So This Is New York
Encyclopedia
So This Is New York is a 1948 movie comedy starring acerbic radio
and television
comedian
Henry Morgan
and directed by Richard Fleischer
. The cynically sophisticated screenplay was written by Carl Foreman
and Herbert Baker
from the 1920 novel The Big Town by Ring Lardner
.
This remains the only movie in which legendary humorist Henry Morgan plays the leading role (not to be confused with the popular movie and television supporting actor working during exactly the same period who changed his name to "Harry Morgan
").
The film's supporting cast includes Arnold Stang
, Leo Gorcey
, and Virginia Grey
.
From Kliph Nesteroff
's online profile of Arnold Stang (see External links below):
Morgan made sure that Stang was part of his cast when an amazing group of talent was thrown together to create one of the funniest low-budget films ever made. So This is New York (1948) was not based on Henry Morgan's radio show directly, but the material was tailored to showcase his cynical persona. Screenwriter Carl Foreman used the novel The Big Town by Ring Lardner as the basis for the film. Several months later both Foreman and the novelist's son, Ring Lardner Jr, had their lives changed for ever when they were blacklisted. The highly satirical comedy features Arnold Stang as a Western Union clerk who gives Morgan a hard time. United Artists decided to hand the directing reigns to Max Fleischer's son, Richard Fleischer, who had up to that point been churning out shorts that amounted to little more than live-action filler for the studio. He proved himself on So This is New York, giving the picture a stark, gritty feel, unconventional for a comedy, but appropriate for a film showcasing the streets of New York. This resulted in more feature-length work for Fleischer including Follow Me Quietly
(1948), Armored Car Robbery
(1950), and The Narrow Margin
(1954), all of which are considered among the best film noir
pictures ever made. So This is New York was one of the first Hollywood movies to use the technique of freezing action on the screen while a narrator spoke about what the viewer was seeing. Another scene has Morgan entering a taxi as a cabbie barks at him in a thick Bronx accent, "Awrite - where to, Mac?" Subtitles appear on the screen translating, "Where may I take you, sir?"
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
Henry Morgan
Henry Morgan (comedian)
Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He is remembered best in two modern media: radio, on which he first became familiar as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist, and on television, where he was a regular and cantankerous panelist for the game show I've Got a Secret...
and directed by Richard Fleischer
Richard Fleischer
-Early life:Fleischer was born in Brooklyn, the son of Essie and animator/producer Max Fleischer. He started in motion pictures as director of animated shorts produced by his father including entries in the Betty Boop, Popeye and Superman series.His live-action film career began in 1942 at the RKO...
. The cynically sophisticated screenplay was written by Carl Foreman
Carl Foreman
Carl Foreman, CBE was an American screenwriter and film producer who wrote the notable film High Noon. He was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s.-Biography:...
and Herbert Baker
Herbert Baker (screenwriter)
Herbert Baker born Herbert Abrahams in New York City 25 December 1920 died 30 June 1983 of cancer in Encino, California was a songwriter and screenwriter for television and films.- Biography :...
from the 1920 novel The Big Town by Ring Lardner
Ring Lardner
Ringgold Wilmer Lardner was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical takes on the sports world, marriage, and the theatre.-Personal life:...
.
This remains the only movie in which legendary humorist Henry Morgan plays the leading role (not to be confused with the popular movie and television supporting actor working during exactly the same period who changed his name to "Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan
Harry Morgan is an American actor. Morgan is well-known for his roles as Colonel Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H , Pete Porter on both Pete and Gladys and December Bride , Detective Bill Gannon on Dragnet , and Amos Coogan on Hec Ramsey...
").
The film's supporting cast includes Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang
Arnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
, Leo Gorcey
Leo Gorcey
Leo Bernard Gorcey was an American stage and movie actor who became famous for portraying on film the leader of the group of young hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs he participated in, young Leo...
, and Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey
Virginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...
.
From Kliph Nesteroff
Kliph Nesteroff
Kliph Nesteroff is a North American radio personality, show business historian and highly regarded non-fiction writer. Nesteroff is a frequent contributor to CBC Radio One, CBC Radio 2 and Radio WFMU His work has been cited by The Atlantic Monthly, Boing Boing, The Chicago Tribune, Comedy Central,...
