MANHATTAN TOWER
US, 1932, 67 minutes, Black and white.
Mary Brian, Irene Rich, James Hall, Hale Hamilton, Noel Francis, Clay Clement.
Directed by Frank Strayer.
New York skyscrapers have been popular in films almost since the beginning. There is a fascination for audiences in the picturing of Manhattan, the streets and buildings, the background of business in New York, the range of people who work in the skyscrapers.
This is one day in one such skyscraper. There are many aspects of work but the focus is on business and banking as well as technical backup for the engineering needs of the building. There is some romance. There is a vamp who works as a secretary and goes to parties, mistress of a cynical banker. The banker is in exploiter, no moral values at all. On the other hand, there are some legitimate businessmen as well as some honest underlings. There is also a daffy secretary who provides some comedy – as well as offhandedly leading to a run on the bank.
The camera likes to focus on the building, the exterior, scaling up the walls, information about its height, number of stories. The hero of the piece is an engineer who is in dialogue with the boss and eventually gets a promotion. He is in love with one of the secretaries, Mary (Mary Brian) who was prepared to invest their savings to put a deposit on a home. She works for the cad and he attempts to steal the money.
The cad is unfaithful in his relationships with women, with the secretary, with his wife who wants to divorce him. He has used up all the money. She, however, is in love with the more decent business manager.
There are various meetings and discussions, the daffy secretary thinking the bank is in trouble and hurrying down in the elevator to recover money, her remarks being rapidly spread throughout the city for the run on the bank.
One assistant, a man of integrity, is prepared to resign instead of acting on the cad’s behalf, even contemplating suicide. Eventually, there is a confrontation in the office and the cad, pulling a gun, falls out the window to his death.
There are some pre-Code touches in the moral issues, marriage, infidelities, divorce. But, in just over an hour, this is a day in the Manhattan Tower. The film was directed by Frank Strayer who directed a number of small films, made a great number of Blondie films and, at the end of his career, some religious films.
