I like Pat O'Brien but I sought this out for Ann Sheridan. Her part was small but good. There were a lot of street scenes which makes sense since O'Brien played a beat cop/crossing patrol. It must have been interesting to direct considering all the busyness going on in the foreground and background. The drama got close to being sappy a few times towards the end. Humphrey Bogart had a small but pivotal role.

6/10

Interesting for brief time seeing Humphrey Bogart in a little bit different kind of role as a nervous family man breaking down. While not the hard man we're used to see, his performance is whats memorable from The Great O'Malley (1937). Him and the smugness of Ann Sheridan.

However it's Pat O'Brien that is in every scene. A little bit difficult to read him here. The rank of his job is a little bit below his usual parts. A man that normally plays high ranking officers or hard bosses, here as a smalltime beat cop you don't know if he's just being a prick or if he is as short sighted by-the-book policeman as the story suggests. Everything leads to the former, which is where his attitude gives me the wrong signals. He has his moments though, especially with the kids or when having blood transfusions.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Oh, and big difference between the poster used here and the one at IMDb!

I saw this film because I wanted to watch ‘The Making of O’Malley’ (1925) but it is a lost film, so I watched this remake instead, and I absolutely adore it! Pat O’Brien plays a convincing police officer, Humphrey Bogart is great in an early film role and Sybil Jason’s portrayal as a young school girl is so adorable. Such an underrated treasure! It’s one of those films I never want to end.

Gotta love a late 30’s police reform movie centered around the type of person who becomes a spitefully detailed cop all because his classmates probably didn’t respect his authority as hall monitor.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

I saw this film because I wanted to watch ‘The Making of O’Malley’ (1925) but it is a lost film, so I watched this remake instead, and I absolutely adore it! Pat O’Brien plays a convincing police officer, Humphrey Bogart is great in an early film role and Sybil Jason’s portrayal as a young school girl is so adorable. Such an underrated treasure! It’s one of those films I never want to end.

Neurotic tattletale of a cop befriends a little girl and grows a heart. It's like the Grinch but with Ann Sheridan thrown in.

Gonna be pissed if Ann Sheridan gets romantically involved with a fucking pig. Cops are worth less than dog shit.

Awful ending. A dead cop woulda been better than a reformed cop but oh well at least there’s a slightly good message about not over policing. The movie is okay lol. 59/100 nothing special about it really.

Gotta love a late 30’s police reform movie centered around the type of person who becomes a spitefully detailed cop all because his classmates probably didn’t respect his authority as hall monitor.

6/10

Good early work from both leads Ann Sheridan and Bogart too.

It's interesting to view this late Depression-era film in light of current calls for police reform. Dieterle's brief film stars Pat O'Brien as an officious cop who hands out tickets for the even most minor offences. One of those tickets ends up costing Bogart's out-of-work John Phillips his first chance of employment in several years, resulting in his venture into crime.

As a result of his actions, O'Brien is demoted to work as a community patrolman in order to regain a sense of understanding of how the law should be applied. While largely a treacly, heart-warming film about personal development, The Great O'Malley also has an undercurrent positing that police harassment and the onerous application of the law leads to the dissolution of families and an increase in more violent forms of crime.

Maybe I’m just not in the mood for a movie about a cop who uses obscure laws to hassle immigrants right now? Bogart’s small part (playing a decent family man driven to crime by poverty and being hassled by the police) shows just how much talent he had. Apparently Jack Warner put him in schlock like this in the hopes that he would walk away from his Warner Brothers contract, which explains why he’s billed below WB’s attempt at a Shirley Temple child star. Pat O’Brien only makes one facial expression throughout this entire film until the last 5 seconds when he smiles.

Enjoyable heart-warmer with Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart and Ann Sheridan bringing some humanness to a rather pat script. Adorable child actor Sybil Jason, who I don't recall seeing before (but must have because she was in a couple of Shirley Temple films), I'd love to see more of her.

Bogart’s biography called this a “treacly melodrama” and they aren’t wrong. A brilliantly understated performance by Bogart does little to elevate this by-the-numbers story.