Avaliações de usuários

I first saw So This Is New York in my teens on the Million Dollar Movie hosted by Ted Steel on WOR TV New York in the early 50's. I loved this film. At that time the Million Dollar Movie would show the same movie every night for a week. I watched every night! It is a wonderful satire on several levels; including marrying for money, small town folk going to the "big city", ham actors, show business, gamblers and infidelity war profiteering. The cast was wonderful. The writing is top notch with some great lines that sound even better because of the wonderful Henry Morgan. He was the perfect actor to play the part of the beleaguered husband. I hope this comes out on DVD.

Radio humorist Henry Morgan probably best known today as one of the panelists from I've Got A Secret produced and starred in this independent film released from United Artists, So This Is New York. For a film about Ne York it sure looked like Morgan didn't do much shooting there i any.

Based on a Ring Lardner story the plot takes place post World War I as the returning doughboy Morgan has found he's got a windfall. The wife has always wanted to go to New York so Morgan, Virginia Grey, and Dona Drake their daughter head for the Big Apple.

Where in this episodic film they encounter all sorts of New York type folks. And the supporting cast is loaded with familiar character players. Can you get more New York than Leo Gorcey, a jockey not so on the up and up?

My favorite was Bill Goodwin playing a vaudeville comedian who rooks these country folks out of their money to produce a bad play. The scenes with Goodwin and Drake in this bad play with Drake's fake bad acting are the best.

Morgan was never quite able to translate his radio popularity to the screen. The film has some good moments, but they're in fits and starts.

Still it's an interesting view of New York circa 1919 as seen from 1948.

This movie really was not a success, but give the studio credit for throwing a lot of talent at it. The movie was, if we are to believe IMDb, Stanley Kramer's first production. He and writer Carl Foreman collaborated on two more movies in the next three years: Champion, and High Noon. Kramer went on to produce many thoughtful movies (too many to list here) and Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Director Richard Fleischer also had a long career after So This Is New York, up to and including Conan the Barbarian.

Morgan had a reputation of, for a comedian, being an intellectual. He wrote for and became friends with Fred Allen. When his success on radio brought him to Hollywood's attention, his fellow New Yorker, Stanley Kramer, and he came up with a Ring Lardner tale called the Big Town. The choice was almost inevitable: Lardner's cynicism outmatched Morgan's. With Morgan being little known outside New York, they loaded the cast with familiar faces, not necessarily big stars, but familiar faces: Jerome Cowan, who was in every other Warner Brothers movie of the early 40s ( e.g., Miles Archer in the Maltese Falcon), Rudy Vallee, Hugh Herbert, and Leo Gorcey (perhaps a Carl Foreman connection here: Foreman wrote two Bowery Boys scripts a few years earlier). The ladies, Virginia Grey and Dona Drake, were glamorous. The score was by Dmitri Tiomkin, but I honestly can't remember a note he wrote. He did a more memorable score when he rejoined Kramer and Foreman on High Noon.

The weak link, I regret to say, was Henry. Aside from the witty voice-overs, he mostly sat and looked glum while the others acted rings around him. Even Arnold Stang, the stooge from Henry's radio show, stole their one brief scene together. And, there was zero chemistry between Henry and his wife played by Virginia Grey. Henry Morgan fans will be willing to overlook his shortcomings as a screen actor because this is his only comedy movie role. The rest of the world won't, and there are more of them than there are of us.

Henry Morgan (the lead) was a radio comedian in the 30s. He had a daily show on which he did a monologue of his own whimsical and sardonic observations--better than most stand up comedians. I remember a "weather report" in which he predicted "snow, followed by little boys on sleds".

He made very few films. In this one, he is a salesman in a two-employee cigar store in Indianapolis, bullied by the owner who is always complaining that business has never been so bad. Henry's wife has just inherited some money and has decided to use it to move to New York City (at least temporarily) and "make a big splash" so that her younger sister can marry a rich man more suitable than her present beau who is a small-town butcher's helper. Henry is certain no good will come of this so he accompanies them on the train, making his trademark sarcastic wisecracks and keeping a record to the penny (without being requested) of everything they spend. Arriving at the station in New York, they ask a cab driver to take them to a hotel. He replies sullenly, semi-literately, in a heavy New York accent, something like "Where duh yuh wanna go?". A subtitle appears, "Where may I take you, sir?"

The direction is altogether superb. There is a device used that I have never seen used that way again. Today, on TV, it would be called a freeze frame, but the way it is used makes all the difference. It brings out, and emphasizes, character and prepares the audience for the action to follow. For example, in the dining car on the train, a con man (the audience knows this because he looks exactly like a movie con man of the 30s-- sort of good looking, dandyish dress, pencil mustache, slicked-back greasy hair, big- city villainous, elaborate speech, yet a blow hard) tries to pick up the younger sister. The foolish wife is immediately deceived (though not Henry). As the scene is playing, one particular frame is frozen; one that shows him at his absolute worst, artificial, phony, slimy. It propels the action forward. It is completely different from the meaningless modern TV freeze of the last frame in a scene. (Though I'll bet they all copied it from this movie.)

It is cynical, sophisticated comedy, though completely accessible. Not to be missed.

