Young Man of Manhattan

Sportswriter Toby McLean (Norman Foster) meets fellow reporter Ann Vaughn (Claudette Colbert) during the Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey fight. They fall in love and marry in short order, and live in a small New York apartment. When he travels to St. Louis to cover the World Series, he is introduced to socialite Puff Randolph (Ginger Rogers), but he is still too much in love with Ann to pay attention to Puff. Soon, however, Ann becomes a well-known magazine writer and, jealous of her success, Toby throws himself into an affair. Ann tries to drown her sorrows with some bootleg Scotch and temporarily goes blind from the bad booze. Horror-stricken, Toby abandons Puff and devotes himself to his work, hoping for a reconciliation with Ann. This adequate romance has more historic than filmic interest: it was Rogers' first feature and one of Colbert's last dues-paying pictures before she became a major star. The film has little glimpses of major sporting events like the above-mentioned fight, the Army-Navy football game, the World Series, a six-day bicycle race, and others. Perhaps the most significant thing about YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN is that it made Rogers' come-on line, "Cigarette me, big boy," one of the most popular catch-phrases of the 1930s. (Verleiher-Text)