Film Guide to The Public Enemy Leslie Fenton (Samuel "Nails" Nathan) Robert Emmett O'Connor (Paddy Ryan) Murray Kinnell (Putty Nose) Rita Flynn (Molly Doyle) Synopsis Tom Powers and his best friend Matt Doyle are petty thieves as children, and grow up into a life of crime with the instigation of prohibition. Upon joining forces with Paddy Ryan and "Nails" Nathan, Tom and Matt are led into a life of money, power, and women. The two men take mistresses, and while Matt marries his eventually, Tom quickly grows tired of Mamie. His response to her efforts to domesticate him at the breakfast table results in Tom smashing a half of a grapefruit in her face. Soon after he decides to get rid of her, he meets Gwen. Gwen is a smart-talking platinum blonde that Tom is instantly attracted to, but not enough to take his attention away from his work. Meanwhile, Tom's mother and upstanding brother are disapproving of Tom's career choice. The culmination of this battle of morals culminates at the dinner table, when Tom places a keg full of beer in the center.

Tom's brother Mike is furious at this flashy display of criminal connections and announces that he wants nothing to do with the beer. When Nails Nathan is accidentally killed, the balance of the crime gangs is made uneven and Tom and Matt find their lives in danger. During a stakeout, Matt is killed right in front of Tom. Tom seeks revenge by walking into the rival gang's headquarters and opening fire. He stumbles out after he himself has been shot, and must be hospitalized. When the time comes that Tom is going to be released, his mother scurries about the house, humming excitedly at the promise that her boy is going to be back, safe with her. Mike Powers is informed that Tom has been kidnapped from the hospital, but then an anonymous phone call announces that Tom will be home soon. There is a knock at the door and Mike answers it, only to find a murdered Tom propped up in the doorway. Summaries of Contemporary Reviews Hall, Mordaunt. "Two Thugs," New York Times 24 April 1931, 27:1 Mordaunt Hall claims that The Public Enemy (1931) is "just another gangster film".

He praises the acting of all but Jean Harlow while he criticizes the weakness of the story. He compares Tom being kidnapped from the hospital and subsequently murdered with a recent news headline. From the comments Hall makes as to the confusion behind the film's murder scenes and the laughter at inappropriate places by the audience, suggests that Hall was hardly impressed by the efforts of The Public Enemy to be the film that has the final say on the topic of gang pictures. Hall, Mordaunt. "From Comedy to Tragedy," New York Times 3 May, VIII, 5:2 This article is interesting because it completely negates everything Hall had previously written regarding the film The Public Enemy (1931). While Hall's prior article demeaned the film as crude and plot-less; he apparently changed his mind a week later. Hall calls it a "stirring gangster film, one of the best so far presented". He also claims it is a "serious study" of gangster life and compares the plot to Dickens. This review also mentions the famous scene in which Tom smashes a grapefruit in his mistress' face, something he had neglected to mention earlier. Peet, Creighton.

"The New Movies," Outlook and Independent 20 May 1931, 90 Peet argues in his article that gangsters as portrayed in 1931's The Public Enemy are born and not made. The film details the lives of the two main characters from childhood, where they began a life of crime by stealing watches and then selling them to a boss. He stresses that even the gangster has a mother, and compares it to the film The Secret Six (1931) which also starts Jean Harlow. Peet, like most other critics, praises James Cagney in his acting while neglecting to mention any other standout performances. Background Information Who played with the credits? The end of the film The Public Enemy has Edward Woods getting billing over James Cagney. This might have something to do with the fact that Woods was originally hired to play the part of Tom Powers in the film with Cagney as his sidekick Matt Doyle. However, when both the authors of the story the film was based on as well as William Wellman, the director, saw the original screen tests, they realized that Cagney would be much more effective in the role of Tom Powers, and thus the two actors were switched.

The credits also put Jean Harlow, who would later become a huge Hollywood star, fifth. Mae Clarke, who is also seen in 1931's film Frankenstein as Frankenstein's fiancï¿½e, is billed last-never mind that she was the recipient of the famous grapefruit-in-the-face that is much talked about today. Who said that? James Cagney, who first got his start in show business by playing a female dancer, is widely known for his famous line "You dirty rat". This might lead one to wonder why this phrase is so often connected to the actor, as he never said it in any film. Trouble with contracts James Cagney was engaged in a tumultuous contract dispute after the success of The Public Enemy (1931). Cagney was in a long term contract with Warner when this film made him famous. His contract had him making $400 per week while others like Edward G. Robinson were making thousands more. When his lobbying for a new contract didn't work, neither did he. In late 1932 the Motion Picture Academy intervened and his salary was raised to $3,000 per week.

This wasn't the end of the Cagney-Warner struggle. Cagney wanted to move on to dramas and musicals and resented the typecasting that Warner had dictated for him in action and gangster films. He asked Warner to be released from his then $4500 per week contract and won; but within two years he was forced by lack of work to return to Warner and continue making the very same types of films he wanted to avoid. Harlow's gangster connections Jean Harlow plays a gangster's mistress in The Public Enemy (1931), a film that denounces the evils of gang rule in city life. However, Harlow must not think gangsters are all that bad. Aside from her step-father having mob connections, she was reportedly godmother to Bugsy Siegal's daughter Millicent, and dated the notorious mobster Abner "Longy" Zwillman. Longy Zwillman helped secure Harlow a two-picture deal with Columbia pictures, no doubt using his powerful means of "persuasion". This, in addition to showering Harlow with expenses cars and jewelry, must be how a gangster says I love you.

Bright's run in with Al Capone John Bright, who wrote the story Beer and Blood, which The Public Enemy (1931) was based on, and a co-founder of the Screenwriter's Guild, worked at a drugstore in his early days. The man who owned the particular drugstore was Kubec Glasman, who would later become Bright's writing partner. The drugstore was the hangout of many mobsters, including Al Capone. Bright also met Capone, one might say, at Chicago's Commonwealth Hotel, where Capone had two men beaten with baseball bats during a banquet right in front of Bright's eyes. Bright was to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing (Original Story) for Beer and Blood. The blonde bombshell Jean Harlow went through a lot for her famous good looks. For starters, it is rumored that she only ate vegetables and salads to maintain her slim figure. She never wore underwear and iced certain parts of her body to keep them firm. Her slinky dresses were often so tight that she had to be propped up against a board rather than sitting down in between scenes.

Each week, she got her hair bleached using a mixture of peroxide, ammonia, Clorox, and Lux Flakes-which is not a necessarily painless procedure. Her hair became so damaged later on that she had to begin wearing wigs in her films. After her death at the young age of 26, it was rumored that instead of dying because of kidney failure in part due to scarlet fever at age 14, the bleach in her hair seeped into her brain and killed her. Of course, these allegations are completely false. The story behind the grapefruit According to some people, the famous scene in 1931's The Public Enemy that has Cagney smashing a grapefruit in his girlfriend's (Mae Clarke) face at the breakfast table was not originally in the script. Rumor has it that the entire thing was Cagney's idea, and he did the scene on a whim, with Clarke's reaction was only too genuine. However, this is not the case-and the scene was actually included in Bright and Glasman's story Beer and Blood as a depiction of what was rumored to be an actual incident in gang legend-what gang exactly is left unsaid.

How Wellman broke into movies William A. Wellmanwas a member of the French Foreign Legion during World War I. When America became involved, he flew with the Lafayette Escadrille. Because of an injury, Wellman left the War and returned home to become a stunt flyer. It was then that he met the famous actor Douglas Fairbanks after he was forced to land in Fairbanks's yard. Wellman acted with Fairbanks in 1919, but later decided he would rather direct and went on to make such films as Wings (1927) which went on to win the first Academy Award ever given for Best Picture. Red Scare James Cagney, the actor who was catapulted to fame through his role of gangster Tom Powers was actually the first major film figure to make national headlines for a supposed involvement in the Communist Party. These allegations were never confirmed, although it is rumored that Cagney was indeed a sympathizer of the party. Sources Used Dooley, Roger. From Scarface to Scarlett. New York, NY. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1979. Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System. New York, NY.

Pantheon Books, 1988. Shadoian, Jack. Dreams and Dead Ends. Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press, 1977. Sklar, Robert. City Boys. Princeton, NJ. Princeton University Press, 1992. Internet Movie Database. Home Page. Retrieved 14 Apr. 2001 Burkes, Lisa. The Platinum Page. 7 Apr. 2001. Prohosting. 14 Apr. 2001 Critical Analysis The early 1930's brought with it a new genre of film that depicted the gangster lifestyle during prohibition. The purpose of these films was to show that the gangster life is only met with tragedy and destruction, and this is reflected by the rise and inevitable downfall of the main character. While society as a whole could be said to play some part in the making of the gangster, The Public Enemy (1931) uses the relationship between Tom Powers and his brother Mike to show that it is the choice of the individual rather than the effects of the environment that makes each person what they are.

One of the very first scenes in the film has Tom Powers and his friend Matt Doyle outside Tom's house watching Matt's sister roller-skate. Tom trips her with a piece of string and is reprimanded by his brother Mike. Mike asks where the roller-skates came from, and then accuses Tom of stealing them. His father, who happens to be a policeman, subsequently punishes Tom. Even when Tom is about to get flogged, he never loses his smart mouth. This blatant disregard for the law is prevalent in Tom's attitude throughout the film. Tom is also continuously angry with Mike for constantly being there to reprimand him when he does something wrong. This scene is important because it provides the background information for what are to be the characterizations of the two brothers for the rest of the film-Tom as the thieving delinquent, and Mike as the upstanding older brother who always does the right thing. In another scene, Tom finds out that Mike has enlisted in the marines and is packing to leave. When he goes upstairs to his room to confront him, Tom takes the defensive while Mike asks him to stay home more and look after his mother.

Mike politely brings up a rumor he heard about Tom and Matt being involved in some crooked business, to which Tom furiously replies that he is accusing him instead of asking him and then claims that Mike has been robbing the streetcar business. Obviously, Tom is lashing out at his brother in an attempt to justify his own behavior because he has no valid excuse or explanation for his involvement in the rumors Mike speaks of. No reasoning is given for why Tom takes up with the people he does. Perhaps it is because he is looking for a way to creep out of his brother's shadow and get attention somewhere other than home. He falls in with Putty Nose, who has him stealing watches as an early teen. Later on, he takes up with Paddy Ryan, who introduces him to the lucrative business of bootlegging which catapults Tom and Matt into a life of wealth and power. It also gives Tom a sense that he is the one with the authority, as seen when he is pushing a bar owner around or shooting his former boss Putty Nose. The importance of this authority to Tom can be traced back to the first scene with the roller-skates.

At home, Tom's father always had the authority and that authority was taken over by Mike later on as he tells Tom to look after their mother while he is away at war. When Mike returns from the war, Tom brings home a keg for the celebration. He is obviously showing off for both his brother and his family, and places the keg right in the center of the table. During dinner, the mise-en-scene has Mike sitting at the head of the table opposite his mother, who has to crane her neck to catch a glimpse of her son from around the keg. Mike doesn't eat, instead focusing his eyes on the beer with a look of silent rage on his face. The keg is a prominent display of Tom's lifestyle, thrown in Mike's face the first time he comes home. Tom thinks that he is proving to his brother that he has finally made it on his own, but Mike knows that all Tom has to look forward to is more violence. While Matt pours beer from the keg, we see his hand holding the glass under the stream of liquid as the camera focuses on Mike's hardened face.

Matt laughs it off and claims that it's "only beer", to which Mike replies in a fury that Tom and Matt are murderers. He claims the keg isn't just beer-it's "beer and blood-blood of men" and throws the keg off of the table. Tom retaliates by saying that Mike's hands aren't clean. He says, "you killed and liked it-you didn't get those medals by holding hands with the Germans". Even though World War I is an entirely different context from the violence that Tom is a part of, Tom still attempts to compare Mike to himself in order to once again justify his own lifestyle under the critical eye of his brother. More than likely, it is Tom that kills and likes it-while Mike was killing out of duty to his country. While Tom is right in alluding that killing is killing, Mike resents that Tom is using the war to try and make excuses for his own actions. Mike's disappointment in Tom drives them further apart. Mike's confidant is an old policeman, while Tom's mentor is Paddy Ryan, leader of the Ryan gang.

Tom moves out of the house and is set up in a lavish hotel with his mistress as Mike is preparing to settle down with Matt's sister Molly Doyle. Tom enjoys his new life by spending money on fancy cars, clothes, and guns while Mike works two jobs and goes to school part time. Tom does return home to visit, but it seems more as if he is visiting to once again flaunt his lifestyle rather than to see his mother and brother. In this scene, he hands his mother a wad of bills and tells her to buy something nice for herself. Mike catches him and says he wants no part of Tom's money and gives it back. Tom tells Mike that money means nothing to him, to which Mike replies that with no brain and no heart it's all Tom's got. If Tom were in fact a product of his environment, there wouldn't be the character of Mike put there to contrast his lifestyle. The Public Enemy (1931) escapes the persecution of the Production Code because it has a moral-that everyone gets what they deserve. This is also seen in other gangster films of the same era, such as Little Caesar (1930) and Scarface (1932).

It is argued by some that in these gangster films, the gangster who is a product of his society is inevitably destroyed by that same society. This may be true in such films as Scarface, in which the gangster's sister is also drawn into a life of crime. However, the presence of Mike as Tom's brother in The Public Enemy shows that even two people who came out of the same house can take very different paths in life. This means it must be all up to the individual and what choice they make as to their lifestyle. The Public Enemy is an attempt not to glorify the gangster life, but to denounce it by saying that if one so chooses to follow such a path, they will inevitably be destroyed-and it will be no one's fault but their own. What's the Big Deal?: The Public Enemy (1931) - MTV mtv Eric Snider 01/05/2012 Like many Hollywood stars of the 1930s and '40s, James Cagney is familiar to a lot of modern viewers primarily through impersonations of him -- "You dirty rat!" and so forth.

Never mind that he never actually said that in a movie, he played a lot of gangsters and tough guys who said things like that, starting with Tom Powers in The Public Enemy. Along with Little Caesar, which came out the same year and had Edward G. Robinson (the other Old-Timey Actor Who Played Gangsters), Public Enemy created the crime flick as we know it. But what value does it have beyond that historical significance? Let's cram a grapefruit in somebody's face and investigate. The praise: The Public Enemy was nominated for an Oscar in the "best story" category (the forerunner to best adapted screenplay) but did not win. The American Film Institute includes it on the list of cinema's best heroes and villains (Tom Powers, #42) and best gangster movies (#8). It is also part of every single montage ever created regarding James Cagney, movies from the Depression, or old Warner Bros. productions. The context: Some of the biggest news stories of the Roaring Twenties involved Prohibition, bootlegging, and colorful underworld figures like Al Capone and Bugs Moran, so it was no surprise when Hollywood started adapting these tales for the big screen.

There had always been movies about criminals, of course, but the rise of the gangster genre really began in the early 1930s, coinciding with the rise of Depression-era bank robbers like Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, and Baby Face Nelson. A novel called Beer and Blood, by John Bright, was the basis for The Public Enemy, which went into production at the tail end of 1930 and was shot in January and February of 1931. The director was William A. Wellman, a former actor, World War I fighter pilot, and all-around rugged adventurer who holds the distinction of having directed the Best Picture winner at the first Academy Awards (Wings). Public Enemy premiered in April 1931, less than three months after shooting wrapped, and had the advantage of arriving on the heels of Little Caesar, a popular film that had whetted the public's appetite for hard-boiled gangsters but had also suffered from the stagy stodginess that characterized a lot of early talkies. Public Enemy was more polished and sophisticated, with interesting camera movement and Cagney's rat-a-tat delivery.

After being made for $150,000, it became one of the first talkies to gross $1 million at the box office. James Cagney was a song-and-dance vaudeville-and-Broadway type who'd gotten good notices for the few movies he'd made at this point. The Public Enemy was his first starring role, though, and it instantly shot him to stardom. He talked very fast, which was discouraged in those early days of sound recording, and his mannerisms were eccentric. Audiences couldn't look away when he was on the screen as Tom Powers, which meant they were lured into watching him perform deeds that grew in infamy as the movie went on. Cagney was typecast for a few years after this (not that he complained much), playing thugs and tough guys regularly before breaking out into other types. The movie: A kid named Tom Powers (James Cagney) starts out as a petty criminal and works his way up to robbery and murder in gangland Chicago in the 1910s and '20s. He is at odds with his brother, Mike (Donald Cook), but nice to his mother (Beryl Mercer).

His buddy Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) does whatever he tells him. One of Tom's girlfriends winds up on the wrong side of a grapefruit. What it influenced: Inspired by the success of The Public Enemy and Little Caesar, Hollywood cranked out numerous gangster pictures over the next few years. None were huge hits, but they tended to be profitable. Audiences liked them for the same reason they liked sensationalistic tabloid stories about real-life crooks, and for the same reason they went to the movies in the first place: harmless escapism and the indulgence of wishful thinking. We are upstanding citizens who would never break the law, of course ... but it sure is exciting to watch other people do it. The grapefruit scene was immediately famous for its sheer meanness, and was frequently imitated or parodied over the years. It was a prime example of something a character could do in a movie to indicate his anger or cruelty without physically harming anyone. The simplicity of the act is what was so shocking. He didn't slap the woman, or shoot her. He just crammed half a grapefruit in her face. But he did it with such contempt and fury that the effect was chilling, and ripe for emulation.

Martin Scorsese has professed being a fan of Cagney in general and this film specifically; The Departed has a scene patterned after the murder of Putty Nose. Stanley Kubrick and actor Malcolm McDowell were also admirers -- no wonder, then, that McDowell's lead performance in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange borrows some of Tom Powers' mannerisms and gestures. What to look for: Since the film was released during the so-called Pre-Code era (after Hollywood's Production Code had been established but before it was enforced), there are a few things in it that are slightly randier than what you'd have seen in a movie from later in the decade. Perhaps it would be a fun game to watch the movie and try to guess what had to be cut out when it was re-released in 1941, when the Code was in full effect.

If you don't feel like guessing, here's some of what had to go: the scene with the outrageously gay tailor who flirts with Tom while measuring him for a suit ("Such a muscle!" he says, squeezing his bicep); the moment when Mamie (Joan Blondell) serves Matt breakfast in bed, which implies they slept together; and the scene in which Tom gets drunk with Paddy Ryan's girlfriend and is seduced by him. All of this is restored in the DVD versions now available. But other elements that were cut -- and a few had to go even for the original 1931 release -- are presumably lost forever. The movie starts with a disclaimer to let us know that it intends to "honestly depict" certain unseemly elements of society, and not to "glorify the hoodlum or criminal." The Production Code forbade such glorification and mandated that criminals be punished, and while Code enforcement was pretty lax in 1931, this was something Warner Bros. couldn't get around. Besides, audiences were well acquainted with the real-life criminals who inspired The Public Enemy, many of whom had become folk heroes of sorts.

There may have been legitimate cause for concern about whether a movie like this would encourage similar behavior. At the very least, there were valid reasons to have a conversation about it. Of course, even with the disclaimer, and even with the "crime doesn't pay" moral at the end, audiences loved Tom Powers. That was the point, after all, no matter what the studio said in its press releases. James Cagney and Edward Woods were originally cast in the opposite roles, with Woods in the lead and Cagney as his sidekick. Exactly what prompted director William Wellman to switch them is unclear, but the predominant story is that Wellman saw Cagney's scene-stealing work in The Millionaire (which the same studio, Warner Bros., had shot but not yet released), recognized his magnetism, and decided he'd be better as the lead. You'll notice that the Public Enemy scenes showing Tom and Matt as adolescent boys have Tom as the taller one, while the grown-up versions of those characters are the other way around. That's because the scenes with those younger actors had already been filmed when Wellman made up his mind, and no one thought it was worth the expense of reshooting them.

What's the big deal: James Cagney's electric style of acting became the standard for tough guys throughout the 1930s, and was an influence on the hard-boiled detectives of 1940s film noir. Gangster pictures have been a regular presence in Hollywood ever since, often following the same pattern of the criminal's rise to power, his success, and his downfall. And while all of the real violence takes place off-screen, The Public Enemy nonetheless came across as a savage and unforgiving portrayal of crime, helping open the door for portrayals that have gotten bloodier and bloodier over the years. Further reading: Mark Bourne's review of the 2005 DVD edition is a great overview of the movie and its significance, as is Richard Maltby's essay at Senses of Cinema. The Public Enemy | film by Wellman [1931] | Britannica.com film by Wellman [1931] The Public Enemy, American gangster film , released in 1931, that became a classic and propelled its lead, James Cagney , to stardom. James Cagney and Jean Harlow in The Public Enemy (1931).

© 1931 Warner Brothers, Inc.; photograph from a private collection The story traces the life of an impoverished young man, Tom Powers (played by Cagney), as he escalates from being a petty criminal to heading a murderous bootlegging ring. Although he achieves tremendous power, he is haunted by family conflicts and a sense of overconfidence that ultimately ends in tragedy. Jean Harlow played the small but memorable role of Cagney’s glamorous moll. As with the crime film Little Caesar (1931), The Public Enemy was a reflection of its era and was released at a time when infamous gangsters were making headlines on a daily basis. In addition, just as the latter film made Edward G. Robinson a star, Warner Brothers caught lightning in a bottle a second time with the casting of Cagney, who was initially meant to play the second lead to Edward Woods. However, director William A. Wellman was so impressed with Cagney’s intensity that he had the actors switch roles, thus facilitating a landmark performance in cinematic history. The scene that has retained the greatest infamy was not one of overt violence but rather a grim sequence in which Cagney slams a grapefruit into actress Mae Clarke’s face.

