Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

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:

This was the movie that bank robber John Dillinger had just seen before he was gunned down in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934. He had been set up by Anna Sage, the madam of a brothel, who knew Dillinger's girlfriend, Polly Hamilton. Sage was facing deportation and thought the tip might get her off. She told FBI agent Melvin Purvis that she would be wearing orange which appeared red, leading her to be dubbed "The Woman in Red". Dillinger was shot three times when he tried to escape, and Sage wound up being sent back to Romania.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Blackie picks up a magazine from the couch after Eleanor leaves him, it is a close up of a Ladies Home Journal from a leopard skin upholstered couch. In the wide shot, he is holding a Vogue and the couch is plainly upholstered, not leopard skin.

Quotes:

Edward J. 'Blackie' Gallagher: Don't commute me - I don't want it. Hey, look, Jim, if I can't live the way I want, then at least let me die the way I want.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Public Enemies (2009)

Soundtrack:

Mary Had a Little Lamb

With a cast like this...

With a cast like this, how can you go wrong? And the film is a delight from beginning to end. Although all the players were great, special kudos to William Powell, whose uncompromising morals cause him to lose almost everything he has. His is a gut-wrenching performance, and the scene in which he addresses the assembly with tears in his eyes to tell of his own "weakness"--wow. It's rare to see Powell in a role with so much complexity and it is a marvelous performance.