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Manhattan Melodrama (1934) is a crime melodrama film, produced by MGM Pictures.
It was directed by W. S. Van Dyke and starred 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 film was also the subject of publicity when it was reported that the gangster John Dillinger was shot dead after leaving a screening of the film. Myrna Loy was among those who expressed distaste at the studio's willingness to exploit this event for the financial benefit of the film.
Arthur Caesar won an Academy Award for Best Story for this film.
The film starts with two boys, Blackie Gallagher and Jim Wade who become firm friends through adversity. As adults, Gallagher (Gable) and Wade (Powell) take entirely different career paths. While the exhuberant Gallagher has become a racketeer, the more studious Wade has become a District Attorney. Although at odds with each other, the two understand and respect each other. When Wade meets Eleanor (Loy) and marries her, Gallagher also falls in love with her, but the friendship between the two men prevails. Wade's career rises and he becomes Governor, but Gallagher murders a rival for Wade's office. Convicted of murder, Gallagher is sentenced to death, and as Governor, Wade has the power to commute his sentence. In the final scenes, Wade visits Gallagher in prison but Gallagher rejects Wade's suggestions and accepts his fate. The film ends with Gallagher walking away from his friend and towards his own execution.
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