Manhattan Melodrama

Last updated

Manhattan Melodrama
Manhattan Melodrama poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by W. S. Van Dyke
George Cukor (uncredited)
Screenplay by Oliver H. P. Garrett
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
David Ogden Stewart (uncredited)
Story by Arthur Caesar
Produced by David O. Selznick
Starring Clark Gable
William Powell
Myrna Loy
Cinematography James Wong Howe
Edited by Ben Lewis
Music by William Axt
Production
company
Distributed by Loew's Inc.
Release date
  • May 4, 1934 (1934-05-04)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$355,000 [1]
Box office$1.2 million [1]

Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American pre-Code crime drama film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. The movie also provided one of Mickey Rooney's earliest film roles. (Rooney played Gable's character as a child.) The film is based on a story by Arthur Caesar, who won the Academy Award for Best Original Story. It was also the first of Myrna Loy and William Powell's fourteen screen pairings.

Contents

Notorious criminal John Dillinger attended a showing of the film at Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. After leaving the theater, he was shot to death by federal agents. [2] Myrna Loy was among those who expressed distaste at the studio's willingness to exploit this event for the financial benefit of the film. Scenes from Manhattan Melodrama, in addition to Dillinger's death, are depicted in the 2009 film Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger.

Plot

On June 15, 1904, the steamboat General Slocum catches fire and sinks in New York's East River. Two boys, Blackie Gallagher (Mickey Rooney) and Jim Wade (Jimmy Butler), are rescued by a priest, Father Joe (Leo Carrillo), but are orphaned by the disaster. They are taken in by another survivor, Poppa Rosen (George Sidney), who lost his young son in the sinking. The boys live with Poppa Rosen for a short while; then Rosen, a Russian Jew, is trampled to death by a policeman's horse after he heckles Leon Trotsky at a Communist rally and a melee breaks out.

The boys remain close friends, though their lives diverge. Studious from the very beginning, Jim (played as an adult by William Powell) gets his law degree and eventually becomes the assistant district attorney. Blackie is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky kid who loves to throw dice and trick other kids out of their money. Played as an adult by Clark Gable, he becomes the owner of a fancy, albeit illegal, casino. Though regularly "raided", the cops have been paid off and the casino resumes business immediately after they leave. Blackie's girlfriend Eleanor (Myrna Loy) loves him, but pleads with him in vain to marry her and give up his dangerous life.

Jim is elected district attorney. Blackie, always a supporter and admirer of Jim, knowing the latter's incorruptibility, arranges to meet him for a celebration, but something comes up, and he sends Eleanor to keep Jim company at the Cotton Club until he can join them. Jim and Eleanor talk the night away. Afterward, she gives Blackie one last chance to marry her and settle down. When Blackie refuses, she leaves him.

Months later, Jim and Eleanor meet by chance and start keeping company (she informs Jim that she has not seen Blackie for months). Meanwhile, Blackie, who acknowledges that he is a changed man (due to Eleanor's having left him), coldly kills Manny Arnold (Noel Madison) for not paying his gambling debts. Jim summons him to his office, where he tells him that he and Eleanor are going to get married. Blackie is sincerely happy for both of them. Jim also informs his friend that he is a suspect in the Arnold murder. However, there is no real evidence, so the crime goes unsolved.

Jim invites him to be the best man at his wedding. Blackie initially accepts but later sends a telegram begging off. After returning from his honeymoon, Jim runs for governor of New York. Snow (Thomas E. Jackson), who had been his chief assistant until Jim fired him for corruption, threatens to tell reporters that Jim covered up for Blackie in the Arnold case. Although untrue, this would cost Jim a close race for the governorship. By chance, Blackie and Eleanor meet at the horse track. Eleanor tells Blackie about Snow. Blackie shoots Snow dead in a washroom of Madison Square Garden during a hockey game. A beggar who pretends to be blind sees him leave the scene of the crime. Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie. Blackie is convicted and sentenced to death.

Jim wins the election, partly because the public sees that he is so honest he is prosecuting his own childhood friend. Eleanor tries to get him to commute the sentence to life imprisonment, revealing Blackie's motive for killing Snow, but that only makes things worse. When Jim remains steadfast, Eleanor leaves him. At the last moment, Jim hurries to Sing Sing Prison and meets Blackie, together with Father Joe, who is now the prison's chaplain. Jim finally offers to commute the death sentence, but Blackie turns him down. (He admits to the murder of Manny Arnold.) Father Joe leads Blackie to the electric chair while saying last rites.

