Manhattan Melodrama (Blu-ray Review)
Director
W.S. Van DykeRelease Date(s)
1934 (October 28, 2025)Studio(s)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Warner Archive Collection)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B-
Review
Manhattan Melodrama features three stars in a tale of two boyhood friends who, as adults, go in opposite directions. One becomes a lawyer and prosecutor, the other runs a gambling joint and fraternizes with gangsters. An attractive woman enters their lives and becomes instrumental in shaping their destiny.
The opening is based on a real-life occurrence in New York City. In 1904. the excursion boat General Slocum catches fire and sinks in the East River. More than 1,000 people are killed, among them the mothers of Blackie (Mickey Rooney) and Jim Wade (Jimmy Butler). The two orphaned boys are adopted by Poppa Rosen (George Sidney), who’s later killed at a communist rally. While Blackie spends his youth gambling and scamming other kids, Jim stays in school.
As they mature, Blackie (Clark Gable) evades the cops and eventually owns an illicit gambling casino while Jim (William Powell) earns a law degree and is soon promoted to assistant district attorney. Blackie has an apparently racy girlfriend, Eleanor (Myrna Loy), who in fact yearns for a traditional relationship—marriage and family—that seems unlikely with Blackie. One evening, Eleanor keeps Blackie’s dinner date with Jim because Blackie is busy. Charmed by Jim’s gentlemanly manners and lifestyle, she leaves Blackie to be with Jim. Blackie is unexpectedly supportive, telling her what a great guy Jim is.
Blackie is implicated in murder and Jim, now elected District Attorney, charges him with the crime and presents a solid case in court. His priority is following the law and fulfilling the trust of the people who elected him.
Powell has the less interesting role of the two male leads. The character of Jim is written as a saintly metaphor of Good. Scenes of him struggling with his conscience aren’t convincing. Jim, urbane, refined, and annoyingly self-righteous, is a beacon of goodness, dedication, and unswerving duty to the law. As such, he’s dull and colorless.
Gable is well cast as the rakish free spirit who thumbs his nose at laws that conflict with his business. Loy has a thankless role as a woman who doesn’t seem to know what she wants. Even after leaving Blackie, Eleanor uses her influence on Jim to help Blackie. The script doesn’t allow Loy much room for nuance and her character comes off as ineffectual and indecisive.
W.S. Van Dyke, who would have greater luck with Powell and Loy in The Thin Man series, gets decent performances from the cast, but it’s Gable who comes off best, though his character seems too noble to believe. Van Dyke moves the story along effectively, but transitions are often abrupt, especially Eleanor’s attraction to Jim after a single meeting. Leo Carrillo as Father Joe, a priest who consoles the boys after the boating tragedy, provides sentiment and Nat Pendleton as Spud, a dim-witted associate of Blackie’s, supplies humor.
Manhattan Melodrama is notable for being the film that John Dillinger saw before he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago by FBI agents on July 22, 1934. It’s also the first time the Richard Rogers/Lorenz Hart melody for Blue Moon was heard, but under the title The Bad in Every Man, sung by Shirley Ross in a nightclub sequence with lyrics that begin, “Oh, Lord, what is the matter with me / I’m just permitted to see / The bad in every man.” With new lyrics under the title Blue Moon, the song would become a standard of the American Popular Songbook.
Manhattan Melodrama was shot by director of photography James Wong Howe on 35mm black & white film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.37:1. The Blu-ray features a new HD master from 4K scans of the best available preservation elements. Clarity is excellent. Details are sharp, with one of Myrna Loy’s gowns glimmering and sparkling as it reflects light. Miniatures of the General Slocum burning on the East River are edited with close-ups of passengers panicking. The stars are lit in the style of MGM, making them seem to glow. Myrna Loy looks great and is photographed to accentuate her glamour.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio. English SDH subtitles are an option. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Sound is most impressive in the prologue during the fire on the General Slocum with screaming passengers, myriad languages, bodies plunging into the river, crackling fire, and general panic heightening the tragedy. Sound effects include a few gun shots, jail doors clanking shut, and police sirens.
Bonus materials on the Blu-ray release from the Warner Archive Collection include the following materials:
- Lux Radio Theater (58:48)
- The Big Idea (19:13)
- Roast Beef and Movies (16:15)
- Theatrical Trailer (2:49)
Lux Radio Theater – Hosted by Cecil B. DeMille, this radio broadcast, originally aired on September 9, 1940, stars William Powell, Myra Loy and Don Ameche in an adaptation of Manhattan Melodrama.
The Big Idea – Ted Healy is the inept president of the Big Idea Scenario Company, whose motto is, “Ideas While You Wait.” Various visitors to his one-room office constantly interrupt his train of thought. These include a man with a machine gun, a woman who empties wastebaskets onto the floor and a trio of musicians who play Marching Through Georgia on various instruments. Ted imagines his idea as a radio show received enthusiastically by the listening audience. His girlfriend Honey has a different notion of what the Big Idea is. The Three Stooges—Larry Fine, Moe Howard, and Curly Howard—are featured in this 1934 film.
Roast Beef and Movies – Produced by MGM in 1933, this short features the only solo appearance by Jerry “Curly” Howard of The Three Stooges. He, George Givot, and Bobby Callahan play aspiring filmmakers trying to sell bad movie ideas to producers. Technicolor musical numbers featuring the Albertina Rasch Dancers in geometric patterns and the music of Dimitri Tiomkin are interpolated with the comedy bits.
The plot of Manhattan Melodrama seems familiar, though in 1934, it hadn’t been used repeatedly in movies. The cast is excellent, but the script doesn’t live up to their talents. The film emphasizes the thin line between good and bad characters. Clark Gable’s star power is a significant asset in giving the picture some MGM class, Myrna Loy looks striking in slinky gowns, and William Powell delivers a courtly performance that would become his trademark as Nick Charles in The Thin Man films.
- Dennis Seuling