The Toast of New York (1937)

James 'Jim' Fisk Jr.: [Preparing to enter a festive room] Are you ready?
Josie Mansfield: I'm frightened to death.
James 'Jim' Fisk Jr.: You're in the circle now. You've got the prettiest feathers in the room. Now spread 'em.

---

Josie Mansfield: [after receiving an expensive necklace from him] Mr. Fisk, what do you expect me to be?
James 'Jim' Fisk Jr.: [Pausing and dropping his eyes] Whatever you want to be.

---

Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt: [Yelling at Fisk and Boyd in the disappearing Jersey Ferry] You scoudrels! I'll run you down if I have to crawl in every rotten hole in Jersey1

---

read more quotes from The Toast of New York...

Both Fisk and his partner Ned Stokes (called Nick Boyd in the movie) were married but competed for the affections of showgirl Josie Mansfield. In real life she was a world-wise dark-haired, full-figured woman who bore little resemblance to the innocent, apple-cheeked blonde sincerity of Francis Farmer. Stokes and Mansfield blackmailed Fisk, and Stokes shot Fisk to death in 1872. Although the dying Fisk named Stokes as his murderer, he only served four years of a six year term for manslaughter.
Alexander Hall was the original director, but fell ill with pleurisy and was replaced by Rowland V. Lee after two-thirds of the film was shot. The length of principal photography suggests that Lee reshot or expanded most of Hall's material, resulting in many cast changes. It is not known how much of Hall's footage remains in the film.
No mention is made of Jay Gould, the notorious robber baron, who conspired with Fisk to corner the gold market in The Panic 1869, three years before Fisk's death.
read more facts about The Toast of New York...