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.
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.