The Public Enemy

Plot synopsis:
As youngsters in 1900's Chicago, Tom Powers (James Cagney) and his lifelong friend Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) engage in petty theft, selling their loot to "Putty Nose" (Murray Kinnell). Putty Nose persuades them to join his gang on a fur warehouse robbery, assuring them he will take care of them if anything goes wrong. When Tom is startled by a stuffed bear, he shoots it, alerting the police, who kill gang member Larry Dalton. Chased by a cop, Tom and Matt have to gun him down. However, when they go to Putty Nose for help, they find he has left town.
Tom's straightlaced older brother Mike (Donald Cook) tries, but fails, to talk Tom into giving up crime. Tom keeps his activities secret from his doting mother (Beryl Mercer). When America enters World War I in 1917, Mike enlists in the Marines.
In 1920, with Prohibition about to go into effect, Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor) recruits Tom and Matt as beer "salesmen" (enforcers) in his bootlegging business. He allies himself with noted gangster Samuel "Nails" Nathan (Leslie Fenton). As the bootlegging business becomes ever more lucrative, Tom and Matt flaunt their wealth.
Mike finds out that his brother's money comes not from politics, as Tom claims, but from bootlegging, and declares that Tom's success is based on nothing more than "beer and blood" (the title of the book upon which the film is based). Tom retorts in disgust: "Your hands ain't so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans."
Tom and Matt acquire girlfriends, Kitty (an uncredited Mae Clarke) and Mamie (Joan Blondell) respectively. Tom eventually tires of Kitty; in a famous scene, when she complains once too often, he angrily pushes half a grapefruit into her face. He then drops her for Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow), a woman with a self-confessed weakness for bad men. At a restaurant on the night of Matt's wedding reception to Mamie, Tom and Matt recognize Putty Nose and follow him home. Begging for his life, Putty plays a song on the piano that he had entertained Tom and Matt with when they were kids. Tom shoots him in the back.
Tom gives his mother a large wad of money, but Mike rejects the gift. Tom tears up the banknotes and throws them in his brother's face. "Nails" Nathan dies in a horse riding accident, prompting Tom to find the horse and shoot it. A rival gang headed by "Schemer" Burns takes advantage of the disarray resulting from Nathan's death, precipitating a gang war.
Later, Matt is gunned down in public, with Tom narrowly escaping the same fate. Furious, Tom takes it upon himself to single-handedly settle scores with Burns and some of his men. Tom is seriously wounded in the shootout, and ends up in the hospital. When his mother, brother, and Matt's sister Molly come to see him, he reconciles with Mike and agrees to reform. However, Paddy warns Mike that Tom has been kidnapped by the Burns mob from the hospital. Later, his dead body is returned to the Powers home.

Tags: revenge, murder

Review:
"Public Enemy" brought two things to the screen: the little tough guy, fast-talking, unscrupulous gangster characterization by James Cagney which was to follow him throughout his entire screen career, and the grapefruit scene Though "Public Enemy" created the Cagney image, he had already appeared in two other gangsters films for Warners, as a murderer prepared to let someone else pay for his crime in "Sinner's Holiday," and as a double-crossing hoodlum in "Doorway to Hell.""Public Enemy," however, was a bigger-budget production, directed by William Wellman, and it contained all the elements of success It is the story of two brothers who become Chicago booze barons in the Twenties...
One was Cagney, the other Edward Woods It is sometimes claimed that the story of "Public Enemy" is based on that of "Little Hymie" Weiss, leader of the North Side Chicago gang after the murder of Dion O'Banion by the Capones in 1924 What is more likely is that the Cagney characterization is based on "Little Hymie"; the plot itself is pure fiction When Cagney, in his striped pajama, sat opposite Mae Clarke at breakfast and decided he had had enough of this boring broad, he wasted no time He picked up half a grapefruit and planted it full into Clarke's face It was a piece of screen action which has lasted down the years as the ultimate in violence from the gangster to his moll Of course, it isn't  it just seems that way Since then gir1s have been slapped, kicked, beaten up, run over, shot, stabbed and raped, all in the tradition of mobster violence But at the time this scene was daring, and the more daring because it was totally unexpected We remember Mae Clarke in "Public Enemy," yet forget that Jean Harlow was in it, too There may have been good reason The New York Times, reviewing the film in 1934, commented: "The acting throughout is interesting, with the exception of Jean Harlow, who essays the role of a gangster's mistress." Cagney made violence and a life of crime magically seductive, and "Public Enemy" made him Warners' number 2 gangster, second only to Edward G.
