The Public Enemy (1931)

Director: William A. Wellman                          Writer: Harvey Thew
Film Score: David Mendoza                           Cinematography: Devereaux Jennings
Starring: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods and Joan Blondell

Along with Little Caesar, these two films cemented Warner Brothers’ reputation for making gangster films. Universal would jump onboard a year later with Scarface, but The Public Enemy solidified Warner’s hold on the genre for the next decade. And in only his fourth film, this was also the vehicle that catapulted James Cagney to fame. The film traces the rise and fall of a typical gangster in the Prohibition era. While the attempt might have been to show how conditions in the United States during that era made crime a viable career for those who couldn’t make it any other way, in reality the film simply shows that the character of Tom Powers was the real problem, emphasizing the belief that it is a defect in character that makes people turn to crime.

The story begins in 1909 with Cagney’s character as a boy and the first time the audience sees him he is taking a swig of beer. It’s all downhill from there, stealing roller skates for a girl in the neighborhood and watches that he sells to a fence and, a few years later, killing a police officer during an aborted burglary. Thus, Cagney is an amoral murderer and this colors all of his actions from then on. Once Prohibition is put into effect Cagney and his partner, Edward Woods, are in the perfect position to exploit the demand for illegal alcohol and wind up becoming wealthy overnight. When Cagney’s brother, Donald Cook, comes home from the war, a very symbolic message is sent at dinner when Cagney sets up a keg of beer right in the middle of the table. Though his mother doesn’t know, it’s only a matter of time before his bootlegging will come between them all.

Of course, the most iconic moment in the film is when Mae Clarke gets a face full of grapefruit, but there’s also the signature moment with the coal wagon that sounds like gunshots. It’s pre-code production makes itself obvious everywhere with Jean Harlow and her obvious harlotry, the tailor measuring Cagney’s clothes and his obvious homosexuality, though next to that the violence in the picture seems almost coy, moving the camera away when anyone is shot. Cagney virtually shimmers on the screen, his pent-up anger vibrating just underneath the surface. Though he makes a perfect everyman gangster, very different from Edward G. Robinson’s more urbane variety, it was his ability to do much more that made him a star. It’s a good movie, and Wellman makes some very artistic choices with shots and camera movement. Is it one of the greatest of all time? I actually prefer The Roaring Twenties, which I think takes the concept and makes a more interesting story out of it.

In The A List, critic John Anderson wrongly attributes The Public Enemy with bringing about the enforcement of the Hollywood Production Code, when that didn’t happen until nearly three years later. He does, however, rightly assess the film’s difficulties in terms of the acting in early talkies. But Wellman’s artistry is glossed over when that is really the hallmark of the film today. While Anderson claims that no film since has matched it’s impact, I don’t believe that’s true and, in true A List fashion, he’s again under the illusion that because it was the first that means it was the best. He ends his piece by talking about the film’s power to shock audiences, but I don’t see that either. Sure, Cagney is a killer, but he never comes off as a sociopath the way Paul Muni does in Scarface. And the only real surprise is how he can walk in and gun down a roomful of men and yet have no police in his hospital room at all, his family sitting by with the expectation that he’ll come home when he’s well instead of spending his life in prison. The Public Enemy is a fascinating pre-code gangster film, with good direction and a nice performance by Cagney, but it's a glimpse of the greatness to come rather than the pinnacle of that genre.