Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

W.S. Van Dyke

Writers:

Arthur Caesar (story)
Oliver H.P. Garrett (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 May 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

The friendship between two orphans endures even though they grow up on opposite sides of the law and fall in love with the same woman.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Governor | Orphan | Electric Chair | Mistress

Awards:

Won Oscar.

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Edward J. 'Blackie' Gallagher
William Powell	...	James W. 'Jim' Wade
Myrna Loy	...	Eleanor Packer
Leo Carrillo	...	Father Joe
Nat Pendleton	...	Spud 'Spuddie'
George Sidney	...	Poppa Rosen
Isabel Jewell	...	Annabelle
Muriel Evans	...	Tootsie Malone
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Asst. Dist. Atty. Richard Snow (as Thomas Jackson)
Isabelle Keith	...	Miss Adams (Jim's secretary) (as Claudelle Kaye)
Frank Conroy	...	Blackie's defense attorney
Noel Madison	...	Manny Arnold
Jimmy Butler	...	Jim Wade as a boy
Mickey Rooney	...	Blackie as a boy
Shirley Ross	...	Singer in Cotton Club

Runtime:

93 min | USA:90 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | USA:Approved (PCA #3213-R, 16 March 1937 for re-release)

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivia:

The movie and scenes form this movie is featured in the production of Public Enemies (2009) by director Michael Mann.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the close up of the newspaper announcing Jim as the new D.A., in the upper right corner, the newspaper is being sold for "Five Cens".

Quotes:

James W. 'Jim' Wade: I was born at home, because I wanted to be near Mother at the time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Public Enemies (2009)

Soundtrack:

Sidewalks of New York

Cutting no corners

'Manhattan Melodrama' may not have the stylistic finish to it to make it a great message movie about contemporary 30s issues, but it does go a long way towards that end, and is never less than engaging.

Clark Gable is the happy-go-lucky gangster Blackie who is being tried for murder by his boyhood best friend Jim, William Powell, a D.A. who has made it to governor of New York because of a murder done by Blackie, unbeknownst to Jim. On top of it all they both love the same woman, Myrna Loy.

Despite its melodramatic but never overwrought style 'Manhattan Melodrama' has sufficient weight and substance to make itself heard 70 years after the fact. It cuts no convenient corners in the description of the governor's sad plight of having to decide whether his friend should live or die, and it paints a wonderful and believable picture of Loy's character who does what she deems best. Powell delivers a multi-layered performance that has to count amongst his best, and Gable is irrepressible and delightfully amoral as the bad guy we're all rooting for.

Recommended, but please don't judge it by the first 20 minutes which are rather slow-moving, but still entertaining.