Manhattan Melodrama (1934)

Directed by W. S. Van Dyke. Starring William Powell, Clark Gable, Myrna Loy, Nat Pendleton, Leo Carrillo, George Sidney, Isabel Jewell, Muriel Evans, Thomas E. Jackson, Noel Madison.

Assembly-line crime saga of two orphaned best friends who end up on opposite sides of the law as adults—one, Jim (Powell), becomes an assistant district attorney and candidate for governor, while the other, Blackie (Gable), becomes a gangster who runs an illegal casino. Plugged full of awkward and corny moments—and plot points that have become trite clichés in the years after—but still fairly entertaining thanks to a relatively brisk pace and the star power on hand; the script even provides a love interest played by Loy that both men “share,” though it refreshingly never turns into a dime-store love triangle. Gained a certain level of notoriety for being the film that John Dillinger had just finished watching when he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago (which subsequently caused the pic to turn into a box office hit); should also be notorious for its hysterical casting, which suggests that Mickey Rooney (in a small role as young Blackie) would grow up to look like Clark Gable. Academy Award winner for Best Original Story. The only movie that ever featured both Gable and Powell, but the first of fourteen screen collaborations for Powell and Loy, who’d each step into their most iconic roles later that same year as Nick and Nora Charles in The Thin Man.

67/100