Tales of Manhattan

Brief stories tied together by an unlucky tail coat, interesting as a chance to see some great stars in their prime. The first story is a romantic triangle with Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, and Thomas Mitchell. The coat moves to another owner, a fanciful tale featuring Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers, and Cesar Romero. The coat is next bought by Elsa Lanchester for her (real-life) husband, Charles Laughton, playing a down-on-his-luck musician and composer. It then comes into the possession of a disbarred lawyer, Edward G. Robinson who meets a classmate, George Sanders, at a very elegant college reunion. The coat is taken by two gangsters who lose it, and found by the very poorest of the poor, the Black community of the depression-racked 1930's, played by famed singer Paul Robeson and the great Ethel Waters, who go to their pastor, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, with whom the coat finally brings something good.