Manhattan Cocktail

Manhattan Cocktail

NR 1928 · 72 min · ★ 8.0 · Drama

Nancy Carroll stars in Manhattan Cocktail as Babs, a college coed who dreams of becoming a famous actress. Joining up with her campus chums Fred (Richard Arlen) and Bob (Danny O'Shea), likewise aspiring thespians, Babes heads to Broadway with stars in her eyes. The winsome threesome are quickly disillusioned by the heartless machinations of nasty producer Renov (Paul Lukas) and his harridan wife (Lilyan Tashman). Before the plot proper gets under way, the audience is regaled with a cute "mythological" prologue, featuring the same three leading actors. Manhattan Cocktail was a silent picture, except for two brief musical numbers showcasing Nancy Carroll.

Directed by Dorothy Arzner · Written by Ethel Doherty

Your Rating

Cast

Nancy Carroll Babs Clark
Richard Arlen Fred Tilden
Danny O'Shea Bob Marky
Paul Lukas Boris Renov
Lilyan Tashman Mrs. Renov
Edwina Booth Edwina

Make it a double feature

2h 2m together

Manhattan Cocktail

The Six Best Cellars

Both from Dorothy Arzner.

More from Dorothy ArznerSee all →

The No-Gun Man

The No-Gun Man · 1924

MovieDramaWestern

After robbing a small suburban bank, a gang of outlaws led by Bill Kilgore hides out in the neighboring town of Red Rock. Failing to interest Carmen Harroway by his rough romantic attentions, Kilgore forbids the terrorized townspeople to patronize her small confectionery store. A stranger, Bob Vincent, appears in town and, after becoming friendly with Carmen, inexplicably joins Kilgore's gang, passing himself off as a forger.

The Six Best Cellars

The Six Best Cellars · 1920

The Six Best Cellars

Henry Carpenter and his wife Millicent are the envy of their exclusive suburban set because of their abundant wine cellar, a blessing in the face of the recent prohibition against alcohol initiated by the Volstead Act. In reality, Henry is down to his last few bottles, and, faced with an impending dinner party, he decides to save face by denouncing the evils of drink. His impassioned speech earns him the support of the Prohibition party for a Congressional seat. Henry is relishing his popularity when his aunt discovers twenty-one cases of rare wine in the cellar, forcing the candidate to choose between political and social success.

Breed of the Border

Breed of the Border · 1924

Breed of the Border

MovieDramaWestern

Following the robbery of the Inspiration Gold Mine, Circus Lacey drifts into the border town of Esmeralda, where he saves Ethel Slocum from the unwanted advances of Red Lucas, a notorious gunman. When Ethel later also refuses to submit to the sheriff's demands, the sheriff frames her father for the mine robbery.

Merton of the Movies

Merton of the Movies · 1924

Merton of the Movies

A wannabe film star journeys to Hollywood, but soon finds his dreams do not pan out. This film is lost.

Working Girls

Working Girls · 1931

Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.

Charming Sinners

Charming Sinners · 1929

Charming Sinners

Charming Sinners was a stilted adaptation of Somerset Maugham's play The Constant Wife. Robert Miles (Clive Brook) starts the ball rolling when he falls in love with Anne-Marie Whitley (Mary Nolan), the best friend of his own wife Kathryn (Ruth Chatterton). In retaliation, Kathryn begins a flirtation with her former boyfriend Karl Kraley (William Powell). After reels and reels of verbal fencing, the status quo is re-established, and Robert and Kathryn are reunited.

Ruggles of Red Gap

Ruggles of Red Gap · 1923

Ruggles of Red Gap

MovieComedyWestern

An English valet brought to the American west assimilates into the American way of life.

Behind the Make-Up

Behind the Make-Up · 1930

Behind the Make-Up

Gardoni, a down-on-his-luck vaudeville performer, is taken in by a fellow performer, a clown who has a bicycle riding act. Gardoni shows his appreciation by stealing the clown's act and his girlfriend, whom he marries.

The Wild Party

The Wild Party · 1929

MovieComedyDrama

Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.

The Bride Wore Red

The Bride Wore Red · 1937

The Bride Wore Red

MovieRomanceComedy

A poor singer in a bar masquerades as a rich society woman thanks to a rich benefactor.

Anybody's Woman

Anybody's Woman · 1930

Anybody's Woman

A lawyer, left by his wife, gets drunk and marries a chorus girl, or so he learns the morning after.

First Comes Courage

First Comes Courage · 1943

First Comes Courage

Merle Oberon plays a Norwegian resistance figure in a small town, married to a Nazi commandant. When his superiors begin to suspect her, the Allies land an assassin to kill him -- an assassin who happens to be her former lover.

Craig's Wife

Craig's Wife · 1936

Harriet, Walter Craig's wife, is an upper-class woman obsessed with control, material possessions and social status whose behavior makes difficult her relationship with domestic service and family members.

Dance, Girl, Dance

Dance, Girl, Dance · 1940

Dance, Girl, Dance

MovieDramaComedy

Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.

Merrily We Go to Hell

Merrily We Go to Hell · 1932

Merrily We Go to Hell

MovieComedyDrama

A drunken newspaperman, Jerry Corbett, is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress, Joan Prentice, whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.

Get Your Man

Get Your Man · 1927

MovieDramaComedy

A young American girl in Paris falls in love with a handsome nobleman, but he is about to wed in an arranged marriage. She hatches a plan to overcome that obstacle and get her man.

More Like This

The Nativity Story

The Nativity Story · 2006

The Nativity Story

Mary and Joseph make the hard journey to Bethlehem for a blessed event in this retelling of the Nativity story. This meticulously researched and visually lush adaptation of the biblical tale follows the pair on their arduous path to their arrival in a small village, where they find shelter in a quiet manger and Jesus is born.

Swept from the Sea

Swept from the Sea · 1998

Swept from the Sea

MovieDramaRomance

The film tells the story of Russian emigree and the only survivor from ship crash Yanko Goorall and servant Amy Foster in the end of 19th century. When Yanko enters a farm sick and hungry after the shipwreck, everyone is afraid of him, except for Amy, who is very kind and helps him. Soon he becomes like a son for Dr. James Kennedy and romance between Yanko and Amy follows.

The Last Mistress

The Last Mistress · 2007

The Last Mistress

MovieDramaRomance

Secrets, rumors and betrayals surround the upcoming marriage between a young dissolute man and virtuous woman of the French aristocracy.

Delicious

Delicious · 2025

MovieThrillerDrama

During their vacation in the French countryside, a wealthy German family becomes entangled with a young hotel worker harboring sinister intentions.

Liberty Stands Still

Liberty Stands Still · 2002

Liberty Stands Still

MovieThrillerAction

As the heir and current marketing director for one of the nation's biggest gun manufacturers, Liberty Wallace is indifferent to the atrocities made possible through her business and her CEO husband, Victor. On her way to see her actor lover, Liberty ends up chained to a food cart full of explosives -- all at the insistence of "Joe", a sniper whose young daughter was a victim of gun violence, and who now has Liberty in his sights.

Sound of Falling

Sound of Falling · 2025

Sound of Falling

Four adolescent girls each spend their youth in the same farmhouse over the last century. Though separated by decades, resonances between their lives emerge: their desires and distress, secrets and truths, encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter