You won't be disappointed!

Absolutely Fantastic

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

If you like screwball comedies, you'll like "Adventure in Manhattan." If you like Jean Arthur and Joel McCrea you'll like "Adventure in Manhattan.""Adventure in Manhattan" is not really a mystery or detective movie and it is definitely NOT a noir. So don't watch it hoping to be dazzled by impressive deducting or menaced by psychotic killers. Watch it for the zany laughs.This is not the best screwball comedy ever made, that honor probably belongs to "It Happened One Night," "My Man Godfrey" or "His Girl Friday." Nor is it the best film McCrea and Arthur made together; that would be "The More the Merrier."But an average screwball comedy with two of the greatest stars of the Silver Screen makes for an above average night at the movies. Put on the popcorn and watch the sparks fly...

I was expecting a treat here. After all, there was Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea, Reginald Owen, and Thomas Mitchell. I was also expecting a comedy. Wrong on both counts. The cast performances here were disappointing, and this is a drama...well...sort of.When she made this film, Jean Arthur had been in the business for 13 years, but she had only recently hit it big with "Mr. Deeds Goes To Town". Far too many of her earlier films were memorable only for their titles (such as "The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu"). But, beginning in this year, and for the next 8 years, Arthur was a force to be reckoned with at the box office. Here you see hints of the Arthur to come.Joel McCrea's finest film period began about 3 years after this film, and lasted for 3-4 years until he began concentrating on Westerns...which may have seemed financially wise at the time, but today do not exactly help one's film legacy. McCrea is "okay" here, but if you want to see him at his best, try something like "Foreign Correspondent" or "Palm Beach Story".So, you have each of these actors at something less than their best, and you'll probably be disappointed in both Reginald Owen and Thomas Mitchell (and one is rarely disappointed in Mitchell). And then there's the story line, which is a bit of a stretch. Can anyone really be as intuitive as McCrea is supposed to be in this film? And that is the question that hold the plot together...barely.And so, while I was expecting a treat here, I got a trick. I hung through until the end, although I'm not quite sure why. Ah well, they can't all be winners.

Odd mix of noir and screwball that works about as well as you would expect. The noir element is obvious from the very opening scenes - this aspect of the film is quite an eye-opener and is apparently an overlooked early example of the genre - though not the earliest: The Thin Man (1934) is the earliest film I am aware of containing the classic noir elements (and also has an ungainly admixture of screwball). Anyway, as remarkable as the noir sections are in Adventure in Manhattan, the whole thing doesn't hang together, which is a great pity. Joel McCrea is a full-of-himself writer-sleuth hired by an irritating news editor - like all news editors, on the edge of a nervous breakdown - to build up the angle on a crime story. They make heavy weather of it. It's leaden and not cute. There's a bizarre scene where they're all eating baked beans in McCrea's bedroom. Jean Arthur is a decent actress but doesn't have the right manner for this, too steely and serious. The wisecracks come out of her mouth and hit the floor. The story is hardly redeemed by the obvious twist - and the script, the characters and the actors barely give us reason to wait for it. I was hoping it would have the good grace to finish up after 65 minutes, but it took 72.

Vastly entertaining mystery movie/1930s newspaper comedy about master criminal (Reginald Owen) who finances a World War I play with on-stage explosions to cover up below-ground explosions needed to break in to next door bank vault where the priceless Sunburst diamond he covets is locked up in the vaults. Thoroughly preposterous plot but who cares! Delightful hard-boiled, wise-cracky romantic comedy between ace-reporter/criminologist Joel McCrea and sassy but adorable actress (Jean Arthur). Thomas Mitchell rants and raves as the newspaper editor, and Herman Bing has a delightful cameo as the German owner of the club where newspapermen hang out. Suspend all disbelief and enjoy yourself.