"Tales of Manhattan"

 

A tailcoat gets passed around in "Tales of Manhattan" (20th Century Fox, 1942), a five part film that recounts how it affects the lives of different groups of people. Here we have a backlot version of the entrance to Carnegie Hall in an episode featuring Charles Laughton as a composer trying to get his work performed. He's sneaking in to see a musician friend who's in the middle of a rehearsal.  

 

A look down on the orchestra from one of the stage right dressing room levels.  

 

 

 

Victor Francken plays the temperamental conductor, a take on Toscanini. 

 

 

Another look into the empty house. 

 

 

 

A rare view offstage left as Charles comes in an upstage door. 

 

Tangling with stage braces as he makes his way downstage. 

 

The house right proscenium box seen behind Victor. 

 

Passing the word to the friend that Charles is waiting to get an introduction to Victor. 

 

 

 

Waiting downstage left with a view of the dressing room stairs beyond.

 

 

 

Victor conducting at the concert. He liked Charles and put his piece in the program.

 

A look across to stage left. Charles will be on the podium next to conduct his piece. 

 

Elsa Lanchester, playing Laughton's wife, in the house left box with Adeline De Walt Reynolds as her mother. At the last minute Elsa had found Charles a nice tailcoat. Although it's too small he decides to wear it anyway. 

 

Charles on the podium, full of confidence.  

 

 

 

All goes well until laughter erupts in the audience when the coat's seams start splitting. 

 

 

Dejected, he stops the program and takes off the coat. 

 

Victor, in the box, takes off his own coat as a show of support.  

 

A look to the stage. 

 

 

 

Beginning again. 

 

Audience members taking off their coats as well. 

 

 

Latecomers bewildered by the casual dress.

The other episodes star Henry Fonda, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Eugene Palette, Cesar Romero, Gail Patrick and many others. W.C. Fields and Margaret Dumont are in a sequence that was deleted from the U.S. theatrical release version of the film. Julien Duvivier directed. The cinematography was by Joseph Walker. The script is credited to Ben Hecht and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on a play by Ferenc Molnár.

 Check out the page about the Philharmonic Auditorium on the Los Angeles Theatres site for a history and many photos of the building. It was demolished in 1985.

On IMDb: "Tales of Manhattan"