AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

jacobs-greenwood Directed by W. S. Van Dyke and George Cukor (uncredited), with a screenplay co-written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, this film is reported to be the one that "Myrna Loy fan" John Dillinger went to see at a Chicago theater, after which he was gunned down by the FBI. Arthur Caesar's Original Story won an Oscar. It also contains the song "The Bad in Every Man" which later became "Blue Moon". It was remade, with several modifications, as Northwest Rangers (1942).Boyhood pals Jim and Blackie (Mickey Rooney) lose their parents tragically and are adopted by a nice man they know. Jim is nice "straight as an arrow" type of kid; Blackie is always shooting dice and/or trying to scam the other kids out of their money. Fast forward 16 years, Jim (William Powell) has earned a law degree; Blackie (Clark Gable) runs an illegal gambling establishment. Blackie's girlfriend Eleanor (Myrna Loy) is tired of all the gambling, wanting Blackie to leave it all, marry her, and settle down.Jim and Blackie, with Eleanor in tow, run into one another at a prize fight & promise to catch up with each other sometime soon. When they try, Eleanor is left waiting with Jim while Blackie's business concerns delay him. After Blackie fails to show in a reasonable amount of time, Eleanor and Jim get acquainted, she being somewhat wistful of his clean life. When Jim takes Eleanor home in the wee hours, he accidentally leaves his overcoat at her place. Blackie finally returns to Eleanor's and finds Jim's coat, which he likes enough to ask his flunkie Spud (Nat Pendleton) to have duplicated before he returns the original to Jim.Some time later, Jim, who is now District Attorney, runs into Eleanor, who is no longer Blackie's girl, and they begin seeing each other. Meanwhile, Blackie and Spud, who've been unable to collect a gambling debt from Manny Arnold, arrive at his hotel room to settle up. When Manny still can't pay, Blackie shoots & kills him, but Spud inadvertently leaves behind Blackie's overcoat. While investigating Arnold's murder, Jim recognizes the coat, thinking it's his own, and assumes Blackie had gotten it from Eleanor. Not knowing about the duplicate, he calls Blackie into his office. But since Spud had forgotten & never returned Jim's original to him, Blackie is able to have Spud bring it into Jim's office to clear himself. However, Jim warns Blackie that he better keep his nose clean, that he won't hesitate to throw the book at him if he doesn't. To which Blackie replies, he'd be disappointed in Jim if he didn't.Jim and Eleanor marry and he decides to run for governor. But the Assistant DA, who has his own reasons for being upset with Jim, decides to try and tarnish Jim's name by accusing him of letting Blackie off easy in the Arnold murder case, because of their friendship. When Eleanor sees Blackie and mentions that she's worried about the Assistant DA's actions, Blackie kills him in a washroom. However, his act was witnessed and Blackie is arrested. Eleanor visits Blackie in prison, but he tells her to keep his motive secret from Jim. Blackie is convicted, and Jim is responsible for getting him the death penalty. This helps Jim get elected governor. Eleanor is distraught and "spills the beans", pleading with Jim to commute Blackie's sentence. But "straight as an arrow" Jim won't do it, so Eleanor says she's leaving him.A priest (Leo Carrillo), the men have known since they were boys, visits Blackie on death row. Jim, who has agonized over the situations of Blackie and Eleanor, rushes to the prison at the 11th hour, telling Blackie that he's changed his mind and will commute his sentence. But Blackie won't let him and faces his fate. Later, in front of all his colleagues in the State House, Jim resigns as governor. Waiting for him outside is Eleanor, and they reconcile as the film ends.

mark.waltz One of the most famous of early hamster films, not only for its all- star cast, but for its relation to the death of brutal gangster John Dillinger. Clark Gable may be the gangster here, but Dillinger apparently went to see this because of his affection for its leading lady, Myrna Loy. She's Gable's old girlfriend who ends up choosing to become the wife of his old pal, William Powell, who is a candidate for governor. It's a common story among gangster movies, boys gone both bad and good, and one's sadness at seeing the state of the others life. Gable was the headliner, the biggest male star of the time, and went home with the Oscar (for "It Happened One Night"), while Powell and Loy went onto become one of the great screen teams of all time. The three are awesome together, and it's easy to see why this is considered one of the all time classic dramas.There are elements of racism, sexism (towards men and women) and a few shocking elements of pre-code Hollywood that made that era so much fun. The Rodgers and Hart song, "Blue Moon", is heard here in another version, a song about how all men are bad and only out to break a woman's heart. Thanks for that memory, Shirley Ross. Nat Pendleton is the typical dumb, brutal thug, and Mickey Rooney plays Gable as a kid. In spite of a few eye rolling moments, though, it's practically perfect. Manhattan may continue to face melodrama more than 80 years later, but it was never done with such elegance as this is, through the eyes and camera lens of the fast moving W.S. Van Dyke.

