==from Filmsite==Manhattan Melodrama (1934), 93 minutes, D: W.S. Van Dyke II
Two New York City boyhood friends, Blackie Gallagher (Mickey Rooney as boy, Clark Gable as adult) and Jim Wade (Jimmy Butler as boy, William Powell as adult) are raised as orphans together, and grow up to choose opposite sides of the law - Gallagher becomes a slick gangster and racketeer, and Wade a noble and aggressive District Attorney. They both fall in love with the same charming woman Eleanor (Myrna Loy) who is caught between opposing forces. Their paths cross later in a murder trial. Notable for the first film teaming Powell and Loy (who later would become famous with The Thin Man series) and for being the film that bank robber John Dillinger watched (for its similarity to his own life), prior to being killed outside Chicago's Biograph Theatre by the FBI in 1934.
==from the FBI==
A BYTE OUT OF HISTORY:The Fall of John Dillinger and the Rise of the FBI
07/23/04
The movie playing at the Biograph Theater on this hot, muggy summer night was
Manhattan Melodrama, starring Clark Gable as the ruthless gangster Blackie Gallagher.
But it was the real-life drama starring notorious outlaw John Dillinger that was playing out on the streets of Chicago on this particular Sunday evening that would ultimately captivate the nation and forever transform the FBI.
On July 22, 1934--seventy years ago Thursday--a nervous Melvin Purvis, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau's office in Chicago, stood near the Biograph box office. He'd seen Dillinger walk into the crowded theater about two hours earlier with two women, including one in an orange skirt (often called a "red dress") who had tipped off authorities that the wanted criminal would be there. Now, Purvis was waiting for Dillinger to re-emerge.
Suddenly, Purvis saw him. Purvis took out a match and lit his cigar. It was a pre-arranged signal to the Bureau agents and local police officers taking part in the operation, but in the thick crowd less than half a dozen of the men saw it.
In the past year, many such opportunities to catch the wanted outlaw and other gangsters had gone up in smoke. The Bureau had learned many lessons, often the hard way, in the process. Three months earlier, a special agent had been gunned down following a hastily planned raid on a Dillinger gang hideout in Wisconsin. And 13 months earlier, the Bureau had lost an agent and three law enforcement partners at the hands of "Pretty Boy" Floyd and others in the infamous "Kansas City Massacre."
But on this night, the Bureau was prepared. The arrangement of agents, the setting of the signal, and the careful preparation were evidence that the Bureau was learning how to catch the most violent criminals. The plan was not perfect, but it was sound, with agents covering all theater exits and directions Dillinger might take.
As Dillinger walked down the street, agents fell in behind him and closed in. Dillinger sensed something was wrong, and as Agent Charles Winstead would later describe, the gangster "whirled around and reached for his right front pocket [where he had a .380 Colt automatic pistol]. He started running sideways toward the alley."
Agents fired. Dillinger fell, mumbled a few words, and died.The successful conclusion to the Dillinger manhunt was the beginning of the end of the gangster era and a cornerstone in the evolution of the Bureau. With new powers, new skills, and within a year, a new name--the Federal Bureau of Investigation--it was well on its way to becoming a premier law enforcement agency respected around the globe.
Topic: ABCs at the Movies: The Doubles Round! (Read 2570645 times)