Sergeant Madden (1939)

Wallace Beery pulls out all the stops in scene stealing and as an extra has a touch of the brogue in his speech as Sergeant Madden of the NYPD. Of course when we first meet Beery he's merely Patrolman Madden who finds a baby girl on his doorstep and brings him home to wife Fay Holden. Beery and Holden already have a boy of their own and a neighbor's kid who hangs around so much he's like one of the family.The kids grow up to be Laraine Day, Alan Curtis, and Tom Brown respectively. Curtis is a newly minted patrolman himself fresh from the Academy and burning with ambition and now married to Day although Brown has a thing for her. He shoots a young punk David Gorcey caught in the act of a robbery although he could have with some effort taken him alive. That whole incident shows how times have changed, today Curtis would be suspended, maybe kicked off the force for shooting an unarmed suspect. As it is he gets a leery well done, but earns the ire of local hood Marc Lawrence whose girl friend Marion Martin was Gorcey's sister.Lawrence arranges a nice little jackpot for Curtis and I won't say any more because the plot of Sergeant Madden gets more maudlin and unbelievable as it continues. Although the private Wallace Beery was hardly matching the lovable oafish type Beery portrayed in sound films even as a villain, Sergeant Madden is the kind of film that Beery was asked to carry strictly on the strength of that appeal. Beery carries Sergeant Madden to an average rating for me, strictly on that appeal.

MGM worked hard to create on and off-screen personas for the stars. Sometimes these images weren't far from the truth and other times they bore little similarity to the facts. A great case in point is Wallace Beery. Through the 30s and 40s, MGM cultivated the image of a giant teddy bear of a man--gruff but with a heart of gold with a soft spot for children. Unfortunately, everything I have ever read about Beery is that he was a total creep--violent, angry and an all-around mean guy. Apparently his violence led to this divorce from Gloria Swanson and Jackie Cooper's autobiography describes Beery as surly and often drunk. Not a nice guy at all...but a sweetheart on camera.I mention all this because "Sergeant Madden" might just be the quintessential 'nice guy' role for Beery. He is not just a cop--but an almost impossible to believe nice cop! He has an affinity for bringing home orphans and adopting them--he's THAT nice in the film! It's not just because I know about the real-life Beery that this is silly--no one is THAT nice and the film overdid this in the film. Giving him some flaws would have been great, as his character in this film makes Santa look like a serial killer!! Now had this been the only excess of the movie, I could have easily looked past it. However, throughout the film I kept thinking 'this CAN'T happen in real life!'--and the plot does strain reality way past the breaking point! The film begins with Beery adopting kids. However, as his own son grows, he shows a vicious streak. He wants to be a policeman like his old man, but without any of the sweetness or restraint. His methods are to make the public fear him and it's not too long before he shoots a young criminal in the back. He clearly over-stepped his bounds and should have been up on manslaughter charges, but for some odd reason the police look the other way. But, the mob is furious--this cop must be taught a lesson. So, they frame the bad cop and soon he's sent to prison. But he soon escapes and goes from bad cop to a one-man crime spree--killing and stealing with abandon! And so, in the end, it's up to good ol' Sergeant Madden (Beery) to come to the rescue.As you probably gathered from this description, the plot is very hard to believe. HOWEVER, here's the odd part...it IS very entertaining and is a film you just can't stop watching. My 16 year-old who rarely ever watched old films sat through this one and enjoyed it--despite the schmaltz and ridiculous plot. So, I think it deserves a 6--it is worth seeing despite its shortcomings.

At first glance, Sergeant Madden plays like a standard police drama, with Wallace Beery typecast as a lovable lunk who adores children almost as much as he does New York's Finest. By about the 20-minute mark, the film betrays every evidence of being bottom of the bill filler--but then it ever so slowly starts to turn into something else. By the end of the film, you realize you've been watching a proto-noir of sorts, with Alan Curtis' doomed character trapped in a web of unfortunate circumstance and bad decision making. Intentionally or not--and with Josef Von Sternberg behind the camera, it could be certainly be the former--Curtis undergoes a physical transformation and comes to resemble the man he loathes the most, a crook played with malevolent brilliance by Marc Lawrence. If you can overlook Beery's brogue (and, indeed, the even worse attempts of Laraine Day), Sergeant Madden is a surprisingly effective tragedy and a real showcase for Curtis, who was clearly capable of better things.

Wallace Beery's excellent portrayal of a stereotypical Irish-American police officer who is content with his lot as a precinct sergeant. Beery's character totally believes in the police force and the law. Beery is confronted by a rebellious son (Alan Curtis) who is urged into the force to everyone's regret. The son is overtly ambitious and wants more than his father accepted in life. Curtis's character gets sidetracked when he kills a young robbery suspect and in turn is framed and convicted of phony bribery rap. The son goes over the edge and kills a policeman and turns to a life of crime. Wallace's character is forced into the moral dilemma of family or duty. Marc Lawrence is equally good as the underworld hood. Directed by Josef von Sternberg. Good discussion on what is the proper role of the policeman: a humanitarian or a bully. Strongly recommended.