Young Man of Manhattan (1930) User Reviews

Its OK

[AAdaSC · 6/10 · 23 August 2009]

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.

Early New York Film

[vert001 · 7/10 · 15 January 2016]

Made at Paramount's Astoria Studio in New York, whose relatively primitive facilities took advantage of the talents that could be plucked from Broadway during the first few years of sound filming, Young Man of Manhattan gives us a marital drama about two newspaper writers, Norman Foster and Claudette Colbert (real life spouses at the time) during the latter parts of Prohibition. Marrying very quickly after meeting one another following the Tunney-Dempsey boxing match, they appear to take a rather flippant view of their marriage vows with Colbert proposing (discreetly) that they make it something of an 'open marriage', for after all, they're still quite young and what else can you expect?

It's an attitude that doesn't survive the first flirtations as jealously rears its ugly head the first time that teenage flapper Puff Randolph (Ginger Rogers) slithers onto the scene and takes dead aim at Foster. Between Puff and her husband's drinking and his general childishness, Colbert soon has had enough. The plot takes a melodramatic turn that lessons somewhat what had been an interesting look into domestic life during the Roaring Twenties.

Foster is the main figure and had a nice Pre-Code career before turning to direction, probably not a bad decision on his part as his general whininess prevented him from ever breaking through into real stardom. It served him well in this role, however. Perhaps the main points interest of Young Man of Manhattan today are the early roles provided for Claudette Colbert and Ginger Rogers (indeed, it's Ginger's first feature film, made by her at the age of eighteen). For Claudette it's a straight dramatic part, perhaps not her real strength but adequately accomplished here. Ginger, as well as Charlie Ruggles, serves as comic relief in a Baby Doll role which is right up her alley, and she does quite well with it as well as with a couple of short songs. As others have noted, she uses the Betty Boop style voice that would disappear once she got to Hollywood.

The print of the film that I saw was in very poor shape. I wonder if anything better has survived?

A beautifully made film

[1930s_Time_Machine · 5/10 · 7 November 2023]

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.

Why Not "Young Couple Of Manhattan"?

[GManfred · 16 August 2011]

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.

Modern Marriage

[boblipton · 6/10 · 5 September 2022]

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.

Young marriages in Manhattan have a lot of challenges.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 1 January 2018]

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.

Forgettable film

[touser2004 · 3/10 · 13 March 2017]

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.

"Cigarette Me, Big Boy"

[HarlowMGM · 9/10 · 15 November 2008]

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.

Run of the mill

[ofumalow · 5/10 · 17 December 2014]

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.

Ginger Rogers - The Original Baby Talk Girl!!!

[kidboots · 8/10 · 21 September 2011]

Ginger Rogers had perfected a "baby talk" act when she was still a teenager as part of her charleston routine in vaudeville. Her mother wrote baby talk monologues for her and fashioned songs to be sung in a cute way - once the management of a theatre held her act over for 32 weeks and both mother and daughter were thrilled. The downside came when she was offered a part in a show, turned it down and watched in annoyance as Helen Kane, her substitute, became a national sensation doing the same sort of "babytalk" that Ginger had perfected. Ginger then had the good luck to be offered a role in "Top Speed" on Broadway and at the same time Paramount offered her the role of dizzy flapper "Puff" Randolph in "Young Man of Manhattan". Too easy, she filmed by day and danced and clowned by night!!!

This was quite a familiar theme when the depression took hold - hard working girl taking slothful boy in hand to try to make him achieve what she knows he can!! Reporters Ann Vaughan (Claudette Colbert) and Toby McLean (Norman Foster) meet at the Gene Tunney Championship fight and it is love at first sight for Toby. He has ambitions and thrills Ann with his plans, he wants to get away from sport and become a feature writer. They marry but Ann finds out his ambition is just big talk - he is addicted to good times and the bottle but not to hard work!! She easily passes him on the ladder to success which makes him feel bad and he turns to boozy co-worker Shorty Ross (good old Charlie Ruggles) and the "adenoid infant" "Puff" Randolph, a dizzy school girl. With her insouciance and flip remarks like "Cigarette me, Big Boy" Toby thinks she would be a great subject for a feature article, which he intends to call "Portrait of a Gilded Child" but as usual he dillys and dallys and in the mean time Ann meets "Puff" and what do you think - she thinks "Puff" would make a good study as well!!! Before Ann can put paper in the typewriter she is promoted and whisked out to Hollywood to do a gossip column on the stars (strangely enough Paramount seems to dominate - I wonder why!!!) Toby senses Ann's disappointment in his work habits and with her absence starts to drink heavily and "Puff" who has a huge school girl crush on Toby, zooms in on the kill!!!

Surprisingly, in my opinion, the highlight of the movie is when "Puff" sits down at the piano and for no particular reason in the story, does a baby talk version of "I've Got It But It Don't Do Me NO Good" and some fancy scatting to "Good 'N' Plenty". In those few minutes, it's easy to understand how, according to the critics of the day, she easily steals the movie from the main stars. Popular songs ("My Blue Heaven" etc) featured throughout the movie, courtesy of a neighbour's loud radio - this was during the time when studios were trying to incorporate music naturally into the movies without everyone stopping for a song and dance.

