Manhattan Melodrama

Manhattan Melodrama is a 1934 American PreCode crime melodrama film, produced by MGM, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, and starring Clark Gable, William Powell, and Myrna Loy. The movie also provided one of the earliest film roles for Mickey Rooney, who played Gables character as a child.

On June 15, 1904, the ship General Slocum catches fire and sinks in New Yorks East River. Two boys, Blackie Gallagher Mickey Rooney and Jim Wade Jimmy Butler, are rescued by a priest, Father Joe Leo Carrillo, but are orphaned by the disaster. They are taken in by another survivor, Poppa Rosen George Sidney, who lost his young son in the sinking. The boys live with Poppa Rosen for a short while then Rosen, a Russian Jew, is trampled to death by a policemans horse after he heckles Leon Trotsky at a Communist rally and a melee breaks out.The boys remain close friends, though their lives diverge. Studious from the very beginning, Jim played as an adult by William Powell gets his law degree and eventually becomes the assistant district attorney. Blackie is a cheerful, happygolucky kid who loves to throw dice and trick other kids out of their money he Clark Gable becomes the owner of a fancy, if illegal, casino. Though his casino is regularly raided, the cops have been paid off and business resumes immediately after they leave. Blackies girlfriend Eleanor Myrna Loy loves him, but pleads with him in vain to marry her and give up his dangerous life. ........

Source: Wikipedia