Product Details

• Actors: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton
• Directors: Julien Duvivier
• Writers: Alan Campbell, Ben Hecht, Buster Keaton, Donald Ogden Stewart, Edmund Beloin
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: May 7, 1996
• Run Time: 118 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303957005
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,224 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  Video > Comedy > By Year > 1940-1949

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stars Over Manhattan!, July 12, 2001

By	Paul (New Jersey, The United States of America) - See all my reviews

Tales of Manhattan is a star-studded movie that featured 46 supporting players as well as a main cast including Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Henry Fonda, Charles Laughton, Edward G. Robinson, W.C. Fields, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, and Eddie Rochester Anderson. A film like this could never be made today because each star would demand so much money that the budget would be so high.

The film begins when a tailor and his assistants bring a tailcoat to the apartment of stage actor Paul Orman (Charles Boyer). They then inform him that the cutter put a curse on the suit, but he assures Mr. Orman¡Çs that it will bring him happiness.

Paul¡Çs next play is a smash hit, but he leaves as soon as he takes his bow. He tells Luther (Eugene Pallette), his servant, to drive him to Ethel Halloway¡Çs (Rita Hayworth) home. He is in love with her, but she is married to John (Thomas Mitchell). He is supposed to go hunting tomorrow in Canada, so the two lovers plan to meet in town. At Ethel¡Çs home, they discuss the plan, but the inquisitive John is always near. He decides to clean his gun when he begins to talk to Paul. While Ethel watches in horror, Paul is shot. But he gives a performance pretending he was missed. Paul manages to get out to Luther, who takes him the St. Luke¡Çs Hospital.

Now that Paul doesn¡Çt need the tailcoat any more, Luther brings it to his friend Edgar (Rolland Young). He is the butler for Harry (Cesar Romero) who is marrying Diane (Ginger Rogers) that evening. While in her own apartment, Ellen (Gail Patrick), Diane¡Çs friend comes and tells her that when she was looking in her husband¡Çs tailcoat, she found a comb with red hair. She knows her own husband has been cheating on her. They both go off the Harry¡Çs together.

While waiting for him to get up, they find his tailcoat just lying on the back of a chair. Ellen coaxes Diane into looking through it. In the last pocket she looks in, she finds a love letter from ¡ÈSquirrel.¡É They read it out loud, and Harry hears them. He runs to the kitchen and calls his friend George (Henry Fonda) to come and get him out of the fix. George comes and says that he accidentally left his own tailcoat at the apartment last night when he came for a party and he gives Harry Paul Orman¡Çs tailcoat saying its his.

There is also a big break for a musician (Charles Laughton) and another vignette in which Edward G. Robinson is transformed from a bum to a classy lawyer attending his college re-union. There is also a great segment with W.C. Fields. It was not included in the original release, but it is included in the new home video version. Finally, the coat falls on a poor sharecropper community with some stolen money in it. It provides the townspeople with a wonderful Christmas! The coat ends up as a scarecrow on the farm, a far way from the tailcoat of a wealthy actor!

This movie has something for everybody. My Dad¡Çs favorite vignette was the Edward G. Robinson episode. He liked it because it was very deep, talky, and ironic. My mom disliked that version because of the very same reason. Her favorite was the episode with Charles Laughton because it was heartwarming and charming. My favorite was the Ginger Rogers/Henry Fonda version because it went so smoothly and all the actors were at their best! All in all, it was a fantastic film, and everyone, not just film buffs, should enjoy it!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lesser-known Hollywood Classic, November 5, 2001

By	plsilverman (USA) - See all my reviews

I became aware of this masterpiece through reading about W.C. Fields and his involvement. Always fascinated by stories of "lost" or "deleted" footage from classic stars (i.e. many Laurel and Hardy segments, Elvis Presley's 1955 movie short, the Three Stooges alternate version of "Malice in the Palice" with a cameo by Curly three years after he retired, etc.), I purchased this tape immediately after discovering that Field's originally removed segment, described as a fairly long, verbal sequence coming at a time when his film career was decidedly in decline, was included in this release.
I was not at all disappointed in the "temperance lecture" scene beautifully executed by the master. (It's somewhat understandable that the bit was cut, as the movie was very long. Too bad that the material could not have been fashioned into a one or two-reeler at the time, as slightly outdated as they were by '42).
Other memorable performances come from Edward G. Robinson (at a class reunion), and Ethel Waters, who is brilliant despite the stereotypical Southern scene.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, touching, poingnant - Chas. Laughton is magnificent!, June 26, 1999

By A Customer

5 different vignettes telling the "tales" of one coat of "tails" - the different owners of the tailcoat, and the different dramas of each life during the time each person wore the garment. Each story stands alone in dramatic strength and appeal - from film noir to romantic comedy, to poignant and touching dramas, finishing off with an exhilarating comedy featuring some of the finest black actors of the era. I do not think you could find a finer classic film to watch, and that is why I decided to purchase this!