The Man I Love *** (1947, Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King, Martha Vickers, Bruce Bennett, Alan Hale) – Classic Movie Review 12,437

The 1947 film noir melodrama The Man I Love is based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta Wolff, and stars Ida Lupino and Robert Alda. It is Martin Scorsese’s main inspiration for his 1977 film New York, New York. 

Director Raoul Walsh’s 1947 Warner Bros American film noir melodrama The Man I Love is based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta Martin Wolff, and stars Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King, Martha Vickers, Bruce Bennett, and Alan Hale. The title is taken from the George and Ira Gershwin song ‘The Man I Love’, which features prominently.

Ida Lupino plays the pretty singer Petey Brown, who is the object of the affection of hoodlum Nicky Toresca (Robert Alda), who employs her at his California nightclub, though she starts inclining towards down-and-out ex-jazz pianist, legendary San Thomas (Bruce Bennett).

This polished, entertaining, wildly artificial melodrama, with engaging performances, a smokey sheen and lovely songs, is a notable cult item, though perhaps it does not push hard enough in either the acting or the writing, and the story is better told in this film’s staunch admirer Martin Scorsese’s own movie New York, New York (1977) and was its main inspiration.

Also in the cast are Dolores Moran, John Ridgley, Don McGuire, Warren Douglas, Craig Stevens, Tony Romano, Florence Bates. Monte Blue, Frank Ferguson, Jack Mower, John Vosper, Ben Welden, Jimmie Dodd, and Eddie Bruce.

Warner Bros certainly had a great roster of actors to draw on to make movies that much more special.

Warner Bros bought the rights to Maritta Wolff’s novel Night Shift in 1942 for $25,000 as a vehicle for Ann Sheridan and Humphrey Bogart. They considered retitling it ‘Why Was I Born?’ after a 1929 song by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II featured in the movie.

It was shot towards the end of 1946, but production fell behind schedule, finishing 19 days late and $100,000 over budget. Lupino was blamed, though she was apparently suffering from exhaustion. She fainted during one scene with Robert Alda and had to be cut out of her tight-fitting dress.

The Man I Love is directed by Raoul Walsh and John Maxwell (dialogue director) , runs 96 minutes, is made and released by Warner Bros, is written by Catherine Turney and Jo Pagano, based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta Wolff, is shot in black and white by Sid Hickox, is produced by Arnold Albert, is scored by Max Steiner and Leo F Forbstein (musical director), and designed by Stanley Fleischer.

It was released on 11 January 1947 in the US.

The 22-year-old Maritta Martin Wolff’s hard-boiled first novel Whistle Stop, depicting incest and violence, and containing much vulgar language, became an immediate best-seller and gave her an instant notoriety. It was adapted into the 1946 film Whistle Stop starring Ava Gardner and George Raft.

Night Shift was her second novel, made into the 1947 film The Man I Love. Over the next 20 years she wrote four more best-selling novels: About Lyddy Thomas (1947), Back of Town (1952), The Big Nickelodeon (1956), and Buttonwood (1962).

After Wolff’s death in 2002, the manuscript for her final novel Sudden Rain, which had been kept safely in her refrigerator for the last 30 years of her life, was published in 2005 to critical acclaim.

The cast are Ida Lupino as Petey Brown, Robert Alda as Nicky Toresca, Andrea King as Sally Otis, Martha Vickers as Virginia Brown, Bruce Bennett as San Thomas, Alan Hale as Riley, Dolores Moran as Gloria O’Connor, John Ridgely as Roy Otis, Don McGuire as Johnny O’Connor, Warren Douglas as Joe Brown, Craig Stevens as Bandleader, Tony Romano as Bamboo Club singer, William Edmunds as Uncle Tony, Jimmie Dodd as Jimmy, Florence Bates. Monte Blue, Frank Ferguson, Jack Mower, John Vosper, Ben Welden, and Eddie Bruce.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,437

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com