The Beast of the City (1932)

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 Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell (1993) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Sweet And Lovely

Jean Hersholt as a bad guy?

I love pre-code gangster movies! While Warner's is the indisputable king, MGM threw out all the stops in what appears as an attempt to go head to head with Warner's in making a crime drama. The results are remarkable. The stars here are the cops, something WB didn't focus on until 3 years later with G-Men. John Huston does a remarkable job whose badge is on the rise but whose not afraid to get his hands dirty. His career is endangered by his reckless, irresponsible younger brother (well played by Wallace Ford, very early in his career), also a cop, who's got an eye for hard-bitten gangland moll Jean Harlow. There's several fantastic scenes: Harlow's line-up, Harlow's hoochie koochie dance, running outdoor gun battles and an outrageous final confrontation between the cops and Hersholt's gang in a restaurant. Look for a young Mickey Rooney and those twin girls that briefly announced Hal Roach's opening Our Gang credits as Huston's kids. Huston probably drew upon this role for the extremely weird Gabriel Over the White House the following year. Seeing Jean Hersholt (by all accounts one of the most lovable guys in Hollywood) playing a greasy Capone-esquire crime lord stretches disbelief, but at this point in his career he was considered a 'heavy,' and image that would drastically change over the next decade when he became synonymous with kindly Dr. Gillespie. Beast of the City gives you all this plus creative pre-Miranda police interviewing techniques--- it's cool to see those great 1929-31 Lincoln police cars racing around chasing bad guys. Beast of the City ranks with the best of the genre and thanks to TCM and TiVo I've seen it a dozen times... this is excellent! Rates a 10!