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Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
4 May 1934 (USA) morePlot:
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. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
Won Oscar. moreNewsDesk:
(2 articles)
Link Shelves (From FilmExperience. 6 July 2009, 9:20 PM, PDT)
Movie Review: Public Enemies (2009)
(From Rope Of Silicon. 1 July 2009, 1:37 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
A fascinatingly unusual drama moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parentsRuntime:
93 min | USA:90 min (Turner library print)Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 moreSound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Lorenz Hart was asked to write more commercially appealing lyrics to "The Bad in Every Man" after this movie was released. The result was "Blue Moon," which was copyrighted under that title in December 1934. moreGoofs:
Continuity: When Snow enters the men's room at Madison Square Garden, we see him enter the room and subsequently begin to close the door. In the next shot, showing him reflected in the mirrors above the basin, he is once again in the act of walking through the door. moreQuotes:
James W. 'Jim' Wade: You know, I think those yes-men would go to bed with me if they had a chance.Eleanor Packer: Don't worry, Darling, they won't have a chance.
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Movie Connections:
Featured in Hollywood Remembers: Myrna Loy - So Nice to Come Home to (1991) (TV) moreSoundtrack:
Mary Had a Little Lamb moreFAQ
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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Manhattan Melodrama (1934)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| John Dillinger's last moments | Charlie_Kane |
| blackie on the phone | alpinebixby |
| fashion | alpinebixby |
| Oh, Pancho | dgave |
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Well, unusual for me. Perhaps at the time, the circumstances, what have you, it was not so unusual. But for me, watching Clark Gable portray a happy-go-lucky double murderer, who garners tons of sympathy from the audience; it was a first.
Manhattan Melodrama is a film of dubious and rather interesting morals. Who's the hero? Who's the villain? Childhood friends Jim and Blackie grow up very different men, Jim becomes DA of New York City, while Blackie runs a casino, and performs other unsavory activities. Eventually, their positions force them into conflict, but it's not your typical run-of-the-mill courtroom drama.
Blackie in most films would be a villain, he is after all a gangster and a murderer, amongst other activities. But here he's played by Clark Gable, about as charming an actor as ever lived, and the movie takes place in the 1930s, when gangster pictures like Little Caesar elevated these types of men into hero roles.
The picture makes a very blatant message against the heroic vision of gangsters (In a speech by Jim that feels as if the men who controlled the Production Code were standing off screen holding the cue cards for him). But I couldn't help feeling sympathy for the character, after the evil deeds he did. Meanwhile Jim, a hardworking individual who is uncorruptable, comes off as "cold" by the end of the picture. The way this movie sidesteps conventional roles is really interesting.
The lead woman in the picture, Eleanor, is rather interesting too. Watch how she jumps back and forth and between the men, and for what reasons.
I don't fully understand this movie, and it's not one of the most exciting films I've ever seen, but it's one of the most interesting ones I've seen in quite a while.