Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2708 in VHS
• Released on: 1994-06-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Formats: Black & White, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Customer Reviews

Manhattan Melodrama is a Classic
I finally got my copy of Manhattan Melodrama, and I was pleasantly surprise by the quality of the acting, direction and the script. The is movie is a classic, and a must for any film library.
Myrna Loy as alway was fantastic in this movie, but so was Clark Gable and William Powell. It is a story about two orphan boys who grew up together, but took different path in life, and the woman who love them both.
Myrna Loy was beautiful as ever, and she play her part as well as could be played by any actress, William Powell was urbane as ever, but Clark Gable playing the role of a Mobster was a surprise to me, he did a credible job with his part.
If you are a Myrna Loy fan or even if you are not a fan, but love a good movie, I recommend that you get this movie for your library.

Melodrama with a Bite
Melodramatic, yes, but this movie has some meat to it that I wasn't expecting. Clark Gable and William Powell play childhood friends who grow up to be a hood and a respected judge, respectively. Both have a thing for Myrna Loy, but the expected rivalry for which this plot would seem to be tailor made never comes. Instead, there's a refreshingly serious story about the boundaries of loyalty and friendship. When Gable is accused of murder and sentenced to the death penalty, it is Powell's duty to decide whether or not to let his personal feelings for Gable interfere with his practice of legal justice.

Loy pops up throughout, but, unfortunately, she's window dressing. (Side note: My wife and I decided to have a Myrna Loy theme to our New Year's movie night, and rented this and "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer." We couldn't have picked two Myrna Loy movies that do a worse job of showing off Myrna Loy). No, this movie belongs to the men, and the whole affair is better than I expected it to be.

Grade: B+

Impressive for its' Time
I saw "Manhatten Melodrama" for the first time last night and I was very favorably impressed. This movie caught my attention right from the very novel beginning. We encounter our two male leads as youths on an outing. One of the child actors is a juvenile Mickey Rooney already displaying his talents. The scenes we witness are craftily designed to show us just how close a bond these two youths were developing. We get another series of scenes that let us know the different directions each of them takes toward their adult life. Naturally these glimpses show us two best friends headed in opposite directions. One becomes a criminal and the other a District Attorney. There is a woman who who doesn't so much come between them as serves as a connection between them. Their paths cross from time to time until a serious crime is committed. I'll leave the plot there because you probably would have guessed this much.

The movie features three big names (plus the up-and-coming Rooney) in Clark Gable, William Powell and Myrna Loy. Their acting is well done and they have a reasonable supporting cast. The picture won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and you should be able to tell that the writing IS the outstanding part of this production. It had plenty of other nominations but this was 1934; the year of "It Happened One Night". The movies moves itself from beyond the standard "gangster movie" fare of its' time as it unfolds into a great moral dilemna. This is all well developed and reaches a powerful and emotional level that you might not have been prepared for despite the movie's title. At least, that's how it hit me. I didn't give it the top rating available...but I thought about it. It is certainly worth a look.