Powell, Loy, Gable. What a sandwich!!




Manhattan Melodrama (1934) Clark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy. One of the best crime dramas of the era. Two boys are brought up by a man who lost his son in the disaster of a river boat that caught fire and sank. One boy grows up a gangster; the other to be the D.A. who puts his friend away for execution. Along the way, both meet and fall in love with a woman of the demimonde. The gangster does a killing to help his friend and the friend ends up almost ruining himself to keep from lying. But D.A. Jim Wade convicts Blackie Gallagher of the murder, marries the woman; runs for, and wins the Governor's office, and then must decide whether to commute Blackies's sentence. The scene in which Gable tells Powell not to be silly, to let him make the final walk, is very effective. As Powell walks into the darkened corridor the overhead lights dim and his friend is gone. The final scenes between Loy and Powell reconciling seem tacked on. It would have been more powerful to end with both men taking their final walk, one to death; one to greatness. 8/10 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025464/

to be con't....