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How sad is this?

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Big fan of Colbert and enjoy watching her films.This is easily the most forgettable of all the films I have watched.Plenty of her thirties films lack a decent plot or are uneven but usually there are a couple of scenes that are funny or well acted and show off her acting ability - this film had nothing of note.It isn't funny or dramatic and the plot is very unexciting.

I thoroughly enjoyed this quirky little film that plot-wise isn't much more than the story of the trials and tribulations of a newlywed couple, starring an actually married couple, Claudette Colbert and Norman Foster. What makes it special are the precode themes, the look inside the lives of somewhat normal people in big bustling New York City at the end of the Jazz age but before the Depression has really taken hold - there's not a mention of it here, and finally Ginger Rogers as a knock-off of Helen Kane, something she did only early in her career.The story revolves around the whirlwind courtship and then marriage of movie columnist Ann Vaughn (Claudette Colbert) and sports columnist Toby McLean (Norman Foster). We don't see much chemistry building between the two - they barely have met when Toby bursts into Ann's hotel room and declares his love, and in the next scene they're married. Ann claims to be a modern sort, says she doesn't mind paying for their apartment, says she thinks that they should feel free to see other people for dinner dates although they're married, and talks the talk of a thoroughly modern woman. However, flapper Puff Randolph (Ginger Rogers) chasing her husband and Ann's discovery of her husband's seeming lack of professional ambition soon has her walking a different kind of walk. It doesn't help that both Ann's and Toby's jobs have them spending long stretches on the road and away from each other.Charles Ruggles really did a good job here as Toby's friend and fellow sports columnist Shorty Ross. Paramount gave Ruggles more than his share of parts as the annoying perpetual drunk in the early 30's, and in this film he does more than enough drinking, but manages to get some good lines in - usually at the expense of Puff - and also adds to the humor of the film in a significant way. I'd highly recommend this film for fans of precode and films that display the Jazz Age in full flower.

The "Young Man of Manhattan" of the film is a young sports writer, Toby McLean (Norman Foster). He falls in love instantly with Ann Vaughn (Claudette Colbert), a newspaperwoman and they get married. Unfortunately, numerous circumstances, such as a "16 year-old who thinks she's Greta Garbo" (Ginger Rogers), and jealousy threatens to kill their perfect marriage.Having read and liked the book (A thoroughly forgotten fluffy bestseller of the 20's) of the same title, I was interested in how it would be made into a musical. It's not really a musical though, like the IMDb says; it's a drama with a few songs thrown in here and there. It wasn't a bad movie, actually a lot better than a lot of early talkies. Surprisingly, it's very faithful to the book. Claudette Colbert and the rest of the cast are solid; Ginger Rogers is fun and it was cool to see her so young and still red-headed. She performs an utterly charming song, "I Got It But It Don't Do Me No Good".Norman Foster is fine, but often comes across as whiny and a bit wooden. Still, Young Man of Manhattan is a great one for 1930, and worth seeking out for the stars.

YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN is a highly entertaining comedy/drama early talkie particularly notable as the only film real-life married couple Norman Foster and Claudette Colbert made together. The duo star as newspaper reporters who meet as each is covering a boxing match (Foster is a regular sports reporter, Colbert is a multi-interest writer). With a major rainstorm going on (apparently, the fight is an outdoor match as the spectators get soaked!), Foster invites Colbert up to his nearby apartment to work on the story since she has to make the morning edition of her paper. Norman is instantly bewitched by this beautiful, intelligent "career girl" and proposes marriage before Claudette can pull the last sheet out of her typewriter.Within the week they are Mr. and Mrs. but their whirlwind of love has potential problems. Somewhat traditional, Foster is a bit troubled by the fact that his wife makes essentially the same salary and then there is the issue that while he seems content to doodle through life as "just" a sports reporter (despite vague dreams of writing fiction), ambitious Claudette is eager to move up in the writing world. She's also remarkably "modern", suggesting that since both are always on the go pursuing stories it is OK for both of them to have "see" other people, presumably as platonic dinner dates. While out of town covering a story, Foster is pursued by teen-aged socialite/vamp Ginger Rogers, who follows him back to New York. Colbert continues to move up the publishing ladder, sent to California for an extended period to cover the film industry. Norman, meanwhile, continues ignoring bills, gambling, giving friends loans, and barely writing his column much less aiming for something higher and baby hussy Ginger is making her designs on Norman a little too obvious for Claudette who finds she isn't so modern after all and asks Norman to stop seeing her. When she finds out the duo were spotted at "The Jungle Club" the morning after Foster slips in at 3 am after a bender, it's the last straw and she asks him to move out.This adaption of a popular Katherine Brush novel of the day may be a standard story but the cast makes it something quite wonderful. This was one of Claudette Colbert's first films, obviously with no star power at the studio at this point, she is frequently shot from angles she would have never permitted a decade later and while they may not flatter her beauty at times, she remains at all times an attractive and appealing woman. Husband Norman Foster made a career out of this type of character in early talkies, the smooth talking every man who turns out to have a number of character flaws and proves to be a mistake for the star lady. Here he has a more sympathetic adaptation of that character than normally and he makes the most of his role. 19-year-old Ginger Rogers is almost unrecognizable from her later superstar persona, here a dark-headed redhead, she speaks in a flirty almost Betty Boopish voice and is quite the coquette even if she too is often not photographed at her best. The fourth major character of the film is played by Charles Ruggles, a few years away from his own stock persona as the harried middle-aged everyman, it's particular delight to see Charlie as a snappy newspaperman with a sharp wit and a equal love for the ladies and liquor.Basically a romantic drama with some good laughs, YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN although a modest picture is sure to please fans of pre-codes and certainly makes one wish Mr. and Mrs. Foster had been teamed together more often than this single film. Sports fans will also want to check it out for the (very) brief stock footage of Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, and Babe Ruth inserted into the picture.