Fox Movie Channel runs the film in its entirety, with all six tales intact and in their intended sequence. Controversy surrounding fifth tale upon 1942 release The final tale, starring Paul Robeson and Ethel Waters, depicted what were considered racial stereotypes even in 1942. It came under severe criticism from both Edward G. Robinson and Robeson, who was a champion of good film roles for Black actors. Tales of Manhattan was Robeson's final attempt to work within Hollywood, after making only 12 movies and refusing lucrative film offers for over three years. Robeson was deeply disappointed with the sequence, which featured musical numbers by Robeson and the Hall Johnson choir. He initially thought that he and his associates could use the depiction of the plight of the rural Black poor—shown in the film as investing the bulk of their windfall in communal land and tools—to demonstrate a share-and-share-alike way of life. Although he attempted to change some of the film's content during production, in the end he found it "very offensive to my people. It makes the Negro childlike and innocent and is in the old plantation hallelujah shouter tradition ... the same old story, the Negro singing his way to glory". To Robeson, it was a matter of human dignity, and outweighed what he considered his duty to promote communal ownership, inserted into the storyline for Robeson by screenwriter Donald Ogden Stewart, like Robeson a member of the Communist Party USA. Some reviewers and black entertainers (including Clarence Muse), noted that the film exposed Blacks’ living conditions under the sharecropping system, but Robeson was so dissatisfied that he attempted to buy up all the prints and take the film out of distribution. Following its release, he held a press conference, announcing that he would no longer act in Hollywood films because of the demeaning roles available to Black actors. Robeson also said he would gladly picket the film along with others who found the film offensive. Reception Bosley Crowther wrote in The New York Times that "Tales of Manhattan is one of those rare films—a tricky departure from the norm, which, in spite of its five-ring-circus nature, achieves an impressive effect. Neither profound nor very searching, it nevertheless manages to convey a gentle, detached comprehension of the irony and pity of life, and it constantly graples (sic) one's interest with its run of assorted incidents." References External links 1942