What a year Clark Gable, Myrna Loy and William Powell had in 1934, huh? They all act together in this film, Manhattan Melodrama, directed by WS Van Dyke and co-written by a young Joseph L. Makiewicz, and meanwhile Gabe earlier in the year was in It Happened One Night (ironically Loy was up for the role Colbert played), and later that year The Thin Man, which kicked off in a major way the star power of Powell and Loy together, came out and became a massive hit. All the films either won or got nominated for Oscars, and yet this film is kind of now on the B-side/double-bill. And to be sure, it's not as smashing or have the same re-watchability as those other films, which are considered among the best of 30's Hollywood (rightfully so, especially for the Thin Man). But Manhattan Melodrama shouldn't be discounted too quickly - at the least it's more than the simple footnote of Dillinger's pre-death-flick (I can relate - I would be there to see Myrna Loy, too).The film actually reminds me a bit of a later 30's flick, Angels with Dirty Faces - that film too was about two childhood friends, New Yorkers all the way, who go through paths in life that diverse, one to crime, the other to a more professional/helpful path. In this case, Powell and Gable play childhood friends who lose their parents in a boat accident, get raised by a new father, who also later on meets a sad fate. Powell becomes a lawyer, then a prosecutor for the state and, eventually, governor, while Gable is always the gambler, the gangster, the guy who just wants to have a good time. And Loy plays the girl who doesn't really come between them as stay friendly-if-neutral to Blackie while marrying Jim Wade - that, give the movie credit, would've been an easy direction for the melodrama as a love triangle, but it's more complicated, to be sure.The script gives its actors some good dramatic dialog to chew on, and among all the roles Gable probably gets to have the most fun while playing a not-too-good guy. It's a decent script once it gets its footing - the early childhood scenes are quite weepy, if shot and edited strikingly for fast, hard effect (and featuring a young Mickey Rooney!) - and it's a case where the actors elevate the material just a little more. This has star power to burn; the actors all click together, and no wonder with Loy, but Gable and Powell work very well and believably together too, with the conflicts that come up between the brothers - of law and order vs the gangster way, albeit this isn't as harsh a look as 'Angels' - and how the dynamics subtly change over time.You might not think there's any arc here, but there are, at the least with Powell's Jim Wade who gets on the rise as a law-and-order man but has this friend who could be his downfall. Loy is naturally beautiful without even having to try anything super-glamorous; she almost as a thing here like a young Diane Keaton, kind of sexy in a way that's hard to describe but plainly there in the sophistication of every movement and acting choice. And Gable... he's Gable - but watch for him in the last scene he has with Powell, he goes between a range of emotions that is just electrifying to watch (for me more believable than almost anything in Gone with the Wind).If Manhattan Melodrama is successful, and I think it is, it's because watching these actors - stars - in these roles, acting their asses off to make this more than believable, rather natural work, and van Dyke has some nice directorial choices. Conventional? Sure. But it's a moving little effort.

A hugely popular film when first released in May 1934, "Manhattan Melodrama" is today historically important for three distinct reasons. It was the first picture to feature the by-now-common story line of two boyhood friends who grow up to become opponents in the realm of criminal justice. It saw the first pairing of William Powell and Myrna Loy, whose chemistry on screen here worked so well that they would ultimately be teamed 14 times together in films. And, of course, it was the last picture seen by the notorious bank robber John Dillinger, who, upon exiting Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, was killed during a gun battle with police and G-men. Today, almost 80 years since its release, the film still retains its impact and wonderful entertainment value, thanks largely to a terrific script and the megawatt star power of its three leads.In the film, we meet two young chums, Jim Wade and "Blackie" Gallegher (the latter played by 13-year-old, 14th billed Mickey Rooney). After the sinking of the General Slocum steamship on the East River on June 15, 1904, in which over 1,000 lives were lost, the boys are left orphans, soon taken in by a kindly Jewish man. When their benefactor is killed in a riot shortly thereafter, the boys are left to their own devices. Jim grows up to become the N.Y.C. D.A. and ultimately N.Y. state governor; the personification of moral rectitude, as played by William Powell. Blackie, on the other hand, as played by Clark Gable (here just a few months after the February 1934 release of "It Happened One Night"), grows up to become an underworld figure and professional gambler. Strangely enough, the two remain staunch friends, although trouble does loom when Blackie's moll, Eleanor Packer (yes, Myrna Loy), throws him over and marries Wade. And then things become even more problematic, when Blackie kills a man and D.A. Wade must prosecute the case and find the killer....Harking back to Dillinger, I must say