The Girl from Manhattan

Back in 1987 Charles Laughton's biographer Simon Callow cited this sub-Capra fluff as the Laughton film absolutely nobody had ever seen. Talking Pictures has once again come to the rescue and one can now see exactly why it resides in such obscurity.

Although named for Dorothy Lamour's character the real star is George Montgomery as a virile former sportsman turned clergyman, whom Laughton sagely advises to "Try for that touchdown" when Montgomery comes to the aid of little man Ernest Truex threatened with foreclosure.

Ironically the villain of the piece is in cahoots with a bigger, flashier church; a lesson today's evangelicals could learn from.

I haven't seen the film since 1948 and the only thing I remember is the "mink coat/synthetic mink coat" dialog between Dorothy and Charles Laughton: The Bishop, eying the coat, asks..."has it suddenly turned cold out"? Carol, wearing the mink, explains that she drove in with her convertible top down but realizes instantly that the suspicious, curmudgeonly old Bishop KNOWS how beautiful New York models GET mink coats, offers that it isn't real mink, but synthetic and given to her for modeling it. Carol departs; The Bishop picks up the telephone and dials a number. "Fred... this is the Bishop..... Is there such a thing as synthetic mink"? (scoffingly--Fred you're going to think I'm daft for even asking a question to which I already know the answer) We don't hear the reply but Laughton's reflective face, voice and manner make the movie for me. Sure it is a knock-off on the popularity of "Going my way" but when has Hollywood ever failed to cash in on a good thing and Laughton, here, is as memorable as Orson Welles working in other peoples' less than stellar films. I will suggest to TCM that they run the film so I can see it again.

The first reviewer has done a fine job of summarizing the film. What remains to be said, however, is that the film is a stinker. The script is particularly awful. It was designed to appeal to small town folks, apparently, and focuses upon homey matters such as the loss of a boarding house by a wicked businessman. Lamour and Montgomery are so wholesome and giggly you want to wretch. Christians are, as usual, cast as bigoted and gossipy. But how about Charles Laughton as a bishop. (What church? Methodist?) Hugh Herbert is completely wasted. The jokes are extremely lame. And 34-year-old Dorothy as a top high fashion model in New York is, well, ridiculous. George Montgomery should have stuck with Westerns, although he does his very best with his lame lines. A company on e-Bay is selling this film right now, which is how I came to see it. Money totally wasted.

Tom Walker (George Montgomery),former All-American fullback who gave up football to enter the ministry, returns to his old home town for his first assignment under the Bishop (Charles Laughton), an old friend of his father. And Carol Maynard (Dorothy Lamour), a local girl who has become New York's most famous model, comes home to visit her uncle, Homer Purdy (Ernest Truex), a boarding house keeper.She is dismayed to learn that the money she has been sending him to pay off his $3000 mortgage has been going to a bunch of non-paying guests, among them Aaror Goss (Hugh Herbert), a radio contest fanatic, and a broken-down actress, Mrs. Brooke (Constance Collier.) Tom and Carol resume their romance which was interrupted when he went away to college and she to New York. This upsets the Bishop for some reason or another...although Tom is a Minister and not a Catholic Priest and one yearns to hear Tom tell him to butt out. Especially since Minerva Urecal and Fern Emmett aren't members of his congregation, which makes them about the only two character performers of the era not in this film.

Mr. Birch (Raymond Largay), holds the mortgage on Purdy's boarding house and is going to foreclose, and donate the property to Tom's church for a new building. Tom tells Carol he can't do anything about it and she gets into a snit, which is nowhere near as fetching as a sarong. Uncle Purdy comes into $3000, which he thinks is income from a bad gold-mine he invested in, but Birch refuses to accept the money and the old boarding house appears to be doomed.

And would have been if Mr. Bernouti (William Frawley,) in town to supervise the construction of a new hotel on the site of the current Church property (which Birch had acquired for donating the boarding house property), hadn't got all pixilated over Carol and spilled the beans.

Things tend to work out well from this point, and the only question remaining is just where did the $3000 come from. It gets answered, but not here.

This B-picture from 1948 doesn't really do anything to showcase anyone's talent, and it's a wonder Charles Laughton even made an appearance. Perhaps he was trapped by a contract or made someone at the studio mad. This is one of those "colorful characters in a small town" movie that doesn't leave a lasting impression and doesn't really endear you to any one of the colorful characters.

George Montgomery takes the lead as a football player turned reverend, and as he returns to his small town, he gets mentored by Charles Laughton, a bishop. Dorothy Lamour, who usually is only put in a movie because of her good looks, isn't given much of a love story-since her love interest is a man of the cloth. She has her own little hurdles to handle while she's in town, since she is the titular character and not used to small-town life, but I can't really remember any of them. Unless you love Dorothy and want to sit through all her movies, even the bad ones, I wouldn't recommend you watch this one tonight.