Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

The Heart of New York (1932)

Director: Mervyn LeRoy

Cast: Joe Smith, Charles Dale, George Sidney, Ruth Hall, Aline MacMahon, Anna Appel, Donald Cook, Oscar Apfel

73 min

The Heart of New York is a 1932 American pre-Code comedy film starring the vaudeville team of Smith & Dale and George Sidney. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and based on the Broadway play Mendel, Inc. by David Freedman.

Plot

The plumber Mendel Marantz, a passionate inventor, hasn’t much luck and a family that doesn’t understand him. He finally strikes it rich with a dishwashing machine he invented.

He finds an investor, Gassenheim, and begins to make his way up in the world. But Mendel’s troubles are not over; his family doesn’t share his dream to become the landlord of the house where they live on New York’s Lower East Side.

They prefer to move uptown to Park Avenue and adapt to how rich people live. Mendel’s ideas for the house are not forgotten. The men he once told how he wished to transform the building take on the work of renovating it, with every detail he planned.

Neighbours and visitors come to see the house and the new, beautiful penthouse. His wife and his children are still in Park Avenue and when Gassenheim stops paying royalties to Mrs. Marantz, she and the children come home, to find that Mendel is close to losing everything.

Cast

• Joe Smith as Sam Shtrudel
• Charles Dale as Bernard Schnaps
• George Sidney as Mendel Marantz
• Ruth Hall (actress) as Lillian Marantz
• Aline MacMahon as Bessie, the Neighbor
• Anna Appel as Mrs. Zelde Marantz
• Donald Cook as Milton
• Oscar Apfel as Otto Gassenheim
• Harold Waldridge as Jakie Marantz (as Harold Waldrige)
• Marion Byron as Mimi Marantz
• George MacFarlane as Mr. Marshall
• Ann Brody as Mrs. Nussbaum
• Charles Coleman as Mendel’s Butler

Film Collectors Corner

Watch The Heart Of New York Now – You Tube Instant Video

 

Blu Ray

Not released on Blu Ray

 

DVD

Not released on DVD