Ça c'est New York

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.