We'll Take Manhattan, or Maybe It Will Take Us

Slight social drama that needed a script for real comedy

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

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Robert Cummings and Rosalind Russell in Tell It to the Judge (1949)

Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, and Akim Tamiroff in The Great McGinty (1940)

Arline Judge, Harold Lloyd, Franklin Pangborn, Frances Ramsden, Rudy Vallee, and Jackie the Lion in The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (1947)

Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1943)

Harry Carey, Betty Field, and Joel McCrea in The Great Moment (1944)

William Bendix, Deanna Durbin, Tom Drake, and Adolphe Menjou in I'll Be Yours (1947)

Harriet Nelson and Fred MacMurray in Cocoanut Grove (1938)

Eddie Bracken, William Demarest, and Ella Raines in Hail the Conquering Hero (1944)

Madeleine Carroll and Fred MacMurray in An Innocent Affair (1948)

Mary Astor, Claudette Colbert, Joel McCrea, and Rudy Vallee in The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Susan Hayward, Paulette Goddard, Fred MacMurray, and Lynne Overman in The Forest Rangers (1942)

Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, and Robert Preston in New York Town (1941)

Why should I worry, Steve? Why should anybody worry? This is New York. East Side, West Side. Uptown, downtown. Rich slobs and poor dopes. It's wonderful. What variety! Big buildings and little people. And lots of opportunity. That's me, Steve - Joe Opportunity, himself.

Fred MacMurray and Mary Martin in New York Town (1941)

Iris Adrian and Fuzzy Knight in New York Town (1941)

Eric Blore, Mary Martin, and Robert Preston in New York Town (1941)

Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, and Akim Tamiroff in New York Town (1941)

Eric Blore, Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, and Akim Tamiroff in New York Town (1941)

Fred MacMurray

Mary Martin

Robert Preston

Jo Swerling

Lewis Meltzer

Preston Sturges

Victor Ballard is a poor but happy-go-lucky New York sidewalk photographer who shares a studio apartment with a painter from Poland, Stefan Janowski. After Victor shoots a photo of Alexandra Curtis, he realizes she is desperate an...

Charles Vidor

New York Town

What &quot;New York Town&quot; needed was a screenplay with some witty, snappy and funny dialog. The plot for this film would be okay, with a screenplay to give it some life. As is, though, it&apos;s little more than a story about a couple of guys sharing an apartment as they scrape by in New York City, and then inviting a lonely single gal without work to share their place. Along with these are some other regular street folks - one a WW I war veteran with no legs who gets around on a platform with rollers and who peddles pencils. Lynn Overman does a good job as Sam in that role. Movie buffs will remember seeing Eddie Murphy faking it as a handicapped veteran on such a device in &quot;Trading Places&quot; of 1983.

But there&apos;s so little that&apos;s funny in this film, and the mild romance is long in blooming, so that it&apos;s just a slow go-nowhere film. Paramount might better have put more into it as a social drama - or spice it up with some real comedy. I know - Preston Sturges was supposed to have worked on it in some capacity and is an uncredited writer. But, still there&apos;s little of note in the screenplay. This film is surprising in that the studio may have been hoping or thinking of something else. Why else would it take 10 months to hit theaters after filming concluded?

It could be that the studio had reservations about releasing it at all - mainly because MacMurray by then had made some very good films, including comedies, and this one was well beneath his other films. And, Mary Martin was already known from films and Broadway; and the supporting cast of Akim Tamiroff, Eric Blore, Lynne Overman, Cecil Kellaway and some others had all been in some very fine comedies before this.

It&apos;s too bad that Paramount didn&apos;t rethink the film and turn it over to Sturges and/or some other writers to put some zippy comedy into the dialog.

Here are samples of what passes for comedy in this film.

Sam, &quot;I start out this morning with a gross of pencils. I&apos;ve got 12 dozen left. I&apos;m holdin&apos; me own. Whadda they want for 10 cents - typewriters?&quot;

Victor Ballard (Fred MacMurray), &quot;He&apos;s got a very suspicious face. Reminds me of the guy in the paper that killed his wife with an ax.&quot;

What "New York Town" needed was a screenplay with some witty, snappy and funny dialog. The plot for this film would be okay, with a screenplay to give it some life. As is, though, it's little more than a story about a couple of guys sharing an apartment as they scrape by in New York City, and then inviting a lonely single gal without work to share their place. Along with these are some other regular street folks - one a WW I war veteran with no legs who gets around on a platform with rollers and who peddles pencils. Lynn Overman does a good job as Sam in that role. Movie buffs will remember seeing Eddie Murphy faking it as a handicapped veteran on such a device in "Trading Places" of 1983.

But there's so little that's funny in this film, and the mild romance is long in blooming, so that it's just a slow go-nowhere film. Paramount might better have put more into it as a social drama - or spice it up with some real comedy. I know - Preston Sturges was supposed to have worked on it in some capacity and is an uncredited writer. But, still there's little of note in the screenplay. This film is surprising in that the studio may have been hoping or thinking of something else. Why else would it take 10 months to hit theaters after filming concluded?

It could be that the studio had reservations about releasing it at all - mainly because MacMurray by then had made some very good films, including comedies, and this one was well beneath his other films. And, Mary Martin was already known from films and Broadway; and the supporting cast of Akim Tamiroff, Eric Blore, Lynne Overman, Cecil Kellaway and some others had all been in some very fine comedies before this.

It's too bad that Paramount didn't rethink the film and turn it over to Sturges and/or some other writers to put some zippy comedy into the dialog.

Here are samples of what passes for comedy in this film.

Sam, "I start out this morning with a gross of pencils. I've got 12 dozen left. I'm holdin' me own. Whadda they want for 10 cents - typewriters?"

Victor Ballard (Fred MacMurray), "He's got a very suspicious face. Reminds me of the guy in the paper that killed his wife with an ax."

Victor Ballard is a poor but happy-go-lucky New York sidewalk photographer who shares a studio apartment with a painter from Poland, Stefan Janowski. After Victor shoots a photo of Alexandra Curtis, he realizes she is desperate and in need of a friend who can guide her through the ways and means of surviving in Manhattan with no money.

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New York Town

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