5/7/2001
United States. English. Black-and-white. 83 minutes. Available: VCR and DVD.
Crew
Director: William A. Wellman
Cinematographer: Devereaux Jennings
Screenplay: John Bright, Harvey F. Thew
Art Direction: Max Parker
Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck
Cast
James Cagney (Tom Powers)
Edward Woods (Matt Doyle)
Jean Harlow (Gwen Allen)
Joan Blondell (Mamie)
Beryl Mercer (Ma Powers)
Donald Cook (Mike Powers)
Mae Clarke (Kitty)
Mia Marvin (Jane)
Leslie Fenton (Samuel "Nails" Nathan)
Robert Emmett O'Connor (Paddy Ryan)
Murray Kinnell (Putty Nose)
Rita Flynn (Molly Doyle)
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.
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.
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 fiancée, 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.
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 http://www.IMDb.com
Burkes, Lisa. The Platinum Page. 7 Apr. 2001. Prohosting. 14 Apr. 2001 http://www.harlean.com
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.