Warner Archive nicely goes the extra mile regarding the August 8, 20117 DVD release of the 1934 Clark Gable/William Powell/Myrna Loy romcrimedram "Manhattan Melodrama." The description on the DVD back cover includes a primer on the historically notable aspects of the film, which extend well beyond this being the first of many screen pairings of Powell and Loy.
Archive further includes an amusing short aptly titles "Goofy Movies #2" and the not-so-politically correct cartoon "The Old Pioneer." Archive deserves further praise for refraining from the wienie move of disclaiming "Pioneer" as reflecting a less enlightened time; all reasonable people know (and understand) that we have come a long way in 80-plus years Baby.
Warner shares as well that this tale of boyhood friends earns a Oscar for Best Original story; the scribes who earn this honor include Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who is the Great Uncle of film expert/TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.
The following YouTube clip of the theatrical trailer for "Melodrama" highlights the 30slicious style promotion of this talkies. In this case, the movie lives up to the hype.
Archivists to whom this film about two men who grow up as brothers only to end up on different sides of the law and to fall in love with the same woman seems familiar are right. The Archive collection includes an August 2014 DVD of the (Unreal TV reviewed) similar John Garfield film "East of the River."
We first meet Ed "Blackie" Gallagher (Gable) and Jim Wade (Powell) as tweens on a boat in 1904. (A young Mickey Rooney plays a young Gallagher with his usual elan.) A shipboard tragedy triggers events that bond the boys for life.
The scenes on the boat also clearly establish that the scheming and fighting Gallagher is the Goofus (of children's magazine Highlights fame) and that studious Jim is the good brother Gallant of the pair. Jim spends much of his shipboard time quietly sitting and reading while Blackie is scrapping with and cheating their peers.
A rapid series of montages shows that the boys maintain their childhood habits for roughly the next 15 years. We see Blackie evolve into the owner of a high-class illegal gambling casino that operates with the tacit approval of the NYPD. Conversely, Jim is a well-respected attorney who is a candidate for district attorney of New York.
The night of the election in the district attorney race is the turning point in the film. Blackie having to attend to business leads to his sending "doll" to this "guy" Eleanor (Loy) to keep newly-elected Jim company while Blackie tends to business. Eleanor and Jim spending a (presumably) chaste night together on that meeting gives Eleanor images of getting married and living a quiet respectable life.
For his part, Jim calmly tells Blackie that there is a new sheriff in town and that the first loyalty of this prosecutor is to enforcing the laws of New York.
The next series of momentous events occur on the New Year's Eve several weeks after the election; Blackie is fulfilling a promise to collect a gambling debt, and a stag Eleanor ends up as a literally 11th hour date of Jim.
Jim subsequently knows (but does not exert much effort proving) that the collection effort subjects Blackie to serious criminal liability; however, friendship is a factor regarding his decision to drop the matter.
Loyalty to his friend (and a sense of honor) subsequently prompts Blackie to support the bid of Jim to move into the New York governor's mansion (a.ka. Casa de Cuomo) in the best way that this gangster knows how. However, this is one time that Jim must not blink.
The brothers from different mothers reach the next inevitable stage of their friendship in finding themselves on opposing sides in a courtroom proceeding; the work of Jim in that trial lands him in the aforementioned governor's mansion and Blackie in another state-operated big house.
The next significant test of friendship comes when Jim sitting in the corner office puts him in a position to have Blackie avoid being given the chair. The manner in which these friends discuss shows why Gable and Powell are Hollywood royalty.
Gable showing "Frankly, my dear; I do give a damn" in a notable speech at the conclusion of the film demonstrates integrity to which all real-life politicians should aspire.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Melodrama" is encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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