| So This Is New York | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
| Produced by | Stanley Kramer |
| Written by | Carl Foreman Herbert Baker Ring Lardner (novel) |
| Starring | Henry Morgan |
| Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| Cinematography | Jack Russell |
| Editing by | Walter Thompson |
| Release date(s) | June 1948 |
| Running time | 79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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?"