Tales of Manhattan (1942)

A portmanteau of stories based around a formal dinner jacket that has been cursed by it's tailor... When it starts off it's travels at the home of debonair Charles Boyer, it seems to start to influence his rather complex life with Rita Hayworth before moving onto and into the lives of Henry Fonda, Ginger Rogers and Cesar Romero. Once it has finished there, it becomes the property of aspiring composer Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester thence onto Edward G. Robinson; a down-on-his luck lawyer before finally being stolen and used in a heist that sees it end up the property of some very, very poor depression-struck African Americans. The coat is the thread (no pun, intended) linking the themes of greed, ambition, deceit, lies, love, aspiration and decency; but it also has some morals of it's own. As with many a talisman, it supports the good and delivers evil on those deserving - and the five stories, especially Laughton and Robinson's are short but engaging reviews of the aspirations and sins of it's owners. The Fonda/Rogers story is a bit far fetched, and a bit too too long, but the other four deliver a succinct, quite punchily written, message that make this an interesting anthology of the best and worst of us all.