, 1h33 Directed byGeorge Cukor, W. S. Van Dyke OriginUSA GenresDrama, Crime, Romance ThemesFilms about capital punishment ActorsClark Gable, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Nat Pendleton, George Sidney, Mickey Rooney Roles Chemin de Fer Dealer Rating70% On June 15, 1904, the ship General Slocum catches fire and sinks in New York's 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 policeman's horse after he heckles Leon Trotsky at a Communist rally and a melee breaks out.