The Beast of the City Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.5

The Beast of the City Blu-ray Movie Review

Babes and bullets.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III October 2, 2025

It wouldn't be hard to imagine Charles Brabin's The Beast of the City being remade today. Prefaced by a propagandic quote from an increasingly unpopular president widely criticized for crippling the economy with tariffs, this reactionary drama encourages vigilante police justice by trumping up the threat of urban crime in a major city. Fairly violent even by pre-Code standards and often regarded as a precursor to Dirty Harry, The Beast of the City is razor-sharp, solidly acted, and maintains steady momentum as it gradually builds to an unforgettably bullet-riddled climax.

This story might revolve more closely around hard-nosed police captain Jim Fitzpatrick (Walter Hutson, Treasure of the Sierra Madre and Gabriel Over the White House), but it's more plot-dependent on the actions of his younger brother Ed (Wallace Ford, Freaks), a detective who's understandably seduced by ravishing Daisy Stevens (Jean Harlow, Red Dust). The common thread? Daisy's the mistress of local mobster Sam Belmonte (Jean Hersholt, Heidi), who's been a thorn in Jim's side for years and has recently evaded justice for murder thanks to a corrupt legal system. Frustrated by Sam's continued existence, Jim -- or "Fitz", as he's usually known -- gets a promotion to police chief while Ed, desperate for money to keep his relationship afloat, resorts to shady behavior that might put him on Jim's radar.

The drama isn't fully fueled by brother-vs-brother shenanigans, dividing its time fairly equally while leaving plenty of room for the exploits of Daisy... which is fortunate, because The Beast of the City stands out for having Jean Harlow's breakout performance as a leading lady five years before her untimely death at age 26. She's luminous as the woman trapped in bad circumstances and has no problem chewing though glossy dialogue while showing off revealing outfits. There's also time left over for domestic bliss, with Jim revealed to have an idyllic home life where regular guest "uncle Ed" is loved by a family that includes Jim's dutiful wife Mary (Dorothy Peterson, Saboteur), obedient twin daughters, and precocious young son (an uncredited Mickey Rooney, who gets a head start on overacting here).

That's one of several ways that The Beast of the City insists that Jim's the good guy, honest, because otherwise most level-headed viewers would rightly balk at his fascist approach to police behavior. (Perhaps the most brazen scene is a firm-handed speech Jim gives to the officers under his command, which incidentally looks a lot like a particular military address that happened in Quantico last week.) It's for these reasons that The Beast of the City's story isn't to be taken seriously, unless as a warning, but that doesn't stop it from being decently effective as a character drama loaded with violence that's shocking but not especially gory; for the most part, shootouts leave victims with a tight grimace while clutching invisible wounds. High art it ain't... but as a reactionary measure to rival studio Warner Bros.' massively popular gangster pictures Scarface and Little Caesar, you can see how The Beast of the City got made.

Historically important as both a cinematic curiosity and for the career-cementing turn by Jean Harlow, The Beast of the City rightly earns the attention of Warner Archive who, as usual, have given it the white-glove treatment. Replacing an aging DVD edition and earlier versions saddled with a poor source master, the boutique label's brand-new Blu-ray offers a revelatory A/V presentation that will, as the cliché goes, be like seeing it for the first time. A few additional extras would've put this package into true four-star territory, but even as-is it's worth your time and attention.

The Beast of the City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Warner Archive's terrific new restoration of The Beast of the City replaces a creaky master more than three decades old, and this yields as large of an improvement as you'd expect from the boutique label. It's sourced from a recent 4K scan of best preservation elements; in this case, that means a safety fine-grain master positive created by MGM during the 1960s... which is fortunate, since the original nitrate negative for The Beast of the City, like countless other MGM films, was lost in the 1978 George Eastman House fire. The end result was carefully polished using Warner Archive's proprietary method of manual cleanup, removing nearly all signs of age-related wear-and-tear without compromising the appearance of film grain. Aside from light levels of flickering and other unavoidable issues, this looks to be a damn near perfect presentation and represents one of the larger DVD-to-Blu-ray improvements I've seen in quite some time. As usual, disc encoding is solid too with no obvious traces of macro blocking or posterization while the film runs at a supportively high bit rate from start to finish. In all respects, it's another easy five-star effort.

The Beast of the City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The lossless DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix is likewise another winner, showing a similar level of care with very clean dialogue and crisp music whose higher ends haven't been compromised by excessive noise reduction. As usual, it's a straight port of The Beast of the City's original one-channel source elements as presented in a split 2.0 container for a slightly wider presence that doesn't alter the intent of its presentation. Quite simply, it gets the job done.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

The Beast of the City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with vintage poster-themed cover artwork. The only bonus features are a pair of era-specific Warner Bros. cartoons -- not MGM, as they were not yet making them at the time.

• Goopy Geer (6:40) - This restored Merrie Melodies short, co-animated by creator Rudolph Ising, introduces its title character as a Vaudeville-singing, dancing, piano-playing dog. Though meant for greater success, ol' Goopy only starred in three cartoons that decade until returning in a 1992 Tiny Toons episode.

• Bosko and Bruno (6:52) - The more well-known early WB star and his dog appear in just the ninth installment of Looney Tunes, escaping from a train and getting into more trouble in this unrestored 1932 short.

The Beast of the City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Charles Brabin's The Beast of the City is as direct, in-your-face, and uncompromising as its title implies, following a handful of characters as they navigate equally hard-lined sides of the law in Depression-era New York City. Fueled by steady momentum and decently acted with a standout performance from new leading lady Jean Harlow, only the film's unapologetic embrace of propaganda leaves something of a bitter aftertaste. It's still good while it lasts, though, and Warner Archive's new Blu-ray will rightfully put it in the hands of another generation of film fans to (re)discover and mull over. Featuring rock-solid A/V merits, The Beast of the City comes Recommended to the right crowd.