Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 crime melodrama film, produced by MGM.
It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and stars Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Leo Carrillo, Nat Pendleton, and Isabel Jewell. The movie also provided one of the earliest film roles for Mickey Rooney, who played the Gable character as a child.
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. Its success surprised the studio and made stars of Myrna Loy and William Powell in the first of their fourteen screen pairings. It also solidified the success of MGM's most popular male lead, Clark Gable, who had recently appeared in It Happened One Night, the film which would win him his only Academy Award for Best Actor.
The movie entered the lexicon of history when the notorious gangster John Dillinger was shot to death by federal agents on July 22, 1934 after leaving a Chicago theater where the film was playing.[1] 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 based on Dillinger.
Arthur Caesar won an Academy Award for Best Story for this film.
Plot
The first scene of the film takes place on June 15, 1904, when the 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 young priest; their parents die in the disaster and they are left orphaned. They are taken in by another survivor, Poppa Rosen, who has lost his young son in the sinking as well. The boys live with Poppa Rosen for a short while; then Rosen, a Russian Jew, is trampled by a policeman's horse and killed after he heckles Leon Trotsky at a Communist rally and violence breaks out. Blackie is very angry and vows to repay the policemen someday.
The boys continue to grow up, close as brothers, even though they are very different. Jim is a serious, studious boy who goes to school and becomes a lawyer. Blackie is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky kid who loves to throw dice and con other kids out of their money; he becomes a successful racketeer.
As adults, Jim (William Powell) begins to work for the district attorney's office, while Blackie (Clark Gable) becomes the owner of a large, very fancy casino. Blackie's casino is regularly "raided"; the cops have clearly been paid off, so they inspect the casino and leave without arresting anyone. Blackie's girl, Eleanor (Myrna Loy), loves him but gets tired of his lifestyle. Blackie spends much of his time shaking down other criminals for money and making underhanded deals, and he is notoriously late for engagements, often leaving Eleanor waiting for him for hours on end.
Jim eventually runs for the District Attorney position and is elected. Blackie, even though he doesn't see Jim much, roots for him, and has Eleanor take Jim to the Cotton Club, where Blackie promises to meet them later and celebrate. Blackie doesn't make it, though, and Jim and Eleanor spend the evening together, talking. Jim escorts Eleanor home to Blackie's apartment, but forgets his overcoat there, with a souvenir from the club in one of the pockets. Blackie shows up later and apologizes for not making it to the club. Blackie and Eleanor then get into an argument, because Eleanor loved Jim's manners, his consideration of her, and his strict adherence to his principles. She implores Blackie to marry her and get out of the business of racketeering, but Blackie refuses. He says that a normal life would never be for him, and that she would not like it either. She then explains that he is wrong, that she cannot live this way anymore, and leaves Blackie.
Shortly after this, Blackie murders a man named Manny Arnold, who owes him money and won't pay up. His henchman Spud, who has been wearing Jim's overcoat, accidentally leaves it at the scene of the crime. Spud explains that hadn't returned the coat to Jim yet because he liked it and wanted to buy one himself; having found none, he was now having a tailor make an exact copy. Blackie knows that Jim will remember where he left his coat, so he has this new coat sent to Jim's office with the Cotton Club souvenir in the pocket. Convinced that the similar coat was a coincidence, Jim accepts Blackie's statement that he did not kill Arnold, but he warns Blackie that he is going to clean up all the dirty places in the city, and that he had better not find Blackie in any of them. Blackie enthusiastically agrees, and tells Jim that if he does find him engaged in illegal activities, he expects Jim to go after him, and that he will be proud of Jim for doing so.
At the same time Jim and Eleanor begin a relationship, then decide to get married. Jim speaks to Blackie to make sure Blackie is not upset over this; Blackie is happy for both of them and wishes them luck. He turns down the invitation to their wedding because he does not want his presence to spoil Jim's career. Jim and Eleanor become a happily married couple, and Blackie acquires a new girlfriend. Jim then begins a campaign to run for Governor of New York.
One day at the horse races, Blackie and Eleanor meet up again. Eleanor tells Blackie that a man named Snow, who Jim had fired from the District Attorney's office, is now threatening to tell newspapers that Blackie did murder Arnold and Jim covered it up because he and Blackie were friends. This would ruin Jim's gubernatorial campaign. In order to protect Jim, Blackie then murders Snow in the bathroom of Madison Square Garden. A beggar who pretends to be blind witnesses him fleeing the scene of the crime, and Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie. Blackie is convicted and sentenced to death.
Jim wins the governorship, in large part due to the fact that the public knows that Jim is prosecuting his childhood friend because it is the right thing to do. For the same reason, as governor he refuses to commute Blackie's death sentence. Eleanor is very upset over this decision, and reveals to Jim that she had told Blackie about Snow trying to undermine Jim. Eleanor tells Jim that if he doesn't save Blackie, she will leave him, as Blackie's actions are responsible for his position as governor. She accuses Jim of applying his strict principles to everyone but himself, but Jim says his principles now apply even more strongly since he benefited from the crime.
However, at the last moment, Jim goes to Sing Sing Prison and meets Blackie, together with the priest who saved them from the General Slocum, who is now the chaplain there. Jim finally says he has to commute the death sentence, but Blackie refuses, telling Jim that he has never compromised his principles, and he doesn't want him to start doing so now. The priest 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 resigns the post of Governor. As he leaves, he encounters Eleanor, who apologizes, tells him that she was wrong about him, and asks to come back to him. Jim puts his arm around her and they leave the building together to start a new life.
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