So This Is New York Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

So This Is New York Blu-ray Movie Review

So this is Henry Morgan.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 11, 2014

There’s a certain strain in American humor that exalts the curmudgeon, and probably no greater example of that tendency could be found than in the iconically cantankerous Henry Morgan. While Baby Boomers no doubt associate Morgan with his long run on CBS’ game show I’ve Got a Secret, a “role” where Morgan would frequently lash out about everything from the contestants to his working conditions, Morgan had already made a name for himself on various radio and television broadcasts before he became a panelist and so-called “television personality”. Morgan’s wit was usually dry and mordant in a Robert Benchley manner, and in some ways he can be seen as the progenitor for such current day generally disgusted if nonplussed personages like Larry David. Perhaps strangely, Morgan only had one chance to grab the brass ring of motion picture stardom, the little remembered 1948 comedy So This is New York, a vehicle tailor made for Morgan’s insouciant if trenchant views on humankind and the various idiocies of everyday life. Loosely based on Ring Lardner’s The Big Town, So This is New York follows the misadventures of one Ernie Finch (Henry Morgan), a World War I vet who returns stateside to find out his wife Ella (Virginia Grey) and her sister Kate (Dona Drake) have inherited the then rather healthy sum of $60,000. Ernie is safely ensconced in a sales job for a South Bend, Indiana cigar firm run by a blustery elder named A.J. Glustoker (Frank Orth), and believes that his employment along with his wife’s comfortable nest egg means all is as it should be in the universe. Unfortunately for Ernie, Ella is less than pleased with Kate’s choice in a boyfriend, a hapless butcher named Willis Gilbey (future Green Acres regular Dave Willock). Ella is convinced Kate will have no suitable prospects in the little backwater burg of South Bend, and so she insists that Ernie, Kate and herself travel to New York to find Kate a rich husband.

Since This is New York is a movie, what better place for the Carl Foreman and Herbert Baker script to start mining Morgan’s barbed sense of humor than with Ernie in a movie theater, watching an old silent whose hero looks suspiciously like Ernie himself in almost Dracula-esque whiteface. The Ernie in the audience “complements” the “natural” acting style of the heroine in the scene, culled from an actual silent but here looped hilariously in what might be thought of as the 1948 precursor to a GIF. Obviously, no topic is going to be out of bounds for comic observations.

Ernie’s home life isn’t quite as peaceful as he’d like, for Ella and Kate are absolutely intent on getting the heck out of Dodge (and/or South Bend) and to New York, and they’re willing to spend every last penny of their sizable inheritance to do it. Ernie realizes he’s fighting a losing battle and surrenders, simply deciding to keep track of the monetary damage in a little notebook her carries. The first “misadventure” takes place on the train to the Big Apple, where Ella and Kate meet a supposed Wall Street tycoon named Francis Griffin (Jerome Cowan) whom the girls feel is a perfect match for Kate. The punch line comes some time later once the group has reached New York and it turns out Griffin has another target in mind.

That only happens after one of the film’s best gags, where Ernie and the ladies are outside of the train station and a heavily accented cab driver starts screaming at them in his particular patois. The film kindly provides subtitle “translations” of what he’s saying (one of them is shown in an accompanying screenshot). It’s in moments like these that So This is New York finds most of its comedic energy. As the film tends to bog down more and more into finding an appropriate mate for Kate, things don’t always maintain the same level of satirical ebullience.

The film gives Kate a revolving door of initially appealing but ultimately unsuitable suitors, including an elderly multimillionaire (Hugh Herbert) who collects shrunken heads and has a little secret that puts the kibosh on the romance. Later, Kate gets involved both with a drawling cowboy (Rudy Vallee, incredibly) who owns a bunch of racehorses, as well as one of his jockeys (Leo Gorcey). Later, a Ziegfeld comic (Bill Goodwin) is briefly considered, even if his real life persona is decidedly less than funny. All the while, Ernie keeps tracks of their dwindling resources while also maintaining contact with Willard back home in South Bend, trying to get him to come to New York where he’s certain Kate and Ella will come to their senses and realize that he’s the perfect match.

So This is New York has some great little bits scattered throughout its brief running time. One funny gag has Ernie carrying around a change dispenser because so many Manhattan service personnel walk around with their hands out, awaiting a tip. Another funny sequence sees Ernie trying to send a one word Western Union message to Willard, with the wire service clerk (a very funny Arnold Stang) not quite understanding why Ernie would only send one word when sending ten would cost the same amount. These “little” moments play like progenitors to similar observational humor that shows like Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm would mine decades later.

It’s perhaps a bit surprising that the movies never were able to capitalize on Henry Morgan’s persona and built in popularity. After all, Paramount for example had no problem crafting the vaudevillian and stand up roots of one Bob Hope into enduring big screen success. So This is New York may therefore be best appreciated as something of a curio, but it’s an oddity with a rather trenchant sense of humor that reflects on the snarky intelligence of its star.

So This Is New York Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

So This is New York is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Perhaps due to the fact that the film is not that well known and hasn't had much of a life on television, whatever elements were utilized for this transfer are in above average condition, though there is still the expected age related wear and tear that usually accompanies these vintage Olive catalog releases. Black levels and gray scale both look great for the most part, and the image is largely stable and problem free. The one issue here is the built in softness and graininess of both archival source footage (used in some establishing shots) and large swaths of opticals where, for example, lap dissolve leads to lap dissolve, and so on. Clarity, sharpness and precision all take an understandable dip during these moments, but overall this is very crisp looking presentation, one that I might be tempted to up to 3.75 if I were able to. As with most Olive releases, no intrusive digital alteration of the image harvest appears to have been done.

So This Is New York Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

So This is New York's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono track is somewhat narrow sounding, especially in the upper registers, but it delivers the sharp witted dialogue and Dimitri Tiomkin's boisterous score (which utilizes a bunch of source cues) rather well. There's no real damage to report, other than some age related thinness.

So This Is New York Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with most Olive catalog releases, no supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

So This Is New York Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

So This is New York can't quite sustain the snarky ebullience it finds in dribs and drabs, but the film is still a lot of fun. Henry Morgan is a surprisingly appealing leading man, and he's surrounded by a game and able cast that does the most with their colorful roles. This was one of the first feature films of director Richard Fleischer (billed here as Richard O. Fleischer), and he keeps things moving at an agreeably brisk pace. Technical merits here are surprisingly strong, and So This is New York comes Recommended.