Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1933


Child of Manhattan (film)

Buy Child of Manhattan (film) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'Child of Manhattan' is a 1933 American pre-Code melodrama film based on the play 'Child of Manhattan' by Preston Sturges, which was presented on Broadway in 1932. The film was directed by Edward Buzzell and written for the screen by Gertrude Purcell, and stars Nancy Carroll, star of musical comedies at Paramount, John Boles, and cowboy star Charles "Buck" Jones.

This was the second of Sturges' plays to be adapted into a film, after 'Strictly Dishonorable'. "Most of the wittier and more pungent lines were lost in translation." "As Andrew Horton notes, Sturges appears to have had a fascination with [...] inter-class narratives, and a number of his plays, screenplays, and films contain 'sudden transitions in socioeconomic status'. [...] "His 1932 play 'Child of Manhattan', subsequently made into a movie by Columbia Pictures (Edward Buzzell, 1933), involves the relationship of the son of the immensely wealthy Paul Vanderkill with a dime-a-dance girl".Andrew Horton, ed., 'Three More Screenplays by Preston Sturges (Berkeley: Univ. of CA Press, 1998), 17; quoted in Christopher Beach, " 'These Are Troubled Times': Social Class in the Comedies of Preston Sturges", in Jeff Jaeckle and Sarah Kozloff, eds., 'ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges' (Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2015).

Plot



Taxi dancer Madeleine McGonegle (Nancy Carroll) attracts the attention of millionaire Paul Vanderkill (John Boles), and when she becomes pregnant, they marry to avoid a scandal. When the baby dies at birth, Madeleine runs away to Mexico, to give Paul the divorce she thinks he wants. There, she meets "Panama Canal" Kelly (cowboy star Buck Jones), an old friend who proposed to her before he went west. Undeterred by her recent past, he asks her again to marry, and she eventually agrees. When Paul discovers where she is, he shows up just as the couple is about to be wed. When Panama overhears Madeleine confess her love to Paul, he bows out of the picture.Erickson, Hal [https://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:87139 Plot synopsis (Allmovie)]TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=70795&category=Full%20Synopsis Full synopsis]Majidi, Cameron [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023887/plotsummary Plot summary (IMDB)]

Cast



*Nancy Carroll as Madeleine McGonegle

*John Boles as Paul Otto Vanderkill

*Buck Jones as Panama Kelly

*Jessie Ralph as Aunt Minnie

*Clara Blandick as Aunt Sophie Jones

*Luis Alberni as Carlos Spumoni Bustamente

*Warburton Gamble as Stephen Eggleston

*Jane Darwell as Mrs. McGonegle

*Garry Owen as Buddy McGonegle

*Betty Grable as Lucy McGonegle

*Nat Pendleton as Spyrane - Dance Hall Bouncer

Production



This film was in production from November 12 through December 6, 1932.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=70795&category=Overview Overview] The movie shot for two weeks with Neil Hamilton playing the part of "Paul", before he was replaced by John Boles.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=70795&category=Notes Notes]

The film had a limited release on February 4, 1933, and went into general release in New York on February 11.IMDB [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023887/releaseinfo Release dates] It was marketed with the taglines: 'The World called her BAD because she dared to LOVE!' and 'Women called her Sinner! Men called her Siren! He called her Sweetheart!'[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0023887/taglines Taglines]

Notes




Buy Child of Manhattan (film) now from Amazon

<-- Return to movies from 1933



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1106020098.