Today’s movie is a
melodrama with a scene that happens on July 15. I hope you will watch this film
tonight and like it.
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 up 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
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.
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