The Girl from Manhattan (1948) Reviews

The Girl From Manhattan is a minor but watchable variation on the old "mortgage-on-the-farm" plot device. The girl of the title is Carol Maynard (Dorothy Lamour), who after several years in the Big Apple returns to her home town, where her uncle, boarding-house manager Homer Purdy (Ernest Truex) faces eviction. The villain of the piece at first seems to be brash young minister Tom Walker (Robert Montgomery), who wants to build a church on Truex's property. But after reviewing the sitaution, Carol and Tom figure out that they have a common enemy: dishonest financier Sam Griffin (Howard Freeman), who intends to use the old church property for his own crooked purposes. Saving the film from wallowing in its own bathos is the timely arrival of Charles Laughton as a cherubic Bishop. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi