PUBLIC ENEMY
US, 1931, 84 minutes, Black and white.
James Cagney, Edward Woods, Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell, Beryl Mercer, Donald Cook, Mae Clarke, Leslie Fenton.
Directed by William Wellman.
The Public Enemy is one of the classic gangster films. Along with Scarface and Little Caesar of 1931, it was Warner Bros' contribution to visualising the gangs, especially gangsters like AI Capone. Paul Muni as Scarface and Edward G. Robinson as Little Caesar joined James Cagney as Tom Powers embodying the characteristics of the gangster. Cagney was to portray many gangsters, especially in White Heat in 1949.
The film has a strong cast and includes jean Harlow, Joan Blondell. It is also the film where Cagney pushes the grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face. It is not as explicitly violent as some of the other gangster films - much of the violence is off-screen and is suggested visually and dramatically. Direction is by William Wellman, the director of the first Oscar-winner in 1928, Wings. as well as many other action films. westerns and aviation war films.
1. A film of the '30s, Warner Bros production qualities. the gangster films of the period mirroring society, the moralising? The status of the film as a classic?
2. The styles of the '30s, the heritage of the silent film techniques, routines and words which have become cliches? The staging, the use of sound, mobile cameras? Editing? The violence off-screen?
3. The strength of the cast and the director?
4. 1931, the status of Al Capone, court and imprisonment? The captions about the public enemies and society?
5. The structure: the passing of the years: the boys in 1909, pre-war, the experience of the war, 1917, 1920 and the '20s? Growth and change? American society?
6. James Cagney as Tom: boy, with Matt, together, tough, the jobs and shooting, deaths? Family, mother, the clash with Mike? Pat giving him the jobs, the money, the guns? Drivers and beer? Prohibition? The stand-over tactics with the beer? The use of the guns, the girls? Kitty and the grapefruit? Friendship with Gwen? Matt's wedding, Matt shot? Nails Nathan? Jane and the sexuality? The shooting of the horse? Tom's vengeance, his being shot, hospital, his mother and Mike, the drama of the ending and the corpse in bandages?
7. Matt, a boy, friendship, the bond with Tom, love for Mamie, the wedding, not going on the Wedding night, his being shot?
8. Ma and Mike, Mike in the army, the clash between the two brothers, the ending and Mike concerned about his brother?
9. The women with the gangsters, as gangsters' molls, the world of glamour? Marriage, sexuality? Jane and the sexual innuendo - or more explicit for 1931?
10. Pat and his gang, Putty-nose and Tom's killing him? Nails Nathan and his hold on the gangsters, his death? The horse?
11. Portrait of a gangster? Explanation? The dramatic way of presenting violence off-screen - shootings and suggestion, seeing the corpse, the falling corpse at the end? The impact in the '30s? Now?
