This story of a tough cop turned chief of police is an uneven mix of entertaining and very clunky moments.
Walter Huston did a lot of very good work in his career, but here, as the 'hero' (almost an anti-hero), he's pretty flat and one note. It's interesting in theory to see a cop in a film this old who's bends the law to get 'justice', but the lack of electricity in the writing and the performance make a number of his scenes a bit of a chore to sit through.
Also, the much discussed climatic gunfight, while impressively violent for the day, is also pretty silly on anything but a symbolic level. I find it hard to believe a real gunfight in the 1930s (or ANY time) could have looked anything like this.
On the plus side, Jean Harlow is a lot of pre-code fun in a supporting role as a gun moll, seducing the chief's cop brother in an extended scene that's both sexy and funny. When Wallace Ford as the brother asks her 'you don't like to be hurt, do you' after he accidentally grabs her too hard, she comes back with "I don't know, it can be fun if it's done in the right spirit", said with a gleam in her eye hot enough to melt an ice cube at the north pole.
There's also some very interesting and evocative photography sprinkled through the film. Moving the huge blimped cameras was never easy in these early sound films, but there are some nice tracking shots here, along with good use of shadows.
That said, there are many better films from this era than MGM's awkward attempt to get into Warner's patented cops and robbers territory, but with a almost proto-fascist, slant. But if you're interested in pre-code films, and the subject matter, you could also do worse for a piece of film and period history.
Walter Huston did a lot of very good work in his career, but here, as the 'hero' (almost an anti-hero), he's pretty flat and one note. It's interesting in theory to see a cop in a film this old who's bends the law to get 'justice', but the lack of electricity in the writing and the performance make a number of his scenes a bit of a chore to sit through.
Also, the much discussed climatic gunfight, while impressively violent for the day, is also pretty silly on anything but a symbolic level. I find it hard to believe a real gunfight in the 1930s (or ANY time) could have looked anything like this.
On the plus side, Jean Harlow is a lot of pre-code fun in a supporting role as a gun moll, seducing the chief's cop brother in an extended scene that's both sexy and funny. When Wallace Ford as the brother asks her 'you don't like to be hurt, do you' after he accidentally grabs her too hard, she comes back with "I don't know, it can be fun if it's done in the right spirit", said with a gleam in her eye hot enough to melt an ice cube at the north pole.
There's also some very interesting and evocative photography sprinkled through the film. Moving the huge blimped cameras was never easy in these early sound films, but there are some nice tracking shots here, along with good use of shadows.
That said, there are many better films from this era than MGM's awkward attempt to get into Warner's patented cops and robbers territory, but with a almost proto-fascist, slant. But if you're interested in pre-code films, and the subject matter, you could also do worse for a piece of film and period history.