DarthVoorhees 'Manhattan Melodrama' is the kind of film that has been referenced so often to the point where it's kind of become a cliché. The 30's Gangster picture is really one of the great joys I have in film. All of them generally follow the same plot line, an anti-hero gangster lives large on the heels of prohibition but eventually the world comes crashing down on them and they are forced to reconcile for their sins via the Hays Code. 'Manhattan Melodrama' is exactly what it's title suggests, all these gangster pictures were melodramas and sometimes I love that sweet sap.The only thing really different about Melodrama that distinguishes it from other gangster pictures of the time is that it deals with a friendship with two characters on different sides of the law. It takes this storyline very seriously and it works in large part thanks to the performances of both Powell and his counter part who is of course the suave and cool Clark Gable as the gangster Blackie Gallagher. I wished the film had dealt more with the deterioration of this friendship. But you can't cast Gable as someone who is a complete villain and so while Blackie does villainous things he never quite crosses the threshold and always loves his surrogate brother Jim Wade. Powell is good as Wade and I like how the character is written as a man with an insanely strict moral compass who has a friend in Blackie.The biggest thing I wanted to see though was these friends being forced to reconcile their natures with their friendship. These two men can't be friends and love each other in the two worlds they live in. The film really comes to an unsatisfying conclusion largely because of the lack of emotion involved. Blackie agrees with the charges against him and his crimes and is willing to pay for them with his life because of his love for Wade and Wade tries to fend off emotion and execute Blackie as Governor because of his moral code. Never is there a moment where these two ask "Why are we friends and why did it have to come to this?" And if Blackie truly does die because of his love for Wade then having Wade resign as Governor truly ruins his death. If this was a story about dear friendship to the bitter end wouldn't it be more poignant if Blackie made a sacrifice? These characters let everything play out without trying to skew destiny or question it.Why is this a fun picture? Gable. I could see this very easily being forgettable hadn't he been here. Gable might just have been the actor with the most charisma and presence in the long history of motion pictures. The picture works a lot because of Gable who is just so darn interesting and cool as Blackie who isn't really that great a character. The epitome of Gable's presence has to be Blackie's last scenes before his execution. He is really delivering dime story philosophies of life which as written are pretty stupid but as delivered by Clark Gable are amazing. It is just really really fun to see Gable dressed up as the gangster and go through the wiseguy talk in an MGM sound picture no less! What do I think of the film overall? For those who love gangster films it's a must see. It delivers on everything you come to expect and it comes from really one of the most fun performers to watch in film. It's a fun movie.

wuxmup Clark Gable plays a really sweet, caring guy who just happens to be a top mobster and cold-blooded killer. William Powell, less than month before his first appearance as wealthy gumshoe Nick Charles in "The Thin Man," is the uncorruptible Manhattan DA who saved Gable's life when they were kids. And Myrna Loy, less than a month before she first appeared as wealthy gumshoe-ette Nora Charles, is the Woman Who Loves Them Both.Gable finds himself in a quandary: should he let old buddy Powell lose the big election over a dirty lie? Or should he risk the chair to help him?Decisions, decisions.How times have changed: a chiseler who's borrowed a bundle from Gable pleads, "I thought I could pay, Blackie! But I ain't got the dough! Please lemme have just a little more time! A couple more days!"Gable snarls, "I'll give you more time! You got two months! You'll pay then...or else!" Wow! Two months with no penalty! You can't a get a deal like that from your own bank! That's the kind of movie this is.So how can it be as good as it is? Gable, Loy, and Powell. Like so many old-time stars, G and P learned early on how to play just one character each (let's call them Rhett and Nick) and they played them to perfection till they quit making movies. Loy was a little more flexible (check out The Best Years of Our Lives), but here she is, Nora Charles before "Nora" was even born.Nat Pendleton plays one of his trademark goons, and in a small role the Harlowesque Muriel Evans shines, almost literally, as Tootsie.