Manhattan Melodrama
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Movie of the Week: Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
This week’s movie is Manhattan Melodrama (1934). Clark Gable is Blackie Gallagher, a gambling, gun-slinging gangster, who remains best friends with his childhood pal, Jim Wade (William Powell), an ambitious lawyer. Blackie’s girl, Eleanor (Myrna Loy) grows tired of the shady side of life and soon falls in love with Jim and marries him. Jim is promoted to district attorney and starts a campaign to become New York’s next governor. When a blackmailer threatens Jim’s campaign, Blackie decides to handle the situation himself and kills the man. On trial, Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie and he is sentenced to death. The conviction helps Jim win the election,…
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October Movie of the Month: Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
This month, Clark Gable is doin’ what he does best as the fast talkin’ rogue, Myrna Loy is his lady and William Powell is his conscience in Manhattan Melodrama. Gable is Blackie Gallagher, a gambling, gun-slinging gangster, who remains best friends with his childhood pal, Jim Wade (Powell), an ambitious lawyer. Blackie’s girl, Eleanor (Loy) grows tired of the shady side of life and soon falls in love with Jim and marries him. Jim is promoted to district attorney and starts a campaign to become New York’s next governor. When a blackmailer threatens Jim’s campaign, Blackie decides to handle the situation himself and kills the man. On trial, Jim has no…
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Nutshell Reviews: Men in White (1934) and Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
In a Nutshell: Men in White (1934) Directed by: Richard Boleslawski Co-stars: Myrna Loy, Elizabeth Allan, Otto Kruger Synopsis: Gable is George Ferguson, a young doctor working hard to prove himself at a New York hospital. He puts medicine and his patients before all else, much to the chagrin of his heiress fiancé, Laura (Loy). He soon learns that all work and no play lead him open to temptation and he falls for Barbara (Allan), a nurse, with devastating consequences. Best Gable Quote: “What good’s a profession that can’t give you bread and butter after you’ve wasted ten years of your life at it?” Fun Fact: On the set of…
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Some “Melodrama” in Public Enemies (2009)
I recently saw the new Johnny Depp film, Public Enemies, about notorious bank robber John Dillinger. Dillinger was famously gunned down by FBI agents in front of the Biograph Theater in Chicago, after seeing Gable’s film Manhattan Melodrama. He was set up by friend of his, Romanian prostitute Anna Sage, who was facing deportation and volunteered to hand him over to the feds in exchange for her visa. She told the FBI they would be at the movies that evening and wore an orange (later misidentified as red) dress to alert them to him. It has long been a part of movie folklore that Myrna Loy was Dillinger’s favorite actress…