Manhattan Melodrama (1934) on Netflix
Passed19341h 33mCrimeDramaRomance
Orphaned in the General Slocum disaster, Blackie Gallagher and Jim Wade grow up as friends. Blackie runs an illegal casino; Jim becomes an assistant district attorney; both love Eleanor Packer.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.1/105,376 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes81%
Trailer
Plot summary
A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York's East River orphans two boys, Blackie Gallagher and Jim Wade. Father Joe, a priest, rescues them, and Poppa Rosen, whose own son died in the sinking, takes them in. At a Communist rally where he heckles Leon Trotsky, a policeman's horse tramples Rosen to death. The boys stay close as they grow. Jim studies law and becomes an assistant in the district attorney's office. Blackie becomes the owner of an illegal casino; raids happen, but the police are paid off and the place reopens as soon as they go. Eleanor, Blackie's girlfriend, wants him to marry her and leave his dangerous life, but he will not.
Cast
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Notorious criminal John Dillinger saw Manhattan Melodrama at Chicago's Biograph Theater on July 22, 1934, and federal agents shot him dead as he left the building.
- For a Harlem nightclub scene, Shirley Ross sang in blackface a song Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart called "The Bad in Every Man"; after the film opened, Lorenz Hart rewrote the lyrics and it became "Blue Moon".
- Filmed quickly on a modest budget and expected to earn only a small profit, Manhattan Melodrama was a smash hit that surprised MGM and made major stars of Myrna Loy and William Powell, the first of their fourteen screen pairings.