A funny funny film! Definitely a "missing" gem. The play performed within the film ("Bridget Sees a Ghost") makes "Springtime for Hitler" look like Shakespeare! Morgan's voice overs are marvelous and the use of Rossini's "Barber of Seville Overture" to punctuate the closing moments of each act is masterful. Clever and innovative in its photography with outstanding performances by Henry Morgan and Leo Gorcey. The rest of the cast certainly holds its own in this lunatic story about a family's visit to New York City. This should definitely be released on DVD. It was shown on television years ago, but seems to have vanished from the airwaves. Definitely worth watching - if it ever reappears.

When sisters Virginia Grey and Dona Drake inherit $60,000, they drag Virginia's husband Henry Morgan from his comfortable life in South Bend, Indiana to Manhattan to find Dona a wealthy husband.

Set during the 1920s, this seems a bit heavy-handed satire, with Henry Morgan's constant ironic commentary inappropriate for a movie -- although given his popularity on radio, that was undoubtedly thought an asset. The movie is based on a novel by Ring Lardner, produced by Stanley Kramer, and Carl Foreman did the screenplay. Richard Fleischer directed; this might seem an odd choice, considering he was about to make his reputation with a series of film noir. However, he was coming off the FLICKER FLASHBACK series, in which they took a silent short, projected it at the wrong speed, and made funny comments. The fourth segment, in which the sisters sink all their money into a play, looks like one of those with Morgan's voice over.

This was undoubtedly conceived as one of the nostalgic movies that were popular in the era. With its sardonic viewpoint and heavy-handed humor, it didn't do the talent any good. Morgan's screen career never took off, although he continued to do well on radio and would move comfortably into television. Kramer, Foreman and Fleischer would also eschew comedy, to their profit.

Filmed in B&W. I saw this movie while I was still in my teens in 1948. It remains in my memory as one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It used some clever techniques for the time, such as "stop action" with voice-over commentary. The movie chronicles the mis-adventures of a man who is dragged to NY, unwillingly, by his wife and her sister, who have delusions of grandeur. It is set in the late 1920s or early 1930s. They are taken advantage of by three broadly-drawn characters, played by Jerome Cowan (a con man), Leo Gorcey (a jockey), and Rudy Vallee (a rich, but flawed, man). I laugh again just thinking about it. I don't know that it has ever been shown on television, but it should be.

Mr. And Mrs Finch (Henry Morgan* and Virginia Grey) live in small South Bend, Indiana and Mr. Finch thinks life is grand. After all, the wife recently received a modest inheritance and WWI just ended. However, the missus and her sister are NOT happy and shethe wife announces that they are moving to New York City...and poor Mr. Finch doesn't seem to have any choice! However, he hates the notion of moving and the film is shown from his viewpoint...and nearly everything in the big city annoys or disappoints him. Are the Finches destined to remain in New York or will Mr. Finch be right...it's NOT a great place for anyone to live...especially the Finches.

In many ways, this comedy's plot is like the very serious drama "Dodsworth". Both are about men who are reluctant to leave home but despite this agree to a move in order to make the pretentious family happy....and with unintended consequences. Of course, "Dodsworth" is a classic and "So This is New York" isn't...it's more a low-budget comedy.

So is this film any good? Well, it flopped at the box office...so at least folks back in 1948 didn't think so. When seen today, the story isn't bad but it suffers from being overlong (I think it would have been better at B-movie length...about 60-65 minutes) and a few of the laughs were tired and annoying...especially Rudy Vallee's howling at the race track as well as the many demands of Mrs. Finch. As a result, it's a watchable film but certainly not one to rush to see.

*It's easy to mix up this Henry Morgan with Harry Morgan (of "MASH" and "Dragnet" fame). This is because Harry's real first name was Henry and he changed it because folks kept mixing him up with the other Henry Morgan.

one of my favorite films, first seen when i was twelve, in 1948. in my opinion, it was the signature film of all those in it...henry morgan, leo gorcey, rudy vallee, bill goodwin, dona drake, virginia grey, jerome cowan. i'm tempted to say that goodwin's jimmy ralston character was the best; but then, all the performances were so great. i spotted it on tv some ten years ago, on a weak station and taped it. so, bad copy and all, i do watch it a few times a year.

When I accidentally discovered that Leo Gorcey was one of the players in this movie on the Blu-ray box, I had to seek this one out. I've been watching lots of movies made in the '40s in chronological order recently so it was a nice surprise to also find out Bill Goodwin, Hugh Herbert, Rudy Vallee, and Jerome Cowan are also in this one. Anyway, radio comedian Henry Morgan plays the husband of Virginia Grey whose sister Dona Drake is single and since they've just inherited some money, they all go to New York to experience the high life though Morgan does so reluctantly. There are many cynically funny lines and the characters played by many of the players I mentioned bring great atmosphere to the proceedings. Henry Morgan, himself, may not have been much of an actor but he's surrounded by some of the best here like Arnold Stang-who often worked with him on radio-doing a hilarious take on a Western Union clerk. So on that note, I highly recommend So This Is New York. P.S. Since I like to cite when people associated with my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-is involved in something else I review here, I have to note that the score here is done by Dimitri Tiomkin who was also involved in IAWL. As an aside, I also should note the use of a freeze-frame when a voice-over is heard being as effective here as in that Frank Capra masterpiece. Also, Dick Elliot, who said in that film "Youth is wasted on the wrong people!" after asking James Stewart why he doesn't kiss Donna Reed instead of talking her to death, plays a very funny heckler here when viewing a play starring Ms. Drake and Goodwin. Oh, and it's funny to me when the Goodwin character mentions giving jokes to Al Jolson (the film takes place just after World War I ended) since he was just in The Jolson Story a year or two previous.