So much average

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

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

My family immigrated at a time when America was the land of opportunity. The "Protestant Work Ethic" (they were Roman Catholic) was that any work that provided for one's Family was "holy" or "honorable." Anyone could work hard and dream big. This sustained them in the Great Depression where self sacrifice and American rugged individualism triumphed. This movie, like so many of the classics, remind us of what a great country America was, in an era of hard times. The success story of love and hard work is touching in spite of its overuse. This movie works. The immigrants came to work and assimilate. They took the oath of citizenship, eschewed welfare and prevailed. The setting of the underdog works here. Another feel good oldie to enjoy!

I have seen over 2,000 classic films in the last 6 years, and somehow I let this one slip by me. It is rare that I uncover a new classic film favorite, but I did with this film."Romance in Manhattan" works so well thanks to the wonderful performances by Ginger Rogers and especially Francis Lederer. I would have loved to see him hit stardom, but he had a long career and lived 100 years despite not becoming a household name. Lederer is so charismatic and handsome in this film with such an exuberant spirit. A young Ginger Rogers is lovely, has great chemistry with Lederer, and is a loving sister. There are two subplots, but this is mostly about a man coming to America to live the "American Dream" which he does while finding romance along with it. If that appeals to you, then I highly recommend this delightful little gem.

Francis Lederer and Ginger Rogers star in this pleasant romantic comedy about an illegal Czech immigrant and a chorus girl who solve each other's problems during the Great Depression.Poor Lederer I feel sorry for him because I pictured my own grandparents in the same situation. He's spent every last cent on a ticket to America and then finds that the entry fee is now $200.00 instead of $50.00. I'd probably do what he did, jump ship before it sailed back and enter illegally.Still if Lederer hadn't met Rogers outside the theater she was working at and she hadn't felt sorry for him he would still have been in a fix. She's barely making ends meet supporting herself and her little brother Jimmy Butler. Then her show closes.Not to worry it all works out in the end I don't think you have to strain the gray cells too much to figure out how it is done.During the film Lederer mentions how sick he was during the voyage. My maternal grandmother arrived here before World War I and she was in steerage and was also constantly seasick. The voyage so traumatized her that you could not get her into a rowboat after that. I know exactly how Lederer was feeling.Some friendly beat cops J. Farrell MacDonald and his sergeant Sidney Toler solve all their problems and take care of a shyster lawyer played by Arthur Hohl who was looking to cash in on Lederer's problems.Immigration issues in today's America make this film have a returned relevancy. And it's a nice romantic comedy.

The delightful Francis Lederer shines in this unique drama which salutes the European immigrant in this late depression era drama that shows how determination and fortitude can help goals be achieved. In the case of Mr. Lederer, his Czech background left him desperate to come to America, and he has been saving money for years as well as learning English so he could make the journey. But upon arriving at Ellis Island, he finds out that the regulations for admittance have changed and he is told he will be sent back. This won't do, however, and at his first opportunity, Lederer does a dive out of his port hole, being fished out on the lower east side of Manhattan and losing his wallet.Down on his luck, Lederer befriends a struggling chorus girl (the lovely Ginger Rogers) who helps him out and when he gets a job as a taxi driver, he returns the favor. He is determined to help her keep custody of her troubled younger brother who is always skipping school and being threatened with being put into an institution. Lederer wants to make sure she gets to keep custody so he of course proposes which leads to his identity being discovered and the deportation to go forward. Of course, if you're an illegal immigrant threatened with deportation, it helps to have a big-hearted Irish cop on your side, and here, that is the lovable J. Farrell MacDonald who steals every scene that he is in.This really takes the viewer inside the life of a struggling immigrant, and here the hero doesn't achieve success overnight or become a mobster. He's a very honest sort who believes in hard work, and even faces threats of violence when he reluctantly becomes a scab by driving a cab during his company's taxi driver strike. When he becomes the victim of a shady lawyer, it is his integrity which gets the police force together to help him out, something I don't think you could see in the current day NYPD where red tape has so much glue on it, it sticks without possibility of removal.Ginger Rogers' chorus girl isn't the wise-cracking toughy of "42nd Street" or "Gold Diggers of 1933". She, too, is an honest sort, coming across a starving Lederer stealing from the stash of food left out for the chorus girl's breaks. Jimmy Butler is memorable as her little brother, always charming even when getting into trouble, and one who definitely doesn't deserve the fate planned for him by the two uppity do-gooders (Helen Ware and Eily Malyon) determined to take him away from Rogers' care. This is a surprisingly sweet and affectionate tale of New York during one of its toughest times in history that shows that underneath all that hardness at that time did exist a big heart of gold.