The Public Enemy (1931)
Directed by William A. Wellman

Film Review

The Public Enemy was Warner Brothers' initial follow-up to Little Caesar (1930), the first sound gangster film which turned the virtually unknown actor Edward G. Robinson into a star.  Along with Howard Hawks's Scarface (1932), these two films would establish the gangster movie as a major genre in Hollywood of the 1930s.  What is significant about the two Warner Brothers films is that they were released before the Hollywood Production Code came in and so the violence they depict is much starker than what would be seen in other gangster films of the decade.

This biggest claim to fame of The Public Enemy is that it launched the career of a certain James Cagney, a 31-year old actor who had just four film credits under his belt.  The irony is that Cagney wasn't cast for the role that made him famous - he was originally intended to play the gentler character Matt Doyle.  Edward Woods was to have played the tougher part of Tom Power.  Prompted by his screenwriters, director William Wellman persuaded producer Darryl F. Zanuck to switch the two actors.  So Woods played Matt and Cagney played Tom, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Cinema, like real life, is full of happy coincidences and James Cagney's casting for The Public Enemy is one of the happiest.   The actor had that natural charismatic hard man persona which made him perfect for the anti-hero role he was to play in this film.  Cagney's portrayal of Tom Power is that of a vicious, conscienceless thug, but the actor also imbues him with an engaging charm which makes it hard not to like him.  And it should be said that this is one of Cagney's most antipathetic characters.  Although he would be effectively typecast as the tough gangster for the whole of the 1930s (and for some years beyond), most of his subsequent roles would have a somewhat lighter, more human side.

The Public Enemy also made the reputation of its director, William Wellman.  Ably assisted by his cinematographer Dev Jennings, Wellman gave the film a look that was surprisingly modern for its time.  His use of high contrast lighting and unusual camera angles, along with the inventive composition of his shots, evokes an impression of hard-edged realism, with an intensely sombre atmosphere, stylistically pre-empting film noir by over a decade.

Whilst the film is now regarded as one of the finest of American gangster films, the only Academy Award nomination it received was for its screenplay, written by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon, adapted from Bright's novel Beer and Blood.  The book was an account of real-life gangsterism in 1920s Chicago, with Cagney's character based on Earl Weiss, an employee of a rival gang to Al Capone's.

The Public Enemy has become famous for the seemingly improvised shot in which James Cagney violently thrusts a grapefruit half into Mae Clarke's face.  It is also known for its use of the popular music hall song "I'm forever blowing bubbles", which plays over the opening credits, as background music for scenes in the film, and, most effectively, to play out the film's viscerally shocking ending. 

When the film was first released, it caused controversy on account of both its violence and its sexual explicitness.  It is revealing that when the film was reissued in 1941, after the Production Code was in force, the three cuts that were made were to remove content of an overt or suggestive sexual nature.  (The cut sequences were subsequently reinstated for the version that is in circulation today.)   Perhaps anxious over how explicit violence might be received, Wellman arranges that most of the violence in the narrative takes place out of camera shot - which somehow gives it much greater impact (and makes it impossible to censor).  The sequence in which Tom casually walks into a stable to kill a horse is a case in point.  Just the sound of two off-camera gunshots dubbed over a scene of everyday normality gives the sequence a horrifying brutality.

Contrary to how it was generally perceived when the film was first released, The Public Enemy is actually a moral film with some very pertinent social messages.  Far from glamorising crime, the film shows us the devastating impact that crime can have, not just on society, but on individual men and women.  It also shows us the sociological origins of gangsterism, how the failings of society make it so easy for young men to drift into a life of crime and provide a climate (such as that arising from alcohol prohibition) where criminal activity is allowed to prosper.  These are messages which still strike a chord today, and so the film remains highly relevant to our society.  The Public Enemy is far more than just a 1930s gangster film.

Film Synopsis

Growing up in Chicago in the early 1900s, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle take to crime at an early age.  Coerced by Putty Nose, their piano-playing fence, they start by stealing from department stores, and then move on to robbing warehouses.  With the arrival of prohibition in the early 1920s, their criminal careers move up a notch.  Tom and Matt work as bootleggers for the mobster Paddy Ryan, earning money that allows them to live in style.  Life couldn't be better.  Then a rival gang moves to take over Ryan's patch and the future suddenly looks a lot bleaker for Tom and Matt...