A few days later, Jim calls a special joint session of the New York Legislature. He reveals how the murder helped him win the election, and how at the end he compromised his principles and was willing to commute his friend's sentence. He then tenders his resignation. When he leaves, Eleanor is waiting for him. She tells him that she was wrong about him, and they leave together to start a new life.

Cast

The crowd at Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, shortly after John Dillinger was killed there by law enforcement officers. Crowd at Biograph Theater after Dillinger death.jpg
The crowd at Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, shortly after John Dillinger was killed there by law enforcement officers.

Cast notes

Reception

Filmed relatively quickly and with a modest budget, Manhattan Melodrama was expected to return a profit but not to capture the imagination of the public. The picture's smash hit success surprised the studio and made major stars of screen veterans Myrna Loy and William Powell in the first of their fourteen screen pairings, and also solidified the success of MGM's most popular male lead, Clark Gable. The film has a Harlem nightclub scene featuring Shirley Ross in blackface singing a song called "The Bad in Every Man." After the film's release, the lyrics were rewritten by Lorenz Hart as the retitled "Blue Moon". On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% with an average rating of 7.04/10, based on 15 contemporary reviews. [4]

According to MGM records, the film earned $735,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $498,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $415,000. [1]

Radio adaptation

Manhattan Melodrama was presented on Lux Radio Theatre on September 9, 1940. William Powell, Myrna Loy and Don Ameche starred in the adaptation. [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Gable</span> American actor (1901–1960)

William Clark Gable was an American film actor. Often referred to as the "King of Hollywood", he had roles in more than 60 films in a variety of genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades of which was as a leading man. He was named the seventh greatest male movie star of classic American cinema by the American Film Institute.

<i>San Francisco</i> (1936 film) 1936 film by D. W. Griffith, W. S. Van Dyke

San Francisco is a 1936 American musical-drama disaster film directed by W. S. Van Dyke, based on the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The film stars Clark Gable, Jeanette MacDonald and Spencer Tracy. MacDonald's singing helped make this film a major hit, coming on the heels of her other 1936 blockbuster, Rose Marie.

<i>Libeled Lady</i> 1936 film by Jack Conway

Libeled Lady is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Jack Conway and starring Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. It was written by George Oppenheimer, Howard Emmett Rogers, Wallace Sullivan, and Maurine Dallas Watkins. This was the fifth of fourteen films in which Powell and Loy were teamed, inspired by their success in the Thin Man series.

<i>Test Pilot</i> (film) 1938 American film directed by Victor Fleming

Test Pilot is a 1938 American drama film directed by Victor Fleming, starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy, and featuring Lionel Barrymore. The Oscar-nominated film tells the story of a daredevil test pilot (Gable), his wife (Loy), and his best friend (Tracy).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myrna Loy</span> American actress (1905–1993)

Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. As a performer, she was known for her ability to adapt to her screen partner's acting style.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. S. Van Dyke</span> American film director (1889–1943)

Woodbridge Strong Van Dyke II was an American film director who made several successful early sound films, including Tarzan the Ape Man in 1932, The Thin Man in 1934, San Francisco in 1936, and six popular musicals with Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald. He received two Academy Award nominations for Best Director for The Thin Man and San Francisco, and directed four actors to Oscar nominations: William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Norma Shearer, and Robert Morley. Known as a reliable craftsman who made his films on schedule and under budget, he earned the name "One Take Woody" for his quick and efficient style of filming.

<i>Double Wedding</i> (1937 film) 1937 film

Double Wedding is a 1937 American screwball romantic comedy film starring William Powell and Myrna Loy, and featuring Florence Rice, John Beal, Jessie Ralph, and Edgar Kennedy. This was the seventh pairing of Powell and Loy, with another seven to go. It was directed by Richard Thorpe from a screenplay by Jo Swerling based on the unpublished play Nagy szerelem by Ferenc Molnár.

