. Somewhat traditional, Foster is a bit troubled by the fact that his wife makes essentially the same salary and then there is the issue that while he seems content to doodle through life as "just" a sports reporter (despite vague dreams of writing fiction), ambitious Claudette is eager to move up in the writing world. She's also remarkably "modern", suggesting that since both are always on the go pursuing stories it is OK for both of them to have "see" other people, presumably as platonic dinner dates. While out of town covering a story, Foster is pursued by teen-aged socialite/vamp Ginger Rogers, who follows him back to New York. Colbert continues to move up the publishing ladder, sent to California for an extended period to cover the film industry. Norman, meanwhile, continues ignoring bills, gambling, giving friends loans, and barely writing his column much less aiming for something higher and baby hussy Ginger is making her designs on Norman a little too obvious for Claudette who finds she isn't so modern after all and asks Norman to stop seeing her. When she finds out the duo were spotted at "The Jungle Club" the morning after Foster slips in at 3 am after a bender, it's the last straw and she asks him to move out.

This adaption of a popular Katherine Brush novel of the day may be a standard story but the cast makes it something quite wonderful. This was one of Claudette Colbert's first films, obviously with no star power at the studio at this point, she is frequently shot from angles she would have never permitted a decade later and while they may not flatter her beauty at times, she remains at all times an attractive and appealing woman. Husband Norman Foster made a career out of this type of character in early talkies, the smooth talking every man who turns out to have a number of character flaws and proves to be a mistake for the star lady. Here he has a more sympathetic adaptation of that character than normally and he makes the most of his role. 19-year-old Ginger Rogers is almost unrecognizable from her later superstar persona, here a dark-headed redhead, she speaks in a flirty almost Betty Boopish voice and is quite the coquette even if she too is often not photographed at her best. The fourth major character of the film is played by Charles Ruggles, a few years away from his own stock persona as the harried middle-aged everyman, it's particular delight to see Charlie as a snappy newspaperman with a sharp wit and a equal love for the ladies and liquor.

Basically a romantic drama with some good laughs, YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN although a modest picture is sure to please fans of pre-codes and certainly makes one wish Mr. and Mrs. Foster had been teamed together more often than this single film. Sports fans will also want to check it out for the (very) brief stock footage of Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, and Babe Ruth inserted into the picture.

This shows just what a difference a skilful and committed director and an intelligent empathetic scriptwriter can make to a pretty lightweight story. You are instantly engaged in the lives of this newly married couple - they've been your friends for years haven't they?

For a 1930 picture, the acting is excellent. Everyone is thoroughly natural; the entire cast are completely believable people rather than actors simply playing parts. It's quite a rarity for a film of this age to have such an intimate, almost fly-on-the-wall feel. It makes you wonder why all films from 1930 weren't made this well.

If you didn't know beforehand that the annoying flirty schoolgirl was Ginger Rogers you would never have guessed. She's utterly unrecognisable especially with that Betty Boop voice. For a debut role, she's remarkably good as the jail-bait, fly in the ointment threatening the marriage of newly wed Ann and Toby. Although ostensibly just a silly character with a silly catchphrase, 'cigarette me, big boy,' it's actually quite a brave role for an aspiring actress to take on. She handles the nuances with sensitivity balancing the flighty and frivolous personality with the disturbing connotations of underage sex and possibly breaking up a marriage.

Besides the real life couple, Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster who play the newly weds, who are excellent, Charlie Ruggles gives a surprisingly great performance as well. Again this demonstrates the effect of good writing raising his character from that of a silly drunk to a well rounded sympathetic real person.

As well made as this is, it's actually a fairly insubstantial story but made and acted extremely well. It's hardly great, it's not clever or innovative and certainly not memorable but nevertheless it's hugely entertaining.