's online profile of Arnold Stang (see External links below):
Morgan made sure that Stang was part of his cast when an amazing group of talent was thrown together to create one of the funniest low-budget films ever made. So This is New York (1948) was not based on Henry Morgan's radio show directly, but the material was tailored to showcase his cynical persona. Screenwriter Carl Foreman used the novel The Big Town by Ring Lardner as the basis for the film. Several months later both Foreman and the novelist's son, Ring Lardner Jr, had their lives changed for ever when they were blacklisted. The highly satirical comedy features Arnold Stang as a Western Union clerk who gives Morgan a hard time. United Artists decided to hand the directing reigns to Max Fleischer's son, Richard Fleischer, who had up to that point been churning out shorts that amounted to little more than live-action filler for the studio. He proved himself on So This is New York, giving the picture a stark, gritty feel, unconventional for a comedy, but appropriate for a film showcasing the streets of New York. This resulted in more feature-length work for Fleischer including Follow Me Quietly
Follow Me Quietly
Follow Me Quietly is a semidocumentary film noir directed by Richard Fleischer, with support from Anthony Mann in an uncredited position. The drama features William Lundigan, Dorothy Patrick, Jeff Corey, and others.-Plot:...
(1948), Armored Car Robbery
Armored Car Robbery
Armored Car Robbery is a 1950 American film noir shot in a semi-documentary style, directed by Richard Fleischer, and starring Charles McGraw. The movie was filmed on location in Los Angeles, California....
(1950), and The Narrow Margin
The Narrow Margin
The Narrow Margin is a 1952 American film noir directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Earl Felton, based on an unpublished story written by Martin Goldsmith and Jack Leonard. Writers Goldsmith and Leonard were nominated for an Academy Award for their story.The picture stars Charles McGraw,...
(1954), all of which are considered among the best film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
pictures ever made. So This is New York was one of the first Hollywood movies to use the technique of freezing action on the screen while a narrator spoke about what the viewer was seeing. Another scene has Morgan entering a taxi as a cabbie barks at him in a thick Bronx accent, "Awrite - where to, Mac?" Subtitles appear on the screen translating, "Where may I take you, sir?"
Cast
- Henry MorganHenry Morgan (comedian)Henry Morgan was an American humorist. He is remembered best in two modern media: radio, on which he first became familiar as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist, and on television, where he was a regular and cantankerous panelist for the game show I've Got a Secret...
... Ernie Finch - Rudy ValleeRudy ValléeRudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
... Herbert Daley - Bill GoodwinBill GoodwinBill Goodwin was for many years the announcer and regular character of the Burns and Allen radio program, and subsequently The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show on television from 1950-51...
... Jimmy Ralston - Hugh HerbertHugh HerbertHugh Herbert was a motion picture comedian. He began his career in vaudeville, and wrote more than 150 plays and sketches.-Career:...
... Lucius Trumball - Leo GorceyLeo GorceyLeo Bernard Gorcey was an American stage and movie actor who became famous for portraying on film the leader of the group of young hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. Always the most pugnacious member of the gangs he participated in, young Leo...
... Sid Mercer - Jockey - Virginia GreyVirginia GreyVirginia Grey was an American actress.She was born in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of director Ray Grey. One of her early babysitters was movie star Gloria Swanson. Grey debuted at the age of ten in the silent film Uncle Tom's Cabin as Little Eva...
... Ella Goff Finch - Dona DrakeDona DrakeDona Drake was an American singer, dancer and film actress in the 1930s and 1940s. She was born Eunice Westmoreland in Miami, Florida, in 1914. Entering show business in the 1930s, she used the names Una Velon, Rita Rio and Rita Shaw. She settled on the stage name Dona Drake in the early 1940s...
... Kate Goff - Jerome CowanJerome CowanJerome Palmer Cowan was an American film and television actor. At eighteen he joined a travelling stock company, shortly afterwards enlisting in the navy in World War I. After the war he returned to the stage and became a vaudeville headliner, then gained success on the New York stage...
... Francis Griffin - Dave WillockDave WillockDave Willock was an American character actor. Willock appeared in 181 films and television shows from 1939 to 1989. He is probably most familiar to modern audiences from his performance as Baby Jane Hudson's father in the opening scenes of the cult classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?...
... Willis Gilbey - Frank OrthFrank OrthFrank Orth was an American actor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By 1897, he was performing in vaudeville with his wife, Ann Codee, in an act called "Codee and Orth"...
... A.J. Gluskoter - Arnold StangArnold StangArnold Stang was an American comic actor who played a small and bespectacled, yet brash and knowing big-city type.-Career:...
... Western Union Clerk - William BakewellWilliam BakewellWilliam Bakewell , also known as Billy Bakewell, was an American actor, who achieved his greatest fame as one of the premiere juvenile performers of the late 1920s and early 1930s.-Life and career:...
... Hotel Clerk