''The Great O'Malley'' is a 1937 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

William Dieterle William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood primarily a ...

and starring Pat O'Brien, Sybil Jason,

Humphrey Bogart Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( ; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart ...

, and Ann Sheridan. The 1925 silent version '' The Making of O'Malley'' starred Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill and Helen Rowland.

Plot

James O'Malley ( Pat O'Brien) is an overzealous, unforgiving officer who abides by the letter of the law and hands out citations for petty infractions. He pulls over John Phillips (

) for a noisy muffler, delaying him long enough to cause him to be late for arriving at his new job that would help him to take care of his wife ( Frieda Inescort) and crippled daughter, Barbara ( Sybil Jason). After losing the job for being late, Phillips becomes desperate and attempts to pawn his war medals and a revolver. The store owner does not want to pay him what the items are worth, causing Phillips to become enraged, knocking the clerk down, and taking money from the cash register. This leads to Phillips being arrested and sentenced to prison for robbery. Meanwhile, O'Malley is being ridiculed for being too hard on normal working people and gets demoted by Captain Cromwell (

Donald Crisp Donald William Crisp (27 July 188225 May 1974) was an English people, English film actor as well as an early producer, director and screenwriter. His career lasted from the early silent film era into the 1960s. He won an Academy Award for Best S ...

), being reassigned as a school crossing guard at the same school where Phillips' daughter attends. Barbara and O'Malley strike up a friendship, while he falls in love with her teacher, Judy Nolan ( Ann Sheridan), whose disdain softens his disciplinarian attitude. After O'Malley finds out that Barbara is the daughter of the man that he sent to jail, he provides for her and her mother, secretly finding the physician to fix Barbara's crippled leg, working out a payment plan to fund it, and helping to get Phillips paroled. Unaware of O'Malley's help, Phillips, seeking revenge, shoots the officer out of desperation, thinking O'Malley is simply hounding him straight after his parole. O'Malley, further humanized by this experience, decides to exonerate Phillips, claiming that the shooting was accidentally brought on by himself, after tripping down the stairs. O'Malley soon recovers, and is reinstated to his old beat, with the respect of his fellow officers and the loving admiration of Judy.

Cast

* Pat O'Brien as James Aloysius O'Malley * Sybil Jason as Barbara "Babs" Phillips *

as John Phillips * Ann Sheridan as Judy Nolan * Frieda Inescort as Mrs. Phillips *

as Captain Cromwell *

Henry O'Neill Henry O'Neill (August 10, 1891 – May 18, 1961) was an American actor known for playing gray-haired fathers, lawyers, and similarly dignified roles on film during the 1930s and 1940s. Early life Henry O'Neill was born in Orange, New J ...

as Defense Attorney * Craig Reynolds as Motorist * Hobart Cavanaugh as Pinky Holden * Gordon Hart as Doctor * Mary Gordon as Mrs. O'Malley * Mabel Colcord as Mrs. Flaherty * Frank Sheridan as Father Patrick * Lillian Harmer as Miss Taylor * Delmar Watson as Tubby * Frank Reicher as Dr. Larson *

Granville Bates Granville Bates (January 7, 1882 – July 8, 1940) was an American character actor and bit player, appearing in over ninety films. Biography Bates was born in Chicago in 1882 to Granville Bates, Sr., a developer and builder, and Adaline Bates ...

as Jake, Bar Proprietor (uncredited)Clifford McCarty, Bogey- The Films of Humphrey Bogart, 1965, p.40 * Stanley Fields as Convict in Prison Shop (uncredited) * Armand Wright as Vegetable Peddler (uncredited) * Raymond Brown as Factory Owner (uncredited) *

Egon Brecher Egon Brecher (18 February 1880 – 12 August 1946) was an Austrian-born American actor and director. He also served as the chief director of Vienna's Stadttheater, before entering the motion picture industry. Early years Brecher was born on 1 ...

as Pawnbroker (uncredited)

References

External links

''The Great O'Malley''
in the

Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

* * 1937 films 1937 crime drama films American crime drama films American black-and-white films Fictional portrayals of the New York City Police Department Films directed by William Dieterle Warner Bros. films 1930s English-language films 1930s American films English-language crime drama films {{1930s-crime-drama-film-stub