Young Man of Manhattan (1930)

Some things I liked some I did not.

An unexpected masterpiece

Admirable film.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The same year that Ginger Rogers' leading part on Broadway in "Girl Crazy" was overshadowed by second lead Ethel Merman, she managed to steal the spotlight in this precode domestic drama from Claudette Colbert. Ginger did it with a Betty Boop voice and some amusing dialog, but a little bit of that goes a long way, and I'm glad her screen time is minimal. I'm also glad that this characterization only lasted a few films, because she never would have danced with Fred Astaire had she continued to sound as if she was constantly sniffing helium. Colbert and Norman Foster, married in real life, play a married couple, dealing with career goals that split them apart and various levels of stubbornness in both of them. He's constantly away covering sporting events (including that 30's dad, the six day bike ride) and this leads him to a flirtation with underage school girl Rogers. That part of the plot is creepy but Rogers (obviously a few years past 16) adds a bit of Lolita into her characterization, ironic considering the insinuations of that aspect of her character.For more humor, there's Charlie Ruggles as Foster's best pal who offers wisdom along with his wit. Colbert and Foster are sincere in their portrayals, while Rogers even gets a song. Her voice is light (which explains how Merman overshadowed her in "Girl Crazy") but sweet. If I had a nickel for everytime she called Foster "big boy", I'd be rich. Adding to the tension of Foster's stalking by Rogers, there's Leslie Watkins as Colbert's lecherous boss. Plenty of innuendo and flowing booze adds to the enjoyment of the pre-code elements. Not a great film by any means, this is a product of it's time, slow moving at times and often creaky. It also gives a warning to audiences of the time of the dangers of bootleg liquor with a horrifying plot twist that takes this to near tragedy. I just wish that Colbert and Rogers, two future Oscar winning actresses, got to share some scenes.

Big fan of Colbert and enjoy watching her films.This is easily the most forgettable of all the films I have watched.Plenty of her thirties films lack a decent plot or are uneven but usually there are a couple of scenes that are funny or well acted and show off her acting ability - this film had nothing of note.It isn't funny or dramatic and the plot is very unexciting.

This routine seriocomedy flirts with some interesting ideas but doesn't really follow through on them enough to distinguish itself. Colbert and Foster play reporters who marry, then find their careers are a problem--both of them have erratic hours, occasional late nights and out-of-town trips, so each is never there when the other wants them. His character isn't particularly sympathetic by today's standards, because he whines and moans whenever her work takes her away from him, but when the shoe is on the other foot he doesn't grasp the hypocrisy of his complaints one bit. Worse, he takes to drinking too much, isn't grateful when she pays the bills because he can't, and strings along a besotted ninny (Ginger Rogers in her early dark-haired, squeak-voiced phase as a flapper caricature) for idle diversion. Colbert meanwhile is courted by a rich patron/news source, but keeps him at a professional arm's distance.In the early-talkie manner, there's a rather stilted, interior-bound quality to the action, with dead-air sound (actually downright poor sound in the transfer I saw, but that might just have been the fault of a poor dupe) and very little background music. This movie actually could have used a nightclub song or production number or two to liven it up; it's not quite serious enough to be involving as a drama, and not quite diverting enough to be a comedy. (Rogers does sing what might as well be the anthem for characters like hers, "I've Got 'It' But It Don't Do Me No Good," but just by herself at a living-room piano.) There's brief curiosity value in the appearance by "The Four Sherman Sisters," a quartet of pretty (alleged) siblings, but they don't perform, either; they just sling around a few weak quips and get drunk with Foster and his best pal Charles Ruggles (who's had better material, too). There isn't anything very notably "pre-Code" about this feature unless you count the alcohol consumption, whose depiction would soon get cleaned up by the Production Code. Nor does the movie exactly capture much of a Manhattan feel, as there's little exterior footage. Foster plays a sports writer, so there's fleeting interest in (very brief) clips of various sporting events that were presumably shot for newsreels rather than specifically for this feature. The movie's major plus is Colbert, who looks great and treats the goings on with a common- sense unflappability that suggests her heroine is considerably smarter than the callow husband she nonetheless stays loyal to. (Their marital conflicts are predictably resolved by a crisis that drops out of nowhere to re-strengthen their vows.) Co-star Foster would soon leave acting for a long, successful if seldom distinguished career directing mostly B movies and television episodes.

I know I'm second-guessing the author, but this movie is about a couple rather than one young man. In any case, it's a romantic comedy about a couple of newspaper reporters who meet at a boxing match and decide to get married shortly thereafter. Maybe too shortly, because marital problems ensue due to alcohol and money - a bad combination. The principals are Norman Foster and Claudette Colbert who were real-life man and wife at the time. I thought there should be more chemistry between the two as a result, but it was just enough to make the movie work. They get superb help throughout from Charles Ruggles, who was very funny and displayed impeccable comic timing and saved many a scene. Also in the cast, in her first full-length feature film, is Ginger Rogers, with dark hair and an irritating Betty Boop-type voice. She was almost unrecognizable at first glance.Foster's character is as a sportswriter, and there are some fascinating shots at Yankee Spring training camp in Florida with a look at Babe Ruth and a fleeting glimpse of Lou Gehrig. There is also some footage of the Dempsey-Tunney fight in 1927. On the whole, the film was good - I gave it a rating of six. I sometimes think that an old picture may have several worthy landmarks, mileposts and noteworthy appearances, but age alone does not make a good picture. Some relics are just old artifacts.