The movie was cited as a prime justification for the then-new Production Code , which kept major films sanitized for many years to come. Production notes and credits Bobby Rivers TV: THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931) "Christmas present from Santa Claus. With best wishes for a prosperous new year." Those words kickstarted Tom Powers on his lethal climb to becoming a big city menace. He was The Public Enemy as famously played by James Cagney in a tough 1931 film directed by William Wellman. The Christmas present that the young man and his best friend each get is a gun. Tom Powers was a juvenile delinquent, a dark Oliver Twist who spent much of his formative years with a Fagin-like hood called Putty Nose. He's recruited boys into a life of crime. They become bad men. James Cagney was born with star quality. Coupled with his fine acting and dancing skills, movie stardom was in his destiny. He shot to Hollywood fame as the cold-blooded Chicago gangster. When I was in grade school, this Warner Bros. movie aired frequently on local Channel 9 in Los Angeles. Cagney fascinated me.

Film school students today could learn a thing or two from the style of director William Wellman. The Public Enemy is under 90 minutes long. I hadn't seen it in quite a while and watched it over the weekend. Wow. Cagney's magnetism and style of acting still hold up. It's really more being than acting. It's honest, direct, intelligent and witty. He listens. He reacts. He brings you into the heart and soul of a character whether that heart and soul are dark or light. In The Public Enemy, he's bold enough to be unlikable. He doesn't try to get your sympathy because Tom grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. You, the viewer, can do that work on your own. Wellman shows you that childhood can be the blueprint for the rest of your life. As a youngster, Tom Powers is a tough minor. He drinks beer. He has no regard or respect for authority. He has no respect for females. He doesn't care about education. He wants big money. He's society's perfect candidate for a life of crime.

He grows up to become such a cold-blooded gangster that killing, for him, is just as easy as a short order cook making a hamburger in a diner. He's emotionally detached from the evil of it. He can pump a couple of bullets into a former friend point blank and then, a few seconds later, wonder what his new babe is up to and head over to pay her a booty call. Cagney was so at ease on camera. He instinctively knew the power of thinking -- and how the camera could pick that up. There's an unforced sexuality and swagger in his performance that were new to film. Keep in mind, the crime story came out just a few years after movies learned how to talk with The Jazz Singer in 1927. Cagney has scenes with another performer who'll also shoot up to fame. But not for this role. Jean Harlow was still in her sophisticated vamp stage. She's a hot looking platinum blonde and she, too, has star quality but movies still didn't quite know what to do with her. Harlow's seductress is shackled with some clunky dramatic dialogue like "...you're so strong. You don't give, you take.

Oh, Tommy, I could love you to death." That was for Warner Bros. When MGM signs her and let's her play wisecracking tootsies with a heart of gold, Jean Harlow's true talents are free to soar in hits like Red Dust, Bombshell and Dinner at Eight. Comedy kicks the blonde sex symbol up to screen icon. One wishes she could've teamed up again later with Cagney -- who'd also prove that he could handle comedy and some fast-paced wisecracks himself. When I wrote that today's film students could learn a thing or two from Wellman's directorial style, one prime example is the shoot-out with Schemer's gang. It has a Wellman signature -- not showing something and letting the viewer's imagination do the work. One night, in the pouring rain, a rival gangster heads into a building with his men. Tom Powers, armed, has been waiting for them. He charges into the building. The windows are blocked. We can't see a thing but we hear a shower of gunfire and the piercing screams of a man in agony. Tom Powers staggers back out into the rain, alone on the street and seriously wounded.

Before he collapses from his wounds, he says "I ain't so tough." The attention remains on Cagney -- on his ballsy solo deed and and his dance of pain afterwards as he staggers out. DePalma or Tarantino would've shown the graphic carnage. What Wellman did is much more effective, economical and creative. And is serves the new-star, James Cagney. What an extraordinary talent he was. His work in The Public Enemy, Angels with Dirty Faces, The Roaring Twenties and White Heat are some of the best performances of hoodlums given by any Hollywood actor to this day. And James Cagney won his Best Actor Academy Award for one of Hollywood's most heart-warming, patriotic musicals that's also a biopic. He's marvelous as Broadway song-and-dance showman and songwriter George M. Cohan in 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy, a gem in the Warner Bros. musical crown. Cagney sang and danced, made you laugh and put a tear in your eye with his poignancy. The Broadway legend made one major movie. Sixty years before we laughed at Kevin Kline as Dave, George M.

Cohan played a performer who looked exactly like the Commander in Chief. Cohan starred in Paramount's 1932 musical comedy, The Phantom President, with Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Durante. I've seen it. What was biggest surprise about this musical? George M. Cohan's unique way of dancing. James Cagney nailed it in Yankee Doodle Dandy. When I saw The Phantom President, I appreciated Cagney's work in that musical biopic even more. Cagney. As I wrote up top, his magnetism and style of acting still hold up. Posted by Double Take: 'The Public Enemy' (1931) | PopMatters 'The Public Enemy' (1931) by Steve Leftridge and Steve Pick 25 July 2016 Maybe The Public Enemy is a swell dish. Or maybe it ain't so tough. The Steves take on the classic tale of beer and blood. Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell (Warner Bros. Pictures) General: 23 Apr 1931 1931 Steve Leftridge: Mr.

Pick, you and I have just watched what many consider to be the quintessential gangster picture of the ‘30s from Warner Brothers: William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931). It’s also the film that made James Cagney famous. The film starts with a disclaimer from the studio that states its intention to honestly depict the “hoodlum” of the era and not to glorify him. I’d like to start by asking you how well you think the film accomplishes its stated goal of not romanticizing the criminal or his crimes. Steve Pick: I like to think that once you see Cagney’s dead body fall from that doorway straight towards you in the audience, you’re going to realize he made a few wrong career choices. I can only imagine what that scene must have felt like to audiences in a 1931 movie palace. It’s made even more effective by that cross-cutting to the bedroom where his mother is preparing for his homecoming. But I see where you’re going. It certainly can’t be a disincentive to a life of crime if you see the bad guy gets to sleep with Jean Harlow, can it?

Cagney struts through the picture with a confidence that anybody would love to have. It’s his sense that nothing can’t be taken, that anything can be achieved through simple lawlessness. That’s hard to resist, even if you have to smash a grapefruit in a face now and then to express ennui. Now, I do wonder about the specific chain of events which lead to his death in this film. Tom Powers is supposed to lay low in Paddy’s apartment to avoid the gang war in the streets. But, Paddy’s wife essentially forces him to sleep with her. Tom doesn’t like this, so he leaves with his best friend Matt, who dies immediately in a hail of bullets. Tom gets to survive long enough to have reconciliations with his family before that final scene I already mentioned. But it wasn’t Tom’s criminality which led directly to his death, it was the behavior of Paddy’s wife. That’s a bit of a mixed message in my book, and one which doesn’t attract as much attention as I would expect.

Leftridge: Tom Powers would have been a good candidate to lead the He-Man Woman-Hater’s Club from the old Our Gang shows, of which the early sequences of ornery young Tom in The Public Enemy reminds me. Some of these early scenes are (sort of) similarly played for laughs, as when Matt gets a swinging door in the face for asking a girl for a kiss (Tom: “That’s what you get for foolin’ with women”) or when Tom trips Matt’s sister, Molly, while she’s roller skating. When Matt protests, Tom says, “What do you care? It’s only a girl.” Such matter-of-course misogyny is both a sign of the times and part of the code of the streets for on-the-make ruffians like Tom. I’m reminded of Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront, an inheritor of the gangster realism on display in The Public Enemy. The difference is that Brando’s Terry Malloy has a vulnerability not far beneath his mob-underling tough-kid exterior, leaving him susceptible to the tenderness of a woman, for whom he can actually have respect, and the emergence of a conscience.

With Cagney’s Tom, we might get a glimmer of a desire to make amends at the end, but his behavior is unremittingly ugly throughout the film, particularly towards women. The point you hint at is that maybe it isn’t just Tom’s attitude toward women exemplified by the famous grapefruit scene (which I watched in slo-mo; Cagney really commits) that comes across; it’s Wellman and the film that depicts women as loose and weak (like Kitty, the grapefruit victim) or easy and begging for punishment (like Gwen, who tells Tom she loves him because he takes and never gives) or sexual predators (like Jane who essentially drunk-date-rapes Tom, which prompts him to bolt). Of course, if not for Tom’s life of crime, he’d never have been holed up in Paddy’s hideaway with Jane to begin with, so like Butch and Sundance, Tom’s demise is another matter of living and dying by the bullet. Do you have any sympathy for him? Pick: No sympathy from my quarter. Cagney’s commitment to the role makes him perfectly deplorable on all fronts.

Even in the scene in the hospital, when his near-death experience causes him to tell his family he will give up his life of crime, I’m not pulling for him. Sure, Cagney sells the scene to his family, but I don’t think he’s likely to stay clean even if he isn’t kidnapped from his sickbed, taken out, and murdered. There is some complexity in the family, though, isn’t there? Tom points out that his older brother Mike, ostensibly the righteous one, doesn’t have a spotless record with human life. “Your hands ain’t so clean,” Tom tells him. “You killed and liked it. You didn’t get them medals holding hands with them Germans.” In 1931, just past the halfway mark between World Wars, it was possible for a pop culture product to point out the connections between killing on the battlefield and killing for profit. Either way, you’re taking a life. Further, though, and I need your clarification on this: Didn’t Tom accuse Mike of making money from some lesser criminal action? Did that sweet old lady in the bedroom instill no discipline in her children?

Leftridge: Tom definitely calls out Mike’s hypocrisy for killing Germans but being outraged that Tom’s keg of beer has “the blood of men” in it. (And how about that keg, right up on the dinner table, gangster-style.) And, yes, earlier Tom calls Mike a “sneak thief” and a “nickel snatcher” for robbing the streetcar company. Mike decks Tom for saying so, rather than denying Tom’s allegation, certainly acting as though Tom had hit on the truth. Tom doesn’t strike back in this scene (kicking the bedroom door instead), parallel to the later scene in his ma’s kitchen when Tom tries to give her money but Mike intervenes. Mike again hits Tom, but Tom just rips up the money and throws it in his brother’s face. Those are the two times in the film that Tom shows restraint, and it makes the final scene when Mike watches Tom’s corpse fall to the ground in front of him that much more powerful. Just after that moment, the final post-script declares, “The END of Tom Powers is the end of every hoodlum.

‘The Public Enemy’ is, not a man, nor is it a character—it is a problem that sooner or later WE, the public, must solve.” You mentioned that you have no sympathy for Tom, and likewise the film’s final claim seems to indicate that some people are just simply bad and need to be removed from society one way or another. Yet doesn’t The Public Enemy try to provide at least some environmental factors for why Tom was, as Molly called him, “the meanest boy in town”? How about when his father—wearing half of his policeman’s uniform—whips Tom with a big leather strap? Where does the nurture/nature divide show up in this movie? Pick: There isn’t enough of the nurturing being shown, though clearly Tom comes from a rough upbringing, and he doesn’t have much in the way of options. He could have gone overseas for the war, but I think Wellman doesn’t see that as an inherently “good” guy role, either. On the other hand, he is a real go-getter, and once he sets his sights on being a criminal, Tom doesn’t mess around. Everything he does ups the ante in the “bad” guy game of poker.

Robbery quickly leads to murder, murder leads to being in a syndicate, grabbing any available woman leads to bringing Jean Harlow into his life, having a woman makes him want to seem even tougher, increasing his manliness gives him the idea to shoot the horse, shooting the horse leads to a gang war, and eventually, his inability to stay hidden away (even if the reason is complicated) leads to his death. So his father’s whipping didn’t exactly make him feel loved, and his mother may have overcompensated. At any rate, Tom is constantly looking for bigger and more “rewards” for his actions, until he reaches the ultimate reward of not being a part of any world, let alone this one. I think The Public Enemy is a powerful film and a great ride throughout all the stops in a life of crime. (The kid playing young Tom nails Cagney; an even more impressive feat when you realize this was the movie that made Cagney a star, and there weren’t impersonations of the man on every single street corner in America as of yet.) Wellman’s direction is neat and clean, with just the right amount of breaking away from the limitations of early sound to remind us that movies are supposed to move.

I enjoy the experience every time I catch any of this film. Do you think it deserves to be considered “great”? Leftridge: Its Greatness is irrefutable, but I think we can legitimately question its greatness. That is, it is obviously a landmark of the gangster genre—we mentioned the Kazan connection, and we can trace The Public Enemy forward to Scorsese (including Mean Streets, the film we started with here at Double Take) and Coppola, who paid tribute to The Public Enemy with The Godfather’s decapitated racehorse scene. The film was also a groundbreaker in terms of its provocative depiction of violence and sexuality, which did indeed strike me as shockingly bold for 1931 as I revisited it this time, and the film is credited for bringing about new censorship codes for the movies. And if nothing else, it launched the career of Cagney. It was his fifth film overall, but it’s the one that made him a major star, and rightfully so. Still, 80-odd years later, it’s clear that The Public Enemy has its flaws.

You point out the mixed messages in the film, and I do think the film garbled its purported intention of doing some sort of public service of illuminating the menace of the hoodlum. We also discussed the troubling depiction of women, and the role of the Jean Harlow character strikes me as especially odd and does nothing but glamorize Tom’s life of crime. At other times, I found the picture badly balanced—moments of clunky pacing and attempts at humor that don’t land now, if they ever did. But I’ll give you the last word on this one, Mr. Pick. What’s your final takeaway on The Public Enemy? Pick: I think it’s a fascinating transition from the world of silent movies to the faster-paced talkies. It came out four years after The Jazz Singer, but it still sits on the edge of the new thing. By this time, the early, stilted appearance of talking pictures made necessary because of the limitations of microphone placement was giving way to a more elaborate, less stagy filmmaking method. Wellman was drawing from the camera techniques of the silents, and editing in a faster paced style which matched the machine-gun dialogue delivered so masterfully by Cagney.

So, it’s not perfect, but in some ways, it feels like the beginning of a new thing, and as such, it remains captivating even after 85 years. Share via The Public Enemy (1931) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background The Public Enemy (1931) is one of the earliest and best of the gangster films from Warner Bros. in the thirties. The film's screenplay (by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon), which received the film's only Academy Award nomination, was based upon their novel Beer and Blood. Unfortunately, the film wasn't even given a Best Picture nomination, nor was Cagney rewarded with a nomination for his dynamic and kinetic performance. Jean Harlow's small role as a sexy call-girl was her only screen appearance with Cagney and her only lead role with Warners. Director William Wellman's pre-code, box-office smash, shot in less than a month at a cost of approximately $151,000, was released at approximately the same time as another classical gangster film - Little Caesar (1930/31) that starred Edward G.

Robinson as a petty thief whose criminal ambitions led to his inevitable downfall. The Public Enemy was even tougher, more violent and realistic (released before the censorship codes were strictly enforced), although most of the violence is again off-screen. The lead character is portrayed as a sexually magnetic, cocky, completely amoral, emotionally brutal, ruthless, and terribly lethal individual. However, the protagonist (a cold-blooded, tough-as-nails racketeer and "public enemy") begins his life, not as a hardened criminal, but as a young mischievous boy in pre-Prohibition city streets, whose early environment clearly contributes to the evolving development of his life of adult crime and his inevitable gruesome death. Unlike other films, this one examined the social forces and roots of crime in a serious way. Cagney's character was based on real-life Chicago gangster Earl "Hymie" Weiss (who also survived a machine-gun ambush) and bootlegging mobster Charles Dion "Deanie" O'Banion (an arch-rival to Al Capone). Reportedly, an exasperated Weiss slammed an omelette (not a grapefruit) into the face of his girlfriend.

Similarities also exist between the demise of Nails Nathan and the 1923 death of real-life Samuel J. "Nails" Morton of the O'Banion mob. The retaliatory horse killing in the film was a replay of a similar incident when organized crime figure Louis "Two-Gun" Alterie (and other North Side gang members) executed the offending horse in Chicago after the death of their friend. James Cagney's dynamic, charismatic and magnetic characterization of the murderous thug was his fifth film performance. He had previously performed tough-guy roles in two other Warner Bros. features: Sinner's Holiday (1930) (his film debut with co-star Joan Blondell) and director Archie Mayo's The Doorway to Hell (1930). This volatile role made him famous and instantly launched his celebrated film star career, but it also typecast him for many years. [Originally, the roles were reversed, with Edward Woods playing the lead role, and Cagney in a secondary role, but a switch occurred when the contract screenwriters suggested that a mistake had been made.

Therefore, the end credits bill Edward Woods above Cagney.] Cagney went on to play other criminal roles, including such films as Smart Money (1931) with Edward G. Robinson (their only teaming together), and Lady Killer (1933). Unfortunately, the film also appeared to glamorize criminal activities such as bootlegging (although that was not its intent), and emphasized their high style of life with various floozies (portrayed by Joan Blondell, Mae Clarke, and Jean Harlow). Hence, the film hastened efforts of Hollywood's self-imposed Production Code in the early thirties to strictly censor films (with criminal and sexual subject matter) that depicted undesirable social figures or sexual subjects in a sympathetic or realistic manner. The Story After the credits that feature each of the stars against a black background, an opening title card provides a disclaimer from Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.: It is the ambition of the authors of 'The Public Enemy' to honestly depict an environment that exists today in a certain strata of American life, rather than glorify the hoodlum or the criminal.

While the story of 'The Public Enemy' is essentially a true story, all names and characters appearing herein, are purely fictional. The opening scene pans and dissolves across views of 1909 (pre-Prohibition) Chicago. After images of a congested downtown area, there are views of the stockyard, the blast of a factory whistle, a brewery, crowded and dirty streets, saloons, and a Salvation Army marching band. In the brewery which plays a central role in the neighborhood, beer flows freely into large beer mugs, and buckets. Wooden barrels of beer are hauled by a horse-drawn wagon, and beer is hand-carried (in pails hanging from a long plank) from a saloon across the busy street. Exposed to this sordid scene of life on the South Side of Chicago are two poor Irish boys: Tom Powers (Frank Coghlan as boy, James Cagney as adult) with his neighborhood friend Matt Doyle (Frankie Darro as boy, Edward Woods as adult). Both boys act mischievously in a department store, and mean Tommy enjoys playing sadistic tricks on roller-skating Molly Doyle (Rita Flynn), Matt's sister and one of the neighborhood girls.

She explicity states his well-known reputation: "You're the meanest boy in town...(Jail) That's where you'll be some day, Tom Powers!" Tom is the son of a policeman, Officer Powers (Purnell Pratt) - a harsh, abusive father who often uses a wide leather razor strop to discipline his near-delinquent offspring. As Tom is belted across his behind by his half-uniform attired father, he resists crying and shedding tears, while maintaining a tough guy, hard attitude. At an early age, both boys turn to petty thievery and shoplifting to escape the drudgery of lower class life - and as a result of their upbringing and environment. They fence stolen items (watches) at a so-called boys' club, the Red Oaks Club (a glorified pool hall) through sinister, Fagin-like, piano-playing "Putty-Nose" (Murray Kinnell) - their mentor in the ways of crime. Other boys aimlessly loaf and lounge around at the club, or listen to Putty Nose playing dirty songs.

As they grow up, by 1915, they cross the same paths, but now they are graduating to more advanced, young-adult pursuits. [Cagney's entrance into the club is memorable - he spits, struts in, and tips his hat forward.] In contrast, Tom's straight, uptight brother Mike (Donald Cook) works as a street car conductor during the day and goes to school at night, "learnin' how to be poor," according to Tom. Putty Nose offers Tom and Matt a "sweet" opportunity - a larger, more profitable heist and crime. His offer is the gun-wielding armed robbery of a fur warehouse. As the camera pans backward, a group of young thugs sit on Putty Nose's bed (with Tom's feet not even touching the floor) listening to the plan. Putty Nose presents both Tom and Matt with guns: "A Christmas present from Santa Claus, with best wishes for a prosperous New Year." During the robbery of the Northwestern Fur Trading Company, an inexperienced and shaky Tom is startled by the sight of a huge stuffed bear's head. He panics and impulsively fires several shots into it.

A policeman, who has been alerted by the gunfire, shoots and kills one of the thieves on the street by the getaway vehicle. The robbers see their buddy's corpse lying on the dark street. To escape, they open a window and slide down a rain pipe to the street where Tom retaliates and shoots (off-screen) the police officer. After running back to the club, they find that two-timing Putty Nose has treacherously deserted them and "beat it." They are advised: "You'd better lay low for a while. The heat's on." [The closest Tom ever comes to saying "You dirty rat" (one of Cagney's fictional famous lines) is "Why, that dirty, no-good, yellow-bellied stool!"] He resolves to seek revenge: "I'm gonna give it to that Putty Nose right in the head the first time I see him."

Question: Who played Tom Powers in the 1931 film ‘The Public Enemy’?
Answer: James Cagney