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Tales of Manhattan (1942) on Netflix

NR19421h 58mComedyDramaRomance

A cutter curses a black formal tailcoat that passes from owner to owner. Stage actor Paul Orman wants to rekindle a romance with Ethel Halloway, who is married to John Halloway.

  • Netflix3.7/5
  • IMDb7.3/102,792 votes
  • Rotten TomatoesNot available

Trailer

Plot summary

A black formal tailcoat is cursed by the cutter who makes it, and it passes from owner to owner in otherwise unconnected stories. The coat is custom made for Paul Orman, a stage actor. Paul seeks to rekindle a romance with Ethel Halloway, his former flame, and she is receptive. Ethel is married, though, and her husband John finds the two of them together.

Cast

Show all 20 cast

Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Tales of Manhattan (1942)

Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.

  • A tale starring W. C. Fields was cut from the film, supposedly because it ran too long. Some sources say the real reason was that other cast members, unhappy at being upstaged by Fields, wanted the sequence gone.
  • Paul Robeson was so dissatisfied with the film's final tale that he tried to buy up all the prints and take Tales of Manhattan out of distribution, then held a press conference saying he would no longer act in Hollywood because of the demeaning roles available to Black actors.
  • Tales of Manhattan was Paul Robeson's final attempt to work within Hollywood: he had made only 12 movies and had refused lucrative film offers for over three years.

Stills

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