Saturday, June 15, 2013

June 15 - Manhattan Melodrama

Here is a movie with a scene that happens today - June 15. I hope you enjoy the film and watch it tonight. 

MANHATTAN MELODRAMA

On June 15, 1904 [1:23 to 7:46] the excursion ship, the  General Slocum catches fire and sinks in the East River. Two boys on board,  Blackie Gallagher and Jim Wade are rescued by Father Joe, but both are made orphans by the disaster. They live with Poppa Rosen for a time until he is killed when a riot breaks out after he heckles a Leon Trotsky speech. Jim is very studious and graduates from law school. Blackie is much more carefree and ends upon owning an illegal casino. His girlfriend Eleanor asks Blackie to give up his illegal activities, but he refuses.  Wade works as an Assistant District Attorney and is then elected District Attorney. Blackie can’t make a celebration of Jim’s victory and sends Eleanor in his place. They talk the night away and when Jim leaves he forgets his overcoat, with a victory doodad in the pocket.  After again unsuccessfully trying to get Blackie to give up his illegal career, Eleanor leaves him. Blackie later kills Manny Arnold who owed him a lot of money. Blackie’s lieutenant leaves Wade’s overcoat in the murder room, having not returned it to Wade as instructed by Blackie. Jim calls in Blackie to tell him that he and Eleanor are getting married, but Blackie is happy for them. Blackie uses the opportunity to give Jim a duplicate overcoat, convincing Jim that the one found in the murder room was not his, so he does not charge Blackie with the murder of Arnold. The coat’s presence had pointed the finger at Blackie, since Jim knew he had left the overcoat at Eleanor’s apartment.  Jim and Eleanor get married and he later runs for governor. His former assistant, Richard Snow, threatens to say that Jim covered up for Blackie in the Arnold murder case. Although untrue this rumor could cost Jim a close race. By chance Blackie and Eleanor   meet and she tells him about Snow’s threats. Blackie kills Snow, but is seen leaving the scene. Jim has no choice but to prosecute Blackie, who is convicted and sentenced to death.  Jim wins the election, in part because the public is convinced of his integrity after prosecuting his childhood friend for murder. Eleanor tells Jim why Blackie killed Snow, but Jim refuses to grant clemency and Eleanor leaves him. In the end Jim sees Blackie and ultimately offers to commute the death sentence, but Blackie refuses to accept the offer. Jim resigns as governor because he feels he was elected because of a murder and that in the end he compromised his principles by offering to commute Blackie’s death sentence. As he leaves, Eleanor says she was wrong about him and they are reunited. 


This film could be used as the definition of melodrama, that is a story where the plot and characters are exaggerated to appeal to your emotions.  The story is contrived, relying on coincidence and the characters are too perfect. Blackie seems to take a very ho-hum attitude towards dying in the electric chair. In real history this was the movie John Dillinger had just been to see when he was shot by the FBI.   

Date given in film at 1:25 and Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum by Edward T. O’Donnell (Broadway Books, New York, 2003) at page 217

Producer - David O. Selznick

Director - W. S. Van Dyke

Awards- The film won the now discontinued Best Original Story Oscar at the 7th
                Academy Awards. 

Screenplay - Oliver H. P. Garrett and Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Runtime – 1 hour 33 minutes

Released - May 4, 1934

Starring –

Clark Gable as Blackie Gallagher
William Powell as Jim Wade
Myrna Loy as Eleanor Packer
Leo Carrillo as Father Joe
Nat Pendleton as Spud
George Sidney as Poppa Rosen
Isabel Jewell as Annabelle
Muriel Evans as Tootsie Malone
Thomas E. Jackson as Asst. Dist. Atty. Richard Snow
Isabelle Keith as Miss Adams
Frank Conroy as Blackie's lawyer
Noel Madison as Manny Arnold
Jimmy Butler  as Jim Wade as a Boy
Mickey Rooney as Blackie as a Boy
Shirley Ross as Singer in the Cotton Club



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