The Public Enemy

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

William Wellman's landmark gangster movie traces the rise and fall of prohibition-era mobster Tom Powers. We are first shown various episodes of Tom's childhood with the corrupting influences of the beer hall, pool parlor, and false friends like minor-league fence Putty Nose. As young adults, Tom (James Cagney) and his pal, Matt Doyle (Edward Woods), are hired by ruthless but innately decent bootlegger Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor). The boys quickly rise to the top of the heap, with all the accoutrements of success: custom-tailored tuxedoes, fancy cars, and gorgeous girls. All the while, Tom's loving (and somewhat addlepated) mother (Beryl Mercer) is kept in the dark, believing Tommy to be a good boy, a facade easily seen through by his older brother Mike (Donald Cook). Tommy's degeneration from brash kid to vicious lowlife is brought home in a famous scene in which he smashes a grapefruit in the face of his latest mistress (Mae Clarke). Some dated elements aside, The Public Enemy is as powerful as when it was first released, and it is far superior to the like-vintage Little Caesar. James Cagney is so dynamic in his first starring role that he practically bursts off the screen; he makes the audience pull for a character with no redeeming qualities. The film is blessed with a superior supporting cast: Joan Blondell is somewhat wasted as Matt's girl, Mamie; Jean Harlow is better served as Tom's main squeeze, Gwen (though some of her line readings are a bit awkward); and Murray Kinnell is slime personified as the deceitful Putty Nose, who "gets his" in unforgettable fashion. Despite a tacked-on opening disclaimer, most of the characters in The Public Enemy are based on actual people, a fact not lost on audiences of the period. Current prints are struck from the 1949 reissue, which was shortened from 92 to 83 minutes (among the deletions was the character of real-life hoodlum Bugs Moran). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Screen: Black and White
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • cc
  • Leonard Maltin hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1931 with newsreel, comedy short "The Eyes Have It," cartoon "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile," and theatrical trailers
  • New featurette "Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public"
  • Commentary by film historian Robert Sklar
  • 1954 rerelease forward

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1930- (John Bright, Kubec Glasmon)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1998

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       James Cagney - Tom Powers
       Edward Woods - Matt Doyle
       Donald Cook - Mike Powers
       Joan Blondell - Mamie
       Jean Harlow - Gwen Allen
       Beryl Mercer - Ma Powers
       Robert E. O'Connor - Paddy Ryan
       Leslie Fenton - Nails Nathan
       Murray Kinnell - Putty Nose
       Snitz Edwards - Hack Miller
       Mia Marvin - Jane
       Charles Sullivan - Mug
       Douglas Gerrard - Assistant tailor
       Buddy Burroughs - Dutch
       Frank Coghlan, Jr. - Tom As A Boy
       Ben Hendricks, Jr. - Bugs Moran
       Russell Powell - Bartender
       Frankie Darro - Matt as a Boy
       William Strauss - Pawnbroker
       Rita Flynn - Molly Doyle
       Mae Clarke - Kitty
       Lee Phelps - Steve, the Bartender
       George Daly - Machine Gunner
       Eddie Kane - Joe, the Headwaiter
       Landers Stevens - Doctor
       Sam McDaniel - Black Headwaiter
       Adele Watson - Mrs. Doyle
       Dorothy Gray - Little Girl
       Helen Parrish - Little Girl
       Nanci Price - Little Girl
       Robert E. Homans - Officer Pat Burke
       Purnell Pratt - Officer Powers

• Director:

  William Wellman

• Producer:

  Darryl F. Zanuck

• Screenwriter:

  John Bright

• Screen Story:

  Kubec Glasmon

• Screenwriter:

  Kubec Glasmon, Harvey Thew

• Cinematographer:

  Devereaux Jennings

• Songwriter:

  Gordon Clifford, Harry Barris

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  David Mendoza

• Songwriter:

  Jean Kenbrovin, John W. Kellette

• Editor:

  Edward McDermott, Ed McCormick

• Art Director:

  Max Parker

• Costume Designer:

  Earl Luick, Edward Stevenson

• Makeup:

  Perc Westmore

• Short Story Author:

  John Bright

REVIEW:

• One of the great pre-Production Code gangster films, William Wellman's The Public Enemy made James Cagney a star, providing him with his defining role: Tom Powers, a bitter Chicago gangster driven to a tragic end. Like its contemporaries Little Caesar and Scarface, The Public Enemy was surprisingly ambitious in its examination of the social causes that drive young men into a life of crime, closely examining the allure of street gangs to working-class youths. Although the film goes to great lengths to claim that it does not glamorize criminal activity -- providing a moralistic introduction and conclusion designed to ward off censorship -- many powerful people felt otherwise, and the film's notoriety helped install the more draconian Production Code of 1934. The film's mixed message occurs largely because Cagney is so charismatic an antihero, especially compared to his straight-arrow brother, played woodenly by Donald Cook. Though the film is sometimes visually static, a common problem given the constraints of early sound cinema, it remains bracing and brutal, filled with an air of menace and hopelessness. It features talented newcomers Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell, but its most (in)famous scene -- a shocking episode in which Cagney smashes a grapefruit into his moll's face -- features the little-known Mae Clarke. ~ Mark Pittillo, Rovi