that if you are ever given the choice as to what your last movie will be before being executed, you could do a lot worse than "Manhattan Melodrama." All three stars are given ample opportunities to shine here: Gable is extremely likable, his faithfulness to his old buddy never wavering; Powell gives two tremendous speeches, one in the courtroom as he urges for the death penalty for his old friend, the other in front of the State Assembly; and Loy is just as sexy and beautiful as can be. The film's script just sparkles (the picture won an Oscar for Best Original Story), and the events depicted move along briskly and with not a bit of flab. A quick check of the names behind the camera might convince potential viewers of what a class production "Manhattan Melodrama" is. The film was produced by the legendary showman David O. Selznick, cowritten by the famed Joseph L. Mankiewicz, lensed by one of Hollywood's foremost cinematographers, James Wong Howe, and features a tune, "The Bad In Every Man," by Rodgers & Hart. (Lorenz Hart would later rewrite the lyrics and turn it into the familiar standard "Blue Moon"!) Not to mention the crackerjack direction of W.S. Van Dyke, who would go on to helm four of the six "Thin Man" films starring Powell and Loy, and three films with Gable, including "San Francisco." Perfect entertainment package that the film is, it also offers the viewer a trip to Harlem's Cotton Club, a hockey game at Madison Square Garden AND a horse race at Belmont (during which the boys get out of Manhattan for a while, for an afternoon in Queens). Plus, we are also given some very amusing comedic relief, thanks to the antics of one of Blackie's henchmen, Spud (played by Nat Pendleton), and his dim-witted galpal Annabelle (Isabel Jewell). What most viewers will most appreciate, though, I feel, is the solid camaraderie that Blackie and Wade enjoy, although life has set them in opposition. Indeed, Blackie's love for Wade never flags, even while he is sitting on Death Row. And I'd like to think that as Dillinger felt the first bullet enter his body, he flashed back to Blackie's Death Row words: "Die the way you lived, all of a sudden. That's the way to go. Don't drag it out. Living like that doesn't mean a thing...."

'Manhattan Melodrama' is the kind of film that has been referenced so often to the point where it's kind of become a cliché. The 30's Gangster picture is really one of the great joys I have in film. All of them generally follow the same plot line, an anti-hero gangster lives large on the heels of prohibition but eventually the world comes crashing down on them and they are forced to reconcile for their sins via the Hays Code. 'Manhattan Melodrama' is exactly what it's title suggests, all these gangster pictures were melodramas and sometimes I love that sweet sap.The only thing really different about Melodrama that distinguishes it from other gangster pictures of the time is that it deals with a friendship with two characters on different sides of the law. It takes this storyline very seriously and it works in large part thanks to the performances of both Powell and his counter part who is of course the suave and cool Clark Gable as the gangster Blackie Gallagher. I wished the film had dealt more with the deterioration of this friendship. But you can't cast Gable as someone who is a complete villain and so while Blackie does villainous things he never quite crosses the threshold and always loves his surrogate brother Jim Wade. Powell is good as Wade and I like how the character is written as a man with an insanely strict moral compass who has a friend in Blackie.The biggest thing I wanted to see though was these friends being forced to reconcile their natures with their friendship. These two men can't be friends and love each other in the two worlds they live in. The film really comes to an unsatisfying conclusion largely because of the lack of emotion involved. Blackie agrees with the charges against him and his crimes and is willing to pay for them with his life because of his love for Wade and Wade tries to fend off emotion and execute Blackie as Governor because of his moral code. Never is there a moment where these two ask "Why are we friends and why did it have to come to this?" And if Blackie truly does die because of his love for Wade then having Wade resign as Governor truly ruins his death. If this was a story about dear friendship to the bitter end wouldn't it be more poignant if Blackie made a sacrifice? These characters let everything play out without trying to skew destiny or question it.Why is this a fun picture? Gable. I could see this very easily being forgettable hadn't he been here. Gable might just have been the actor with the most charisma and presence in the long history of motion pictures. The picture works a lot because of Gable who is just so darn interesting and cool as Blackie who isn't really that great a character. The epitome of Gable's presence has to be Blackie's last scenes before his execution. He is really delivering dime story philosophies of life which as written are pretty stupid but as delivered by Clark Gable are amazing. It is just really really fun to see Gable dressed up as the gangster and go through the wiseguy talk in an MGM sound picture no less! What do I think of the film overall? For those who love gangster films it's a must see. It delivers on everything you come to expect and it comes from really one of the most fun performers to watch in film. It's a fun movie.