Tom Powers (James Cagney) and Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) are just small time crooks, and so they remain throughout the movie.
But they are both bad (that's the word) and they use the freedom and opportunities of their democratic country to make evil.In "The Public Enemy" we find probably the first instances of the beautiful stylish cinematography and clever camera-work that will become the trade-mark of later gangster and noir movies.
Robinson to stardom, THE PUBLIC ENEMY brought forth another new screen personality, James Cagney, displaying a different kind of movie thug: rough, with guys who betray him; tough, with women who get on his nerves or play him for a sucker; and ready, to succeed by socking, punching, slapping or killing anybody who gets in his way.
His only soft spot for his mother, but far from being a "Momma's Boy." Through its passage in time element starting in 1909 Chicago, THE PUBLIC ENEMY plays in the biographical mode, displaying the origins of its main characters, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, as boys (Junior Coughlan and Frankie Darro), leading to their adult lives (James Cagney and Edward Woods) as tough thugs.
As things start going well for Tom and Matt in the bootlegging racket under Paddy Ryan's (Robert Emmett O'Connor) leadership, Scheiner Burns, a rival gang leader, attempts on taking over Ryan's establishment, leading to more gun-play, especially for Tom, quick on the trigger, only to have things backfire on him.If not the most famous of the early gangster films, THE PUBLIC ENEMY is one of the most revived.
Whenever a topic pertaining to THE PUBLIC ENEMY arises, it's not the story that immediately comes to mind, but Cagney's individual scenes consisting of squirting beer from his mouth into the bartender's face; Tom's cold-blooded killing of Putty Nose (the man who let him take the rap for a crime) while playing his last song on the piano; and Tom's off-screen shootout with a rival gang in a fancy nightclub, stumbling out in the pouring rain saying to himself, "I ain't so tough." All these scenes pale in comparison until reaching its most chilling climax ever recorded on film.
Several documentaries profiling gangster films have indicated Woods as the initial star of THE PUBLIC ENEMY with Cagney assuming the subordinate role, with director Wellman seeing an error with the casting and wisely having these actors switch roles.
Donald Cook, Beryl Mercer and Robert O'Connor appearing in subordinate roles, are essential with their parts, but never outshine Hollywood's finest movie thug, a/k/a Public Enemy, James Cagney, whose tougher roles, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) and WHITE HEAT (1949) were years into his future.
I've always maintained that musicals and gangster films are the only two movie genres that date from the sound era.Of course this film about a young man's rise to prominence in the bootleg liquor business during Prohibition made James Cagney a star.
Her portrayal for me rings true.Oddly enough in The Roaring Twenties Cagney is a veteran who enters the rackets because he can't get a legitimate job and its easy money.Both The Public Enemy and Little Caesar are short films, edited down to the essentials so the viewer ain't bored for a minute.
A young and vicious hoodlum named Tom (James Cagney based his performance on Chicago gangster Dean O'Bannion, and two New York City hoodlums he had known as a youth) along with his fellow Matt (Edward Woods) rise up through the ranks of the Chicago underworld.
Edward Woods was originally hired for the lead role of Tom Powers and James Cagney was hired to play Matt Doyle, his friend .
He retired as a director after making the film, reportedly enraged at Warner Bros.' post-production tampering with a movie that meant so much to him .¨The Public enemy¨ , rating : Well worth watching , above average ; the picture will appeal to classic cinema buffs and James Cagney fans .
It is said that Cagney's role was originally much smaller in here but he was so good the script was changed to give him the starring spot....and his career took off from there.Speaking of billing and stardom, Jean Harlow gets second billing in this film but really has only a bit part; Blondell gets fourth billing has only a few lines.The story is a fast-mover and the movie is over in less than an hour-and-a-half.
However a couple of years on a new kind of star began to emerge, those with unique voices, full of character, not necessarily realistic but injecting some smart-sounding talk into cinema after the silents.James Cagney wasn't originally supposed to be the lead in The Public Enemy.
And what is more, although his role is consistently unsympathetic, Mr. Cagney manages to earn for Tom Powers the audience's affection and esteem." In its own time, the film was thought of as a bit too violent, and there are a few moments that might still be considered shocking today.
Author TJ English feels this is "perhaps the most influential gangster flick in the history of American movies", but that may be overstating it a little.Some credit must be given for "Public Enemy" succeeding and remaining a top film, however.
Public Enemy has gone down in film history as a piece of pre-code brutality, and some scenes are indeed worthy of notoriety: the grapefruit-in-the-face scene is legendary, and the piano execution has always impressed me.But without Cagney's fiery turn as Tom Powers, this gangster parable would be bland as toothpaste.
It states, "The Public Enemy is not a man, nor is it a character, it is problem that we, The Public, must solve." James Cagney gives a magnificent performance as Tom Powers, a man who started off as a petty thief with sidekick Matt Doyle (played excellently by Edward Woods) and rose to become a powerful beer smuggler during the era of Prohibition and Gang Rule.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY was an early gangster movie from Hollywood, starring the then up-and-coming actor James Cagney who would become synonymous with the genre in time.
Cagney gives an assured performance, even though his anti-hero character is difficult to like or empathise with.Although tame by modern standards, the direction of THE PUBLIC ENEMY makes certain scenes stand out like the notorious grapefruit moment.
A classic scene that one.Joining Cagney in the cast are blonde bombshell Jean Harlow, Edward Woods and Joan Blondell as Powers's mum.This is a must see for all movie fans.
James Cagney, a legend on-screen, gives a dynamic portrayal of Tom Powers, a hard-nosed man who we see evolve over time, from tripping little girls on roller skates to...let just say, "bigger crimes".
Cagney's character has a streak of cruelty along with his criminal activities, never more evident than in the grapefruit scene with MAE CLARKE or when his violent temper causes him to lose control over the death of a buddy.It was the start of Cagney's career and he makes the role a memorable one, although it's still not up to the standard set by his future role in WHITE HEAT.JEAN HARLOW and JOAN BLONDELL have little to do as the women in his life, but since the story revolves almost entirely around Cagney and his mob connections it doesn't seem to matter.
The rest of the film is a mixed bag.For starters, filmmakers showed Cagney (Tom Powers) and co-star Edward Woods (Matt Doyle) as boys Frank Coghlan Jr.
"The Public Enemy," which launched Cagney into the Hollywood big time, doesn't so much tell one cohesive story as much as it offers a series of vignettes linked by Cagney's sheer star power.Cagney is Tom Powers, childhood hoodlum who grows up to become an adult hoodlum and meets his end as part of a bloody gang war in 1920 Chicago.
The script affords most of the other characters one or two good moments of their own, and aside from a couple of loose ends, the story as a whole is well-conceived.Because of all these strengths, "The Public Enemy" is among the most memorable movies of the first few years of cinema's sound era.
Behind the condemnation of crime and hellish road that is growing up and raising one gangster stands out as a proposal for the viewer to live up to that image and to weigh it as the nature of which is not to be necessarily damned and negative to the world the law and the authorities, but that account with what there is in fact wrong and what is right.In essence, the point of the film is about how American society has to wake up and deal with the criminals, because the human relations by the day drifting towards the underworld.James Cagney as Tom Powers was after this film became a tough guy.
William Wellman directed this early gangster picture, that stars Jimmy Cagney as Tom Powers, a brazen and ruthless young man who is determined to make something of himself, so he, along with his best friend Matt Doyle(played by Edward Woods) become bootleggers during prohibition, becoming rich and powerful as a result, though Tom becomes increasingly violent and bold, which alienates himself from his straight-arrow brother, and puts his life in jeopardy, as a rival gang, fed up with Tom, decides to take drastic actions...
He had more screen presence than just about anyone who has ever appeared in any film in movie history.This is James Cagney's fifth film, The Public Enemy, as it still shocks today with its incredible violence and story of two best buddies who get into crime together.
Besides James Cagney the movie also features Jean Harlow in an early big and talking role.I loved how the movie had some extremely good and effective camera-work, featuring some wonderful looking compositions.A really great early gangster-movie!9/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
James Cagney is "The Public Enemy" in this 1931 film also starring Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Donald Cook, Joan Blondell and Beryl Mercer.
The film concerns two buddies, Tom Powers (Cagney) and his friend Matt Doyle (Woods), who start getting into trouble as kids, becoming mobsters involved in bootlegging when they reach adulthood.
An astounding portrayal.The rest of the acting varies - Joan Blondell has a supporting role as Matt's girlfriend, and she's adorable; much is made of the grapefruit scene, though in truth, Mae Clarke, who had enjoyed some stardom beforehand, is actually uncredited as Kitty; Donald Cook acts in a very old-fashioned, melodramatic style, though he enjoyed a long career not only on Broadway but in film.
James Cagney as bootlegger and all around (not so) tough guy Tom Powers, is introduced to the world and the movie going public in this classic gangster movie from the pre-code era.
But it creates Tom Powers as more of a sympathetic character than Rico was and therefore we end up actually caring about this gangster who really does nothing to deserve our sympathy.Willam Wellman's style is also what makes The Public Enemy just that much more enjoyable to watch then Little Ceaser.
Even his patriotic and do-gooding older brother Mike (played a little too theatrically by Donald Cook) can't talk any sense into him and occasionally finds himself getting into fisticuffs with Tom as the black sheep of his family.Nobody is sacred in Tom's mind, not even the fair young ladies who get a good slap or verbal thrashing when they aggravate him long enough (this is the movie that contains the famous breakfast scene where a fed-up Cagney shoves a fresh grapefruit into Mae Clarke's yakety-yakking face).
Tom killing the horse that killed his friend Nails Nathan......the shootout in the poolroom where Tom stumbles out in the rain and collapses in the street with that famous quote, "I 'aint so tough".....the killing of Putty Nose...........and of course, the final, very grim scene.Cagney has such a screen presence that although he is bad to the bone, you still find him likable which makes the ending even more unpleasant.This film, along with Little Caesar and Scarface, should be required viewing for all who are interested in the history of film.
Powerful Portrait of the Rise and Fall of a Vicious Gangster, i'm Starting to like James Cagney Movie After Movie i've seen 3 films so far:
Childhood friends Tom Powers (James Cagney) and Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) end up as enforcers for the Chicago mob during probation in this excellent pre-code gangster film that established Cagney as a Hollywood 'tough-guy'.
Typical of the genre, 'The Public Enemy' is quite brutal at times: while Doyle seems to have some conscience, Powers is quick-tempered and abusive, and the film includes the legendarily misogynist scene in which he shoves a grapefruit into his girlfriend's (Mae Clarke) face.
The film is full of classic gangster slang, tough-guy posturing, towering fedoras, gats, and good-looking frails (including Jean Harlowe), Cagney is outstanding, and the final scene is unforgettable.
Perhaps the best of the early gangster flicks of the thirties.Magnificently shot by Dev Jennings and directed by William Wellman.And it has young James Cagney in a great performance,which made him a star.This classic has aged well.Thoroughly enjoyable.
The Public Enemy is not the best that the 1930s gangster movie period had to offer- Hawks' Scarface and Curtiz's Angels With Dirty Faces certainly top it in terms of overall quality and bravura performances- but it is still one you wouldn't want to miss to understand the force that was and remains so potent today of James Cagney.
The story of its kind has been told and told again (indeed the whole aspect of two kids starting young and then one turning criminal and the other straight, in this case shown with Tom and his brother Mike, would be repeated to better effect in Dirty Faces), but what draws one in, aside from Cagney and Harlow in her few weirdly captivating scenes, is how William Wellman keeps things focused.
Cagney, with that peculiar intensity and that face which is angelic and devilish by turns, gives a performance which brings out both sides, playful even when he's at his worst, and as his boyhood buddy turned gangster sidekick Edward Woods does a great job, never quite tipping over into pure comic relief.I'd like the movie even more if Joan Blondell and Jean Harlow had swapped roles (that speech Harlow murders in her big scene with Cagney would have been pretty damn sexy coming from the lovely Joan!), but most of the female characters have so little to do that it ends up being a very minor gripe.
He also gets to smoosh a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face (producing the all-time classic still photo)."Public Enemy" joins the trio of classic gangster films, including "Scarface" (Hummphrey Bogard) and "Little Caesar" (Edward G.
The Public Enemy is a 1931 American crime film starring James Cagney and directed by William A.
The film is based on a real history where Cagney as usual is excellent in the role of Tom Power but not the rest of the cast, including Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell.
It still packs a powerful punch--serious drama, great acting, and a stark message.Most famous for the "grapefruit-in-the-face" scene between James Cagney and his on-screen girlfriend played by Joan Blondell (no, Jean Harlow was the OTHER moll in this movie!), Public Enemy is the granddaddy of nearly all crime-doesn't-pay flicks.
Told in crisply dated vignettes, the film progresses through the Depression and World War I as it offers Tom (Cagney) and brother Mike (Donald Cook) taking separate paths under the watchful eye of Ma Powers (Beryl Mercer).The movie has more than it's share of defining scenes, most viewers will identify with the Mae Clarke grapefruit smackeroo, but there are a lot more.
James Cagney's blazing performance as gangster Tom Powers in THE PUBLIC ENEMY did not just 'flip the script' of screen acting in 1931.
Tom Powers was meant to be played by James Cagney, he was cocky, fast talking, and loyal making him the perfect gangster on the movie screen.