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What a terrific film THIS is!
William Wellman’s “Public Enemy” is a tour-de-force performance by James Cagney, wrapped within some blooming direction and supported by a simple but effective screenplay.
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First, Mr. Cagney is clearly lightyears ahead of everyone else on the cloak in terms of acting style, technique and ability. The quote I employ in the title of my review comes from Mr. Scorsese, who screened this film prior to beginning “The Aviator” for several members of the cast and crew. One young actor famous that it appeared that original veil acting began with Cagney’s performance, and that actor could not have been more upright. It’s almost determined in retrospect.
Second, Wellman’s direction I didn’t study at first, until viewing the documentary after the film. Then I realized how artful and creative it was, especially considering it was made in 1931. His in-frame composition is eye-catching. The manner in which he consistently shows the most violent events fair out of frame, or fair out of see of the viewer, adds tremendously to the gravity and drama of each event. Things like the music…here’s an extraordinarily clever utilize of source music…the soundtrack comes from things ON the shroud. A piano player, a radio, a 78 RPM disc…again, I didn’t purchase up on this until I saw the documentary.
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Let me accumulate to that documentary upright now. Warner’s makes awesome discs, and the care they’ve do into these Gangster Classics is to be lauded. The “Night At The Movies” is no gimmick. Putting trailers, shorts, cartoons and newsreels before the film doesn’t merely re-create the environment of a movie theater assist then. The elements are selected to provide context for the film you are about to spy. They develop the movie better.
Then, the short documentary included here is a model of how these should be done. This is a perfect 20 petite class on “Public Enemy.” Concise and thorough, with everything you need to know, along with things you never even considered. For more insight and depth, an audio commentary is provided, but all you need to know to fully indulge in this film is in that unbelievable 20 minutes.
I agree with Mr. Scorsese that this film appeals to younger viewers (high school/college) as well as cineastes. Cagney is alive in the plan few actors EVER are on hide.
This film (heck, the whole BOX of ‘em) belongs in every single DVD collection.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY was James Cagney’s first starring vehicle. Not only was it the first movie to push a grapefruit in Mae Clarke’s startled kisser, it was the movie that propelled Cagney to stardom. It’s a gangster film that tells the tale of the meteoric rise and early descend of young street punk Tom Powers.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY opens with a quