It is obvious that their friendship, which has endured, will be complicated by the separate paths they have taken.įurther complications arise when Myrna Loy, who has been Gable’s mistress, leaves him because of his refusal to stop gambling. Jim (Powell) has become a lawyer, preparing his campaign for district attorney. When we again meet Blackie, played by Gable, he is a big-time gambler. A bit of montage following the 1904 prologue quickly establishes, via contrast on a split screen, the gambling proclivities of one youth and the studiousness of the other. There are no let-downs in Manhattan Melodrama. Many films, to make comparisons again, would suffer a letdown after such a breathless beginning. The first is a fire aboard a pleasure-cruising Hudson River boat in which young Blackie and Jim lose their parents the second, a Communistic riot in which the kindly old Russian, who had adopted these East Side kids, is killed as an innocent bystander. The story opens with not one, but two spectacular scenes, strong enough to serve as climaxes for ordinary thrillers.
Van Dyke, it has all the elements of a sensational smash hit.
The white parade 1934 film plus#
But with the sure-fire audience plot contained in the story by Arthur Caesar and screenplay by Garrett and Mankiewicz, plus the powerful direction by W.S. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review is below:Įven if Manhattan Melodrama were only half as good as it is, you would have a hit picture in the combination of Gable, Powell and Myrna Loy. The film went on to win an Oscar for original story at the 7th Academy Awards ceremony. On May 4, 1934, MGM unveiled Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy, in theaters.