NFR Project: 'The Public Enemy' (1931)

 

NFR Project: ‘The Public Enemy’

Dir: William Wellman

Scr: Kubec Glasmon, John Bright

Pho: Devereaux Jennings

Ed: Edward Michael McDermott

Premiere: April 23, 1931

83 min.

“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.”

So states the movie’s prologue. What a bunch of hooey. The Public Enemy celebrates the gangster’s life, giving us a bitter anti-hero as its protagonist who goes on a Rake’s Progress, from scenes of kids scamming on streetcorners to grown men killing and being killed to control the illegal booze trade in Chicago during Prohibition.

At the center of the movie, in a star-making turn, is the charismatic James Cagney. He plays Tom Powers in a fierce, fearless, and powerfully open manner. In a time when most leading men were restrained, well-spoken, and dapper, Cagney was scrappy, rough, devil-may-care.

Powers is a dynamic criminal – always on the make, looking for a bigger payoff. He gets women, money, fancy clothes and cars. And he loves it! Cagney gives an iconic performance, moving fluidly, glancing around every room to look for a challenge, sneering slightly at the “straight” life. All the noise about this being a cautionary tale are contained in the movie’s printed prologue and afterword.

The story starts in 1909, when kids Tom and his friend Matt start petty thieving. They “graduate” to bigger things – lifting furs, selling bootleg beer to unwilling taverners. Tom gets a girl, gets tired of her, and pushes a half a grapefruit in her face (the iconic image from the movie). He gets a new girl.

Meanwhile, Tom’s older brother Mike lives morally, works hard, and studies to get ahead. Tom calls him a sucker. When America joins World War I, Mike joins the Marines. After the war, the death of a gang boss leads to a gang war, and Matt is killed in an ambush. Tom loads up on hardware and, in a driving rainstorm, shoots it out with the opposition. He staggers down the empty street, memorably murmurs “I ain’t so tough,” and collapses.

In the hospital, Tom apologizes to everyone he loves (pretty unconvincingly). His mother yearns for his to come home to stay. But Tom is kidnapped from the hospital, leading to one of the most pessimistic endings in American film. It is devastating.

All the while, director Wellman relates with glee Tom’s criminal adventures. He told producer Jack Warner, “I’ll make the toughest, most violent picture you ever did see.” And he did. The bullets fly, booze flows, women weep. The guiding principle is power enforced by violence. And the wages of sin is Death.

Audiences of the day could have it both ways. They could vicariously enjoy the transgressive acts of the anti-heroes, then enjoy the just demise of the movie’s villains. Warner Brothers became the masters of the crime film. Viewers loved it, and soon gangster movies came thick and fast to the nation’s movie screens.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Tabu.