Tales of Manhattan
In-person: Live dramatic reading of an excerpt of The Devil Finds Work (1976) by actor Kendale Winbush (UCLA Theater M.F.A. ’21)..
This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series The Devil Finds Work: James Baldwin’s Cinema of the Mind.
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
A rare Hollywood experiment, this episodic film follows a gentleman’s tailcoat as it passes between owners — a stage actor, a jilted lover, a pianist and a Southern Black community — becoming a vessel for varied chamber pieces. Director Julien Duvivier lends cohesion and grace to the star-studded anthology. James Baldwin praised Ginger Rogers’ performance, describing her face as “something to be placed in a dish and eaten with a spoon, possibly a long one.”
DCP, b&w, 118 min. Director: Julien Duvivier. Screenwriters: Lamar Trotti, Ben Hecht, Nunnally Johnson. With: Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Edward G. Robinson, Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
