Jean Harlow Day

I probably should have posted this last night, since Beast of the City is airing at 10:00 AM, so by the time some of you see this post the movie may already have started. This is one of those movies that I haven't seen in years, but if I had seen it more recently, I would have enjoyed doing a full-length post on it. So instead, today you'll get a one-paragraph synopsis. Walter Huston plays Jim, a police officer trying to take down the underworld gangs that have sprung up thanks to Prohibition. To that end, he uses his kid brother Ed (Wallace Ford) to infiltrate the gang. However, Ed meets moll Daisy (that's Jean Harlow; you can't miss her), and falls for her charms.

Best of the City is another of those very good early talkies that don't get the attention they deserve today. It's probably not one of Harlow's most remembered in part because she's really not the lead here. The movie has gotten a release to DVD thanks to the Warner Archive.

That having been said, I really wanted to mention that there's a documentary coming up. Harlow: the Blonde Bombshell will be on at 3:00 PM. Sharon Stone narrates this 1993 documentary which looks at Harlow's life and untimely death. I enjoy it whenever TCM pauses from showing the old movies to run these documentaries on the old stars.