The Beast of the City (1932)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Charles Brabin

Writers:

W.R. Burnett (story)
John Lee Mahin (dialogue continuity)

Release Date:

13 February 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

Beware the hunters who stalk their prey through city jungles!

Plot:

Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick is fighting gangster Sam Belmonte. He asks his dishonest brother Ed to...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Gangster | Brother | Police Corruption | Betrayal

Cast

Walter Huston	...	Capt. Jim Fitzpatrick
Jean Harlow	...	Daisy Stevens, aka Mildred Beaumont
Wallace Ford	...	Det. Ed Fitzpatrick
Jean Hersholt	...	Samuel 'Sam' Belmonte
Dorothy Peterson	...	Mary Fitzpatrick
Tully Marshall	...	Defense Attorney Michaels
John Miljan	...	District Attorney
Emmett Corrigan	...	Police Chief 'Burt' Burton
Warner Richmond	...	Police Lt. Tom
Sandy Roth	...	Lt. John 'Mac' McCowsky
J. Carrol Naish	...	Pietro Cholo

Also Known As:

City Sentinels (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-14

Company:

Cosmopolitan Productions

Trivia:

Fifty-two minutes into the film Daisy (Jean Harlow) has a party at her place. On a small table against the back wall is a photo of Clark Gable, her co-star in Red Dust (1932) the same year.

Quotes:

Det. Ed Fitzpatrick: Mind if I ask you some questions?
Daisy Stevens, aka Mildred Beaumont: Sure, if you don't ask them in Yiddish.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Old Black Joe

Little known and waiting to be rediscovered

This is one of the grittiest of the pre-Production Code features. It is important to realize that just two years later, with the implementation of the rewritten Production Code in 1934, this film could not have been made.

As with any piece of popular entertainment that is nearly 70 years old, there are going to be dated elements. What is more important is how relatively modern this film feels, especially compared to the films made under the Production Code after 1934. The story is a hard slice of life, and it will not suit all tastes. This is especially true for those who have been too conditioned by Production Code features and television.

The ending has been compared to Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH and Don Siegel's DIRTY HARRY, and not without cause. However, try to imagine yourself as a member of the original theatrical release audience in 1932. There would have been very little to prepare you for it, apart from DOORWAY TO HELL, LITTLE CAESAR, PUBLIC ENEMY, and SCARFACE. The difference here is that the story is told from the point of view of the men in law enforcement. It focuses on something that was common knowledge at the time, that prohibition had corrupted law enforcement far beyond the scope of anything the public had ever known.

The remedy for corruption that this film prescribes is very strong medicine indeed. You may not like it, but I defy you not to think about it for a long time after you've seen it.