The story takes a dramatic turn after this when Ann, home on a flying visit, takes a drink of liquor that Toby has left on the table and she is stricken blind. This seems to be just what Toby needs to prove his love - forsaking liquor he manages to write a serialized article and brings home the bacon - in this case $1,000, which manages to pay all the hospital expenses.

Never have I seen Norman Foster more relaxed, it was probably because in real life he was married to Claudette Colbert who was, as always, excellent, especially when quipping "You don't know women - especially 16 year olds who think they're Greta Garbo"!!! Norman Foster just didn't seem to have the charisma to be a dynamic leading man, although Paramount certainly gave him enough chances in a diverse number of roles ("No Limit" (1931), "Confessions of a Co-Ed" (1931) etc) so it was a good thing when he took to directing.

Tame

[view_and_review · 5/10 · 4 February 2024]

The last time I saw Norman Foster in a movie he was beating his wife ("Under Eighteen" (1931)). In "Young Man of Manhattan" (YMoM) he cheated on his wife. Don't worry, both marriages worked out. What's beating and cheating between man and wife?

YMoM looked like it was going to be a basic romance in which one or both partners have an affair, or a relationship that could be misunderstood as an affair, then they'd have a reason to get back together, forgive each other, and live happily ever after.

It was still kind of like that with a little wrinkle in it just to be different and/or dramatic.

Toby McLean (Norman Foster) was a sports writer who married Ann Vaughn (Claudette Colbert), also a journalist. It was your typical 1930's-- "I'm going to marry you someday" after the first meeting type of romance.

Problems arose when Ann got a job working for Dwight Knowles (Leslie Austin). Rightly, Toby was upset that she had to have dinner with the guy for work and other social engagements. There were also problems when Toby unwisely had a sixteen-year-old girl named Puff Randolph (Ginger Rogers) over his house. Even though Ann insisted that Toby hang out with women even after they were married, she didn't like him being with the flirtatious teenager.

YMoM was fairly tame. I'm not a fan of relationship drama anyway, so I wasn't the target audience. I think by 1930 they had already explored all the ways in which couples can be unfaithful or have their fidelity tested and reunite.

Free on Internet Archive.

Fun Jazzy Romp

[broadway_melody_girl · 8/10 · 8 December 2009]

The "Young Man of Manhattan" of the film is a young sports writer, Toby McLean (Norman Foster). He falls in love instantly with Ann Vaughn (Claudette Colbert), a newspaperwoman and they get married. Unfortunately, numerous circumstances, such as a "16 year-old who thinks she's Greta Garbo" (Ginger Rogers), and jealousy threatens to kill their perfect marriage.

Having read and liked the book (A thoroughly forgotten fluffy bestseller of the 20's) of the same title, I was interested in how it would be made into a musical. It's not really a musical though, like the IMDb says; it's a drama with a few songs thrown in here and there. It wasn't a bad movie, actually a lot better than a lot of early talkies. Surprisingly, it's very faithful to the book. Claudette Colbert and the rest of the cast are solid; Ginger Rogers is fun and it was cool to see her so young and still red-headed. She performs an utterly charming song, "I Got It But It Don't Do Me No Good".Norman Foster is fine, but often comes across as whiny and a bit wooden. Still, Young Man of Manhattan is a great one for 1930, and worth seeking out for the stars.

A prohibition era slice of life

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 16 October 2010]

I thoroughly enjoyed this quirky little film that plot-wise isn't much more than the story of the trials and tribulations of a newlywed couple, starring an actually married couple, Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster. What makes it special are the precode themes, the look inside the lives of somewhat normal people in big bustling New York City at the end of the Jazz age but before the Depression has really taken hold - there's not a mention of it here, and finally Ginger Rogers as a knock-off of Helen Kane, something she did only early in her career.

The story revolves around the whirlwind courtship and then marriage of movie columnist Ann Vaughn (Claudette Colbert) and sports columnist Toby McLean (Norman Foster). We don't see much chemistry building between the two - they barely have met when Toby bursts into Ann's hotel room and declares his love, and in the next scene they're married. Ann claims to be a modern sort, says she doesn't mind paying for their apartment, says she thinks that they should feel free to see other people for dinner dates although they're married, and talks the talk of a thoroughly modern woman. However, flapper Puff Randolph (Ginger Rogers) chasing her husband and Ann's discovery of her husband's seeming lack of professional ambition soon has her walking a different kind of walk. It doesn't help that both Ann's and Toby's jobs have them spending long stretches on the road and away from each other.

Charles Ruggles really did a good job here as Toby's friend and fellow sports columnist Shorty Ross. Paramount gave Ruggles more than his share of parts as the annoying perpetual drunk in the early 30's, and in this film he does more than enough drinking, but manages to get some good lines in - usually at the expense of Puff - and also adds to the humor of the film in a significant way. I'd highly recommend this film for fans of precode and films that display the Jazz Age in full flower.