La bête de la cité

Original title: The Beast of the City

1932
Passed
1h 26m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Jean Harlow and Wallace Ford in La bête de la cité (1932)

Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it.Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it.Police Chief Jim Fitzpatrick ruthlessly goes after organized crime and is prepared to use brutal and violent methods to fight it.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

1.6K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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Top cast61

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Walter Huston

Jim Fitzpatrick

Jean Harlow

Daisy Stevens

Wallace Ford

Ed Fitzpatrick

Jean Hersholt

Sam Belmonte

Dorothy Peterson

Mary Fitzpatrick

Tully Marshall

Michaels

John Miljan

District Attorney

Emmett Corrigan

Chief of Police Burton

Warner Richmond

Sandy Roth

J. Carrol Naish

Pietro Cholo

Eddie Baker

Detective
(uncredited)

Elmer Ballard

Mayor
(uncredited)

Sammy Blum

Turnkey
(uncredited)

Edward Brophy

Police Dispatcher
(uncredited)

Ed Cassidy

Policeman #5 on Telephone
(uncredited)

Allan Cavan

Pat - Car 47 Driver
(uncredited)

Eddy Chandler

Joel - Policeman Outside Car 47
(uncredited)

Director
- Charles Brabin
Writers
All cast & crew
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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Mickey Rooney had just turned 11 years old when he played Walter Huston's young son in his first full-length sound feature film. His character's name is also "Mickey," and his first line is, "Say, those don't look like pancakes!"

Goofs
When Ed and Daisy first kiss, in a medium shot, he's holding her head in the crook of his left arm, and her right had is on his side. In the next closer shot, his arm is down and her right hand is up on his lapel.

Quotes
Daisy Stevens, aka Mildred Beaumont: [Ed grabs her arm tightly] Say! That hurts a little bit.
Det. Ed Fitzpatrick: And you don't like to be hurt, do you?
Daisy Stevens, aka Mildred Beaumont: Oh, I don't know.
[Suggestively]
Daisy Stevens, aka Mildred Beaumont: Kinda fun sometimes if it's done in the right spirit.
Det. Ed Fitzpatrick: [Pushes her away] Get the beer!

Crazy credits
Opening card: Instead of the glorification of cowardly gangsters, we need the glorification of policemen who do their duty and give their lives in public protection. If the police had the vigilant universal backing of the public opinion in their communities, if they had the implacable support of the prosecuting authorities and the courts, I am convinced that our police would stamp out the excessive crime, which had disgraced some of our great cities. ---- President Herbert Hoover

Connections
Featured in Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell (1993)

Soundtracks
Chopsticks
(1877) (uncredited)
Traditional piano tune
Music by Euphemia Allen
Played on piano by Betty Mae Crane and Beverly Crane

User reviews39

Featured review

8/10

Take away your guns and your hop and you're nothing but crawling yellow maggots

Grim and gritty pre-Code crime drama about a tough-as-nails police captain (Walter Huston) with a hard-on for wiping out crime. His brother (Wallace Ford) falls for a vampy bad girl (Jean Harlow). Through her, he gets involved with gangster Sam Belmonte (a miscast Jean Hersholt). This leads to an inevitable clash between brothers.

Well-directed and well-written with solid acting, especially for 1932. Harlow is her usual alluring self. Huston is great in a part that is not very sympathetic, despite his being the protagonist. Early work by J. Carrol Naish as Hersholt's henchman, Cholo. Speaking of Hersholt, he was the only suspect casting. I'm not bashing Hersholt because he was a fine actor. But hearing him spout gangster slang through his thick accent was a little silly. Mickey Rooney has a small part as one of Huston's kids.

Another great Walter Huston movie from the '30s. He made a lot of interesting ones. The aim of this particular film is to glorify cops not criminals. At least that's what the Herbert Hoover-signed message before the credits says. Yet the ultimate message of the movie is that in order for the cops to stop the criminals, they have to abandon the rule of law and take matters into their own hands. The final shoot-out between the gangsters and the vigilante cops is amazing.