On the night of July 22, 1934, John Dillinger, one of the world’s most famous gangsters, went to see a movie in Chicago. Federal agents got wind of his location and surrounded the theater. When the movie let out, the agents cried out to Dillinger to surrender, but he ran. The agents chased him to an alleyway and shot him dead. This moment made front-page headlines across the country. It was one of the most famous shootouts in history.
Buy Manhattan Melodrama Blu-rayThe movie Dillinger was watching just moments before he was killed was Manhattan Melodrama, a modestly budgeted quickie that was expected to make a profit (based mostly on its two leading men, played by Clark Gable and William Powell), but not much more. But because of the Dillinger thing, the film became a raging blockbuster. Everybody wanted to watch the film that famous gangster was watching before he got blasted.
If I were a betting man, I’d lay good money down that without Dillinger, this film would be completely forgotten today. Not even Gable and Powell (and co-star Myrna Loy) still being beloved actors of classic Hollywood. Frankly, the film isn’t very good, and it fails to leave a mark.
One might assume that since it pairs William Powell and Myrna Loy (this was their first of 14 films together), who would, just months later, make The Thin Man, and also stars Clark Gable just coming off the success of It Happened One Night, Manhattan Melodrama would be a fun little romp. One would be completely wrong. This film stridently holds fast to the melodrama of its title. There are a few lighthearted moments, but mostly it is a completely sincere and overly downcast drama.
It begins with a sinking ship. A steamboat catches fire and sinks in the East River. Two boys, Blackie (Mickey Rooney) and Jim (Jimmy Butler), are saved by the kindhearted priest Father Joe (Leo Carrillo). The two become close friends, but their lives take divergent paths. Blackie is a happy-go-lucky kid who likes to play dice and gamble. He’ll grow up to be a gangster who owns an illegal casino and gambles on everything (and will be be portrayed by Clark Gable). Jim is a studious kid with a strong moral center. He becomes a lawyer and then the District Attorney of New York (he’s played by William Powell).
Though on opposite sides of the law, the two remain friends, but always with an understanding that if Blackie slips up, Jim will not hesitate to throw the book at him. Naturally, this is exactly what happens, and the drama becomes whether Jim will prosecute Blackie to the fullest extent of the law or have mercy on him. To my modern perspective, the film’s morality feels very strange.
Of course, there is a girl thrown into the mix. At first, Eleanor (Myrna Loy) is Blackie’s girl, but she’s grown tired of his dangerous lifestyle and wants to settle down. She is intrigued by Jim’s moral strength. Jim never makes a move toward her because she’s Blackie’s girl. But when she breaks up with him and comes to Jim, he easily falls in love. For Blackie’s part, he’s not even hurt by this. He seems to always accept what comes to him (something that will come in handy later in the picture) and recognizes that Jim is by far the better man for Eleanor.
Jim makes a run for governor and is a shoo-in until something comes up. A disgruntled former assistant makes noise about creating a scandal that could ruin the election for him. When Blackie learns of this, he takes matters into his own hands, and this leads us back to that moral dilemma of whether Jim will stand by his principles or help his friend out. It is also where the film loses me in terms of my own morality and understanding. Made in 1934, Manhattan Melodrama is technically a pre-Code film, but it comes in just before the Production Code started being strictly enforced. As such, it wants to punish Blackie for his crimes. But since the character is played by Clark Gable, an incredibly charming and bankable star, it still wants to make him a good guy.
How the film balances those two opposing forces is very weird. I wouldn’t mind that so much if the rest of the film wasn’t so damn dull. How you get those three stars together in one film and give the only laughs to secondary characters is a mystery. The fact that it was directed by W. S. Van Dyke, who would helm the majority of the Thin Man films, and this film comes out so limp, so utterly charmless, is a freaking tragedy.
Even the melodrama is lifeless. There was not a single moment in the film where I particularly cared about what happened to these characters. The fact that they were being portrayed by some of my favorite actors kept me watching, but just barely.
It will forever be associated with John Dillinger’s demise, and that is an interesting footnote. If you are a fan of those three stars, I do think there is enough here to make it worth watching, especially since its success solidified the actors as major stars. We can be thankful, then, that this film helped bring about so many other great films with them in it.
The Warner Archive presents Manhattan Melodrama with a nice-looking transfer. Extras include two short films: The Big Idea (with the Three Stooges) and Roast-Beef and Movies (with Curly Howard) plus a radio broadcast with Myrna Loy and William Powell.
