On May 4,1934 (eighty-fiveyears ago, yesterday), "Manhattan Melodrama" is released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A low-budget programmer featuring MGM contract players, it becomes a substantial hit.
"Melodrama" is notable for a whole host of reasons:
It wins writer Arthur Caesar an Academy Award for "Best Original Story" ... and its plot-line bears strong similarities to Warner Bros. "Angels With Dirty Faces" (1938). (Warners didn't pay any money for story writes, so far as I know, it just did a little friendly plagiarism. And it's probably far enough from Caesar's story to get by. ...)
It is the only time that Clark Gable and William Powell (who were both married to Carole Lombard at different times) co-starred in a feature together.
It's the FIRST time that Myrna Loy co-stars with either Clark Gable or William Powell, both of whom go on to team with her multiple times over the next decade.
"Melodrama" is directed by W.S. "Woody" Van Dyke, known as "one-take" Van Dyke. Shot from mid-March to early April, 1934, Van Dyke is filming "The Thin Man" when retakes and additional material for "MM" are helmed by George Cukor, (who will go on to direct the first three weeks of a Civil War picture starring Gable in 1939, then let go in favor of director Victor Fleming). Re: "The Thin Man", Van Dyke has to fight to get Myrna Loy her co-starring role with Powell. M-G-M brass don't see her as being right for the part.
And (of course) "Manhattan Melodrama" is the last film viewed by gangster John Dillinger before being gunned down by the Feds. (M-G-M's publicity department mkes much of this while promoting the picture, which Myrna Loy finds extremely tacky.)
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