The Toast of New York (1937)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Rowland V. Lee

Writers:

Bouck White (book)
Matthew Josephson (story)

Release Date:

30 July 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Comedy | Drama | History | War

Plot:

The story starts just before the Civil War, showing Fisk, Boyd, and Luke conning Southern townsfolk into buying bars of soap that...

Plot Keywords:

Gold | Cotton | Soap | Civil War | Photographer

Cast

Edward Arnold	...	James 'Jim' Fisk Jr.
Cary Grant	...	Nicholas 'Nick' Boyd
Frances Farmer	...	Josie Mansfield
Jack Oakie	...	Luke
Donald Meek	...	Daniel Drew
Thelma Leeds	...	Mlle. Fleurique
Clarence Kolb	...	Commodore Cornelius 'Corneel' Vanderbilt
Billy Gilbert	...	Portrait photographer
George Irving	...	Broker selling gold
Russell Hicks	...	Fisk's lawyer
Dudley Clements	...	Jed Collins
Lionel Belmore	...	President of the board
Robert McClung	...	Bellhop
Robert Dudley	...	Sam, a janitor
Dewey Robinson	...	'Beef' Dooley

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2963)

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Company:

Edward Small Productions

Trivia:

Alexander Hall was the original director, but fell ill with pleurisy and was replaced by Rowland V. Lee after two-thirds of the film was shot. The length of principal photography suggests that Lee reshot or expanded most of Hall's material, resulting in many cast changes. It is not known how much of Hall's footage remains in the film.

Soundtrack:

(I Wish I Was in) Dixie's Land

An Arnold Triumph, but not the historical tragedy it should have been.

In my opinion the finest character actor of the 1930s - mid 1940s was Edward Arnold, whose tragedy (although he would not have seen it that way) was that his acting career was not in a period when leading men (with the exception of the Englishman, Charles Laughton) could be fat. Arnold gave first rate performances time and time again in straight dramas and comic parts. But he was plump, in an age when you hoped a make-up man could make you look like Tyrone Power (as the original lyrics of Hooray for Hollywood suggested). Still he got quite some milage out of his abundant acting talent, expecially playing historical rich men: Diamond Jim Brady (in two films), General John Sutter, and here - "Col." James Fisk, Jr. And his performance, abetted by Frances Farmer, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie, Donald Meek, and Clarence Kolb, makes this film stay alive. It is an entertaining film - but is it historically correct.

Well, it has some of the facts (although it's basis in Matthew Josephson's left wing histories of finance are barely correct). Fisk was a greedy man - no denying it. He did get involved in fighting Vanderbilt (allied with "Uncle Dan'l" Drew)in getting control of the Erie Railroad. He did flee to New Jersey with the printing press to continue printing shares of Erie stock away from Vanderbilt's legal writs. He did try to corner the gold market. And he did romance Josie Mansfield (Farmer). But Vanderbilt was no saint - he was as ruthless as Fisk. Drew was a pretty slippery customer too (here seen to be too easily cowed or frightened). Missing here is Fisk's real partner in cunning (apparently also a really close friend too) Jay Gould. Why he isn't in the film is curious. So is the muted character played by Cary Grant. Grant is Ned Boyd, and aside from being an early ally of Fisk, and later his chief critic (in the Gold Panic), he has little to do but pine for Mansfield. In reality, the character is based on Edward Stokes, Fisk's former friend and business associate who turned on him, out of jealousy, and with Mansfield blackmailed the man - or tried to. Stokes would eventually shoot Fisk (who in real life did fall down a staircase, but in a hotel). Fisk died in 1872. One day his tragic betrayal and death would make an ideal movie. But Arnold can't play it - alas!!