John Dillinger saw this movie in a theater immediately before he was ambushed and killed by the FBI, well at least it was a good one. Given its title one might be suspecting one of those 'White Teleophone' pictures common at the time, all plush apartments, heiresses, and tears. Manhattan Melodrama could probably be categorized as a 'crime drama' but its really a story about friendship. The structure or organizing principle of the film is one perhaps most associated with the classic Cagney/O'Brien feature Angels with Dirty Faces, two childhood friends end up on opposite sides of the track and one must ultimately sacrifice himself for the principles of the other.
In this case the two friends are Clark Gable and William Powell. When they are children (Micky Rooney plays Gable as a boy) their respective parents are killed in a tragic steam boat accident (you've got to love a film that features a river boat fire in the first five minutes). The two are briefly taken in by a nice Jewish man but he's killed in a riot and the film then becomes rather vague about how the two survived. Natural born con artist and charmer Gable goes on to become a kind of crime lord lite (he goes by Blackie), while studious Powell ends up an earnest and dedicated lawyer in the district attorneys office. Interestingly the two remain friends, Powell openly lets Gable know that if he's every arrested it will be his duty to prosecute, Gable for his part still respects, even venerates Powell envisioning a successful future political career for his friend.
Eventually Powell is elected district attorney, unable to attend Gable sends his girlfriend Myrna Loy to the celebrations, and of course love blooms. While Gable loves Loy he seems to love Powell even more and wishes the two the best as they embark on a romance that ends in marriage. As time goes by Powell is put up by his party to run for Governor, an associate in the DA's office expects to ride his coattails up the political ladder, but Powell knows him to be corrupt and even dismisses him from his current position. The bitter ex-associate threatens to defame Powell, charging that he purposely let Gable off on the murder of a bookie he is widely rumored to have killed (he is actually not prosecuted for lack of evidence). Loy tells Gable this, Gable kills the crooked former lawyer, Powell makes good on his promise to prosecute Gable if he was ever arrested, Gable's sentenced to death and Powell is elected governor.
Though he loves Gable, Powell refuses to grant him a stay of execution, feeling it would be an abuse of his power to intervene legally for the sake of a friend, as well as a betrayal of the voters who elected him on his anti-crime credentials. On the night Gable is to be executed Loy tells Powell that Gable committed the murder in order to ensure his election as governor. Loy says she'll leave Powell if he lets Gable be executed, he sticks to his principles and says he can not let Gable off. Torn Powell goes to visit Gable as he awaits execution, he moved by his friends willingness to face execution for the sake of his friend, in fact Gable is down right nonchalant about his impending execution. Powell wavers and offers to save Gables life, Gable refuses and is executed.
How Powell got elected governor I'll never know, he is simply too virtuous. Viewing his 'moment of weakness' in offering to save his friends life as making him unworthy of his high office Powell resigns the governorship (kind of a betrayal of what Gable sacrificed his life for if you think about it), he and Loy are reunited. A melodrama to be sure, and a good one. Charming and anchored by fine performances this is an engaging and likable picture, and while too unlikely a story for the real world, as cinematic morality tale it excels.
Grade: B +
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