It's hard to believe it's the same Walter Huston in this film that shows up some years later in 1948's "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" - the characters he portrays in each film don't resemble each other in the least. His role as prospector Howard in the later flick just tickled me to death, much the way he tickled those gold nuggets out of a stream. Here you've got him in a much more sober role, perhaps even too straight an arrow trying to rid the city of hoods and thugs plying the illegal booze trade.This is the kind of film Warner Brothers would often portray from the gangster's point of view, while linking a life of crime to such elements as poverty, drug use or alcoholism. This picture uses a similar tack from the side of the law, and what happens when a cop's brother decides he prefers to bypass a slow career path as a detective. Jim Fitzpatrick's (Huston) brother Ed (Wallace Ford) gets in too deep with the Sam Belmonte (Jean Hersholt) gang when his loose lips reveal a bank money transfer about to take place. It didn't help that Ed found solace in the arms of Belmonte's moll Nora Beaumont/Daisy Stephens (Jean Harlow). The credits list here on IMDb calls her Daisy, but I can't recall anyone using that name after it was acknowledged as an alias.As a pre-Code film, the story contains elements you wouldn't get to see when the industry began enforcing The Production Code in 1934. Almost all of Harlow's scenes cross that line, doing her hoochie-koochie number and seducing Ed Fitzpatrick after plying him with liquor while on the job. There's even a chase scene in which one of the outlaw Gorman Brothers shoots and kills a young kid with an errant bullet, leaving her to die on the street. Stuff like this just wouldn't pass muster with the Hays folks.There's one thing about that courtroom scene that bothered me a bit, when the prosecuting attorney was questioning the reluctant witness about the identity of the Gorman's. The intimidated witness states that "just seeing them AGAIN makes me think I'm wrong". With that single word 'AGAIN", the prosecutor should have jumped on the slip of the tongue to pursue a follow up. Instead, the defense attorney Michaels (Tully Marshall) launches into that well orchestrated, over the top summation to the jury that really piles on the emotion should the jury finds his clients guilty. It worked, though it was unusual to hear the judge come back admonishing the jury for their bad decision. That's something you don't get to see too often.As far as the resolution to the story, I'd have to agree with other posters for the film that it was done just a bit too heavy handedly. Looking like the showdown at the OK Corral, the cops descend on the gangster hideout and have it out face to face within feet of each other. One can't help questioning the logistics involved in the dying Jim Fitzpatrick's grasp of his brother's hand as both go down for the count.

Overblown antique that would be forgotten except for fans of Huston were it not for the presence of Jean Harlow in the cast. In her last supporting role before Red Headed Woman moved her to the top of the MGM pecking order she is cheap, brassy and sexual in a way that would disappear once the Hays Code went into effect in a few years. As for the rest of the film, it has pieces of dialog that are wildly inappropriate in both racial and feminist context but were standard at the time. Huston's performance is variable, mostly good but with some ham-fisted touches but he is subtlety itself compared to Tully Marshall as the defense attorney who is so florid during one of his speeches it's impossible to keep a straight face. The climax is another piece of over the top absurdity but if you're a Harlow fan the film is worth watching.

The Beast Of The City finds Walter Huston cast as a crusading and honest cop, possibly too rigidly honest. His character is a whole lot like Kirk Douglas's detective in Detective Story that would come out a generation later.The film also borrows a lot from westerns at the time. Huston's unknown western city is ruled by gangster Jean Hersholt who is apparently untouchable as far as the law is concerned. A whole lot like real life gangsters Al Capone and Lucky Luciano who were coming into prominence.Huston's family life is secure enough, wife Dorothy Peterson, a few kids among them a young Mickey Rooney. He also has his younger and weaker brother Wallace Ford living with them. Ford's got a real good deal, no rent and he apparently chases a lot of skirts. That proves to be his downfall and eventually Huston's.The skirt that did them in belonged to Jean Harlow. Jean was never a better mantrap in her career than she is The Beast Of The City. Wallace Ford turns out to be putty in her hands.Also note another good performance in The Beast Of The City is that of Tully Marshall who plays Hersholt's lawyer. The word shyster was invented for lawyers like Marshall, but he's good to have on your side especially if you're guilty as sin.The climax is an unforgettable one and one more typical to a western than a modern drama. It's what makes The Beast Of The City a classic that is too rarely seen today.

This is a classic example of those pre-Hays Code movies of the 30s, gritty and violent steeped in a general sort of sleazy atmosphere. Harlow is terrific, especially in her first scene with Wallace Ford; sexy, funny, tough. The movie is fast-paced and has a certain style and an engaging toughness.Entertaining most of the way through, it begins to run out of energy towards the end, and also out of intelligence. While the other comments here laud the stylish, incredibly violent ending, it's really dumb, contrived and completely unconvincing. For some reason people here are so taken with its visceral effect that they ignore its utter ridiculousness. But overall this movie holds up very well for something from the 30s, and is well worth watching.