Yes, this is a melodrama all right. Two boys of very different backgrounds are orphaned when a pleasure steamer catches fire and sinks in the Hudson River near New York in 1902. One boy (Mickey Rooney) is a rough and tumble type, while the other is bookish and thoughtful. They are both briefly adopted together by a man who lost his son in the same disaster. They grow up together and then go their separate ways. The rough one, 'Blackie', becomes a criminal and is played by Clarke Gable. The bookish one becomes a lawyer and criminal prosecutor, played by William Powell. Blackie has a girlfriend, played by Myrna Loy, who leaves him for Powell. What is so especially fascinating about this film is that Myrna Loy and Clark Gable do not 'click' at all, and glaze over when they look at one another, despite their best acting efforts to simulate at least some flickers of passion. But as soon as Powell and Loy are on screen together, the fizz begins, and they spark off one another like two cheeky little flints who just can't wait to make wonderful fire together. Powell seems to have been an irresistibly amusing man who was attractive to all the most glamorous gals, despite not being all that good-looking. After all, he was married to Carole Lombard and then was about to marry Jean Harlow when she died tragically. (He paid $30,000 for her funeral and took six weeks off filming with Myrna Loy in another picture because of his uncontrollable grief.) So Powell certainly knew how to interact with women of character. Myrna Loy just had the right kind of wry and whimsical manner to complement the dry humour of Powell. From the moment they first look at each other in this first film together, a unique screen magic was born, and lasted through 14 films. When I knew her very slightly as a youngster, she was 57 and rather uncommunicative, and she seemed depressed, so I never knew the 'lively Loy'. In those days videos and DVDs did not exist, so few people of my age had any idea at all of what she had been like in her films with William Powell, as we had not only never seen any of them but had no way of doing so. Nor was there any internet with a handy IMDb database where you just click your mouse and see the list of her credits. The fact is, Myrna Loy was someone one knew had been a big movie star earlier on, but one had never actually seen her on screen. She was just a name, and someone who had been in films which one's parents had seen before one was born. Well, now we can see them and so many of them are good that we can at last see Myrna Loy in perspective and appreciate just how unique and special she really was. There is a curious thing, namely that her real name was Myrna Williams and she came from Montana. Now who does that remind you of? Why, Michelle Williams of course, who comes from Montana (see my reviews of LAND OF PLENTY and INCENDIARY, where I note that this girl is an actress of genius). I wonder if they could possibly be Montana kith and kin. But I guess the world is full of people named Williams, even in Montana, which has a population of just a few thousand people and a few million cattle, doesn't it? It seems that everywhere you go, there are people named Wiliams. Perhaps it is because they are plural. Oh, back to the story. I always forget the story. Well, you can see it coming, can't you? Powell ends up prosecuting Gable for murder and demands the death sentence. That part of the story is heavily contrived, but it works very well regardless because after all it is a 1930s movie. Loy is distressed because she loves them both. You can see where the melodrama comes in, and they really lay it on, as this is not a film where subtlety is a leading quality. We get the whole thing, death row, the last minute requests for a reprieve (oh yes, Powell is Governor of New York by now and is the one who gets begged to save Blackie's life). Well the melodrama just keeps piling on top of the melodrama like that, so that the film is really a kind of melodramatic club sandwich. There is some cheese and then there's some ham (in fact there is no shortage of ham in this film) and then there's some chicken when certain persons lose their courage and then there's some lettuce to brighten and pretty things up a bit, and then there's the daily bread, it's all there. Take a bite, it's really delicious.