Robert J. Maxwell The story of one of the Gilded Age's most colorful figures, the multimillionaire Jim Fisk (Edward Arnold) and two of his fictional partners, Cary Grant, who is there to wind up with the girl (Frances Farmer) and Jack Oakie, who provides whatever laughs are left over after Arnold and Grant are finished howling with glee over their own twisted schemes to make a fortune.It's a story with an ignoble message -- making scads of money by being ruthless, lying, treacherous, and philistine, is fun. Want to be happy? Keep your mind focused on being greedy. Well, it's not true. I've been ruthless, lying, treacherous, and philistine all my life and look where it's gotten me -- an abandoned railway car in the middle of the desert. Maybe I wasn't greedy enough. I've always regretted dropping that handful of pocket change into the kettle of a Santa Claus in New York. It was the tintinnabulation of his bells that got me. I've tried to make up for it by being as philistine as possible, papering my walls with Gustav Klimt posters, listening to Kenny G, but nothing works.So if you're looking for philosophical advice, you won't find it in this movie. But if you're looking for a whiz-bang biography of a couple of guys amassing a fortune and laughing all the way to the bank until one of them winds up paying the piper, this may be it.Rowland V. Lee's direction is nothing special but Edward Arnold practically embodied the sneaky rich guy of 1930s movies in such works as "Meet John Doe" and "Come And Get It." He's got the boisterous laugh of the self-satisfied, selfish, careless mogul down pat, although, to be honest, he looks like he should be running a butcher shop in Geldgierig-am-Rhein or someplace. I suppose Yorkville would do.There was a burst of interest for some reason in biographies of famous men and women in the Great Depression of the 1930s and a lot of the subjects were self-made men, inventors, financiers, and the like. Maybe, at the time, they represented wish-fulfilling fantasies on the part of the audience -- pleasant dreams with a golden cast -- which would have been a big improvement over the cadaverous green of their everyday nightmares.

jltournier1 I am always on the lookout for the products of the Golden Age of Hollywood, especially ones that I haven't seen before. In a lifetime of watching classic films, I had never seen this one. The opening credits indicate that this film was based on a story called *Robber Barons,* which gives you some idea of the subject matter. The three anchoring parts are played by Edward Arnold as Jim Fisk, Cary Grant as his partner Nick Boyd, and Jack Oakie as Luke, seeming a bit "country bumpkinish" I thought in the company of the other two bons vivants. The love interest, in the form of showgirl Josephine Mansfield, is filled by lovely Frances Farmer. I must give a special mention to old reliable supporting actor Donald Meek - usually seen as a fixture in MGM features. Here he is given one of the ripest supporting roles I have ever seen him in as Bible-spouting, aphorism-quoting, shipping magnate "Uncle Daniel" Drew. I will say no more for now, so as to avoid spoilers, but I found his performance truly wonderful. The film is lensed beautifully in stunning black and white, features smooth direction by *Son of Frankenstein* and *Tower of London* director Rowland V. Lee, and most especially the cast are supported by a literate, witty script featuring some of the juiciest dialog that has been my pleasure to indulge in in years. This film is right up there with such classics of the era as *His Girl Friday* (*The Front Page*), with the difference that the effervescence takes place in the historical setting of the latter half of the 19th. Century. I am not surprised to find out that the film takes liberties with the facts - but with such polished actors and literate script, it presents an idealized version with consummate technique. Since it really is a star vehicle and tour de force for Edward Arnold rather than Grant, I am left wondering why he wasn't given more such opportunities to steal the show - which he does rather handily.

mukava991 The Toast of New York, despite the lavish look, top-notch cast and occasional bursts of energy, is a ten-ton bore - chiefly, I think, because of the long-winded script and pedestrian direction. Others have commented on the production difficulties and personnel changes which may be responsible for the bland result. Early in the story we are treated to a colorful but talky exposition which sets the plot in motion: On the day the Civil War starts, Jim Fisk (Edward Arnold), itinerant peddler, and his partners in crime (Cary Grant and Jack Oakie) devise a scheme to buy cotton cheaply in the South, smuggle it North and sell it at a high price to New England mills, thus launching the career of one of the fabled financial speculators of the 19th century. But, instead of the whiz-bang, rise-and-fall saga laced with comedy which this introduction leads us to expect, we get 100 minutes of routine montages followed by more expository talk (mostly about financial deals), interspersed with boisterous crowd scenes and tepid romantic interludes with the exquisite Frances Farmer, who plays Josie Mansfield, an aspiring stage actress who is taken under Fisk's wing. None of this ever rises above the mundane. Edward Arnold gives his familiar robust, take-charge performance (see the 1937 screwball comedy EASY LIVING and the previous year's COME AND GET IT which this film resembles in theme and plot); Grant and Oakie are pretty much themselves as well, though the full impact of Grant's screen charisma is blunted in this non-comic role. Farmer is presented more as a comely production value than a full-blooded character. She spends most of her screen time in a series of splendid period gowns uttering banalities that barely suggest the emotional states of her character. She too played a similar role in COME AND GET IT, to far stronger effect. One would expect this kind of storytelling from a Warners assembly-line quickie, but it's terribly disappointing to encounter it in a 100-minute-plus grade-A production by RKO. I'll give it a "4" for Farmer and Arnold.

theowinthrop In my opinion the finest character actor of the 1930s - mid 1940s was Edward Arnold, whose tragedy (although he would not have seen it that way) was that his acting career was not in a period when leading men (with the exception of the Englishman, Charles Laughton) could be fat. Arnold gave first rate performances time and time again in straight dramas and comic parts. But he was plump, in an age when you hoped a make-up man could make you look like Tyrone Power (as the original lyrics of Hooray for Hollywood suggested). Still he got quite some milage out of his abundant acting talent, expecially playing historical rich men: Diamond Jim Brady (in two films), General John Sutter, and here - "Col." James Fisk, Jr. And his performance, abetted by Frances Farmer, Cary Grant, Jack Oakie, Donald Meek, and Clarence Kolb, makes this film stay alive. It is an entertaining film - but is it historically correct.Well, it has some of the facts (although it's basis in Matthew Josephson's left wing histories of finance are barely correct). Fisk was a greedy man - no denying it. He did get involved in fighting Vanderbilt (allied with "Uncle Dan'l" Drew)in getting control of the Erie Railroad. He did flee to New Jersey with the printing press to continue printing shares of Erie stock away from Vanderbilt's legal writs. He did try to corner the gold market. And he did romance Josie Mansfield (Farmer). But Vanderbilt was no saint - he was as ruthless as Fisk. Drew was a pretty slippery customer too (here seen to be too easily cowed or frightened). Missing here is Fisk's real partner in cunning (apparently also a really close friend too) Jay Gould. Why he isn't in the film is curious. So is the muted character played by Cary Grant. Grant is Ned Boyd, and aside from being an early ally of Fisk, and later his chief critic (in the Gold Panic), he has little to do but pine for Mansfield. In reality, the character is based on Edward Stokes, Fisk's former friend and business associate who turned on him, out of jealousy, and with Mansfield blackmailed the man - or tried to. Stokes would eventually shoot Fisk (who in real life did fall down a staircase, but in a hotel). Fisk died in 1872. One day his tragic betrayal and death would make an ideal movie. But Arnold can't play it - alas!!