<i>Wife vs. Secretary</i> 1936 film by Clarence Brown

Wife vs. Secretary is a 1936 American romantic comedy drama film starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and Jean Harlow. Directed and co-produced by Clarence Brown, it was the fifth of six collaborations between Gable and Harlow and the fourth of seven between Gable and Loy. The screenplay was based on the short story of the same title by Faith Baldwin, published in Cosmopolitan magazine in May 1935. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna, John Lee Mahin and Alice Duer Miller.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Conway (filmmaker)</span> Film director, actor

Hugh Ryan "Jack" Conway was an American film director and film producer, as well as an actor of many films in the first half of the 20th century.

<i>I Love You Again</i> 1940 film by W. S. Van Dyke

I Love You Again is an MGM comedy released in 1940. It was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy, all three of whom were prominently involved in the Thin Man film series.

<i>Men in White</i> (1934 film) 1934 film directed by Ryszard Bolesławski

Men in White is a 1934 pre-Code film starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy, and directed by Ryszard Bolesławski. The story is loosely based on the Sidney Kingsley Pulitzer-Prize-winning play of the same name. Due to suggestions of illicit romance and abortion, the film was frequently cut. The Legion of Decency declared the movie unfit for public exhibition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muriel Evans</span> American actress (1910–2000)

Muriel Evans was an American film actress. She is best known for her many appearances in popular westerns of the 1930s for which she won a Golden Boot Award.

<i>Parnell</i> (film) 1937 film by John M. Stahl

Parnell is a 1937 American biographical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring Clark Gable as Charles Stewart Parnell, the famous Irish politician. It was Gable's least successful film and is generally considered his worst, and it is listed in The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. The movie addresses the sex scandal that destroyed Parnell's political career, but its treatment of the subject is highly sanitized in keeping with Hollywood content restrictions at the time.

<i>Rendezvous</i> (1935 film) 1935 spy film

Rendezvous is a 1935 American spy film set in World War I, directed by William K. Howard, starring William Powell and Rosalind Russell and featuring Binnie Barnes, Lionel Atwill, Cesar Romero and Samuel S. Hinds. Powell plays an American cryptologist who tangles with German spies while falling in love.

<i>Too Hot to Handle</i> (1938 film) 1938 film by Jack Conway

Too Hot to Handle, also known as Let 'Em All Talk, is a 1938 comedy-drama directed by Jack Conway and starring Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, and Walter Pidgeon. The plot concerns a newsreel reporter, the female aviator he is attracted to and his fierce competitor. Many of the comedy gags were devised by an uncredited Buster Keaton.

<i>Hardboiled Rose</i> 1929 film

Hardboiled Rose is a 1929 American sound part-talkie romantic drama film directed by F. Harmon Weight and released by Warner Bros. In addition to sequences with audible dialogue or talking sequences, the film features a synchronized musical score and sound effects along with English intertitles. The soundtrack was recorded using the Vitaphone sound-on-disc system. The film starred Myrna Loy, William Collier, Jr., and John Miljan.

<i>Lucky Night</i> 1939 American comedy film directed by Norman Taurog

Lucky Night (1939) is a comedy movie from MGM starring Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy, directed by Norman Taurog.

<i>Night Flight</i> (1933 film) 1933 film by Clarence Brown

Night Flight is a 1933 American pre-Code aviation drama film produced by David O. Selznick, distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, directed by Clarence Brown and starring John Barrymore, Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Helen Hayes, Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy.

<i>Whipsaw</i> (film) 1935 film by Sam Wood

Whipsaw is a 1935 American crime drama film directed by Sam Wood and starring Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy. Written by Howard Emmett Rogers, based on a story by James Edward Grant, the film is about a government agent working undercover traveling across the country with an unsuspecting woman, hoping she will lead him to her gang of jewel thieves. The film was produced by Harry Rapf for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and was released on December 18, 1935, in the United States.

The Discontented Canary is a 1934 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Happy Harmonies short directed by Rudolf Ising.

References

  1. 1 2 3 The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles, California: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study
  2. ↑ May and Marilyn Bardsley. John Dillinger at TruTV Archived March 11, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Mankiewicz, Ben (May 17, 2017) Outro to TCM presentation of Manhattan Melodrama Turner Classic Movies
  4. ↑ "Manhattan Melodrama (1934)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved June 11, 2020.
  5. ↑ "Those Were the Days". Nostalgia Digest. 37 (1): 32. Winter 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.