Assistant director: Lesley Selander. Music editor: W. Donn Hayes. Sound recording: Douglas Shearer. Producer: David O. Selznick. Executive producer: William Randolph Hearst. Copyright 3 May 1934 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. A Cosmopolitan picture. New York opening at both the Capitol and Loew's Metropolitan, 4 May 1934. U.S. release: 6 May 1934. U.K. release: 27 October 1934. London opening at the Empire, 24 May 1934. Australian release: 19 September 1934. 9 reels. 93 minutes.
SYNOPSIS: Two orphan boys are adopted by a kindly Jewish tailor. One grows up to become assistant district attorney, the other a gangster.
NOTES: Academy Award, Arthur Caesar, Original Story (defeating Hide- Out by Mauri Grashin and The Richest Girl in the World by Norman Krasna).
Shooting commenced 12 March 1934 and finished 3 April 1934 (one day ahead of schedule). Five days of re-takes were then directed by George Cukor and photographed by Oliver T. Marsh.
Negative cost: $355,000. Gross domestic rentals: $770,000.
COMMENT: Fast-paced, brilliantly directed melodrama. Van Dyke's stylish attention to detail (the way Gable throws the key away; the lights dimming off in the prison corridor), his mastery of crowd scenes (the stairway to the fight — before and after) and expertise with set- pieces (the excursion fire; the two murders) have never been better realized than here. He receives a big assist from the clipped film editing of Ben Lewis. The dialogue is witty ("Thanks for returning my coat. Admittedly, it was a rather roundabout way") and realistic ("Mr. Wade is late. We will start without him."), a credit to screenwriters Garrett and Mankiewicz.
The photography of Jimmy Wong Howe is also a major asset, though he tends to photograph Gable and Loy at Powell's expense. The special effects by Slavko Vorkapich are most effective, the sets contrive to look both attractive and realistic. There's also a smart song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
OTHER VIEWS: It is certainly a melodrama and yet it is put across with a great deal of style and flair, well acted, expansively produced and its implied social comment more the type of film that might be expected of Warner Bros. than MGM. A particularly trenchant attack on the New York police force who are presented on the one hand as murdering conscienceless thugs and on the other as cheerful grifters and grafters. Morally, it's quite daring for MGM too with Myrna Loy's sassy, self-possessed gangster's moll and Clark Gable as the breezy, charming, lying, cheating, murdering thug. One can certainly detect Mankiewicz's hand in the smart dialog.
Comic relief Nat Pendleton and his equally unfunny moll, let us hope, owe their existence to the pen of Mr. Garrett. The hokey priest so sententiously played by Leo Carillo (fortunately his part is small) also smells of Garrett's ink, but there is a fine music score. And I love the atmospheric photography by James Wong Howe. Arthur Caesar's original story was to be re-used extensively by Hollywood. He deserved his Academy Award many times over! – John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.
SYNOPSIS: Two orphan boys are adopted by a kindly Jewish tailor. One grows up to become assistant district attorney, the other a gangster.
NOTES: Academy Award, Arthur Caesar, Original Story (defeating Hide- Out by Mauri Grashin and The Richest Girl in the World by Norman Krasna).
Shooting commenced 12 March 1934 and finished 3 April 1934 (one day ahead of schedule). Five days of re-takes were then directed by George Cukor and photographed by Oliver T. Marsh.
Negative cost: $355,000. Gross domestic rentals: $770,000.
COMMENT: Fast-paced, brilliantly directed melodrama. Van Dyke's stylish attention to detail (the way Gable throws the key away; the lights dimming off in the prison corridor), his mastery of crowd scenes (the stairway to the fight — before and after) and expertise with set- pieces (the excursion fire; the two murders) have never been better realized than here. He receives a big assist from the clipped film editing of Ben Lewis. The dialogue is witty ("Thanks for returning my coat. Admittedly, it was a rather roundabout way") and realistic ("Mr. Wade is late. We will start without him."), a credit to screenwriters Garrett and Mankiewicz.
The photography of Jimmy Wong Howe is also a major asset, though he tends to photograph Gable and Loy at Powell's expense. The special effects by Slavko Vorkapich are most effective, the sets contrive to look both attractive and realistic. There's also a smart song by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart.
OTHER VIEWS: It is certainly a melodrama and yet it is put across with a great deal of style and flair, well acted, expansively produced and its implied social comment more the type of film that might be expected of Warner Bros. than MGM. A particularly trenchant attack on the New York police force who are presented on the one hand as murdering conscienceless thugs and on the other as cheerful grifters and grafters. Morally, it's quite daring for MGM too with Myrna Loy's sassy, self-possessed gangster's moll and Clark Gable as the breezy, charming, lying, cheating, murdering thug. One can certainly detect Mankiewicz's hand in the smart dialog.
Comic relief Nat Pendleton and his equally unfunny moll, let us hope, owe their existence to the pen of Mr. Garrett. The hokey priest so sententiously played by Leo Carillo (fortunately his part is small) also smells of Garrett's ink, but there is a fine music score. And I love the atmospheric photography by James Wong Howe. Arthur Caesar's original story was to be re-used extensively by Hollywood. He deserved his Academy Award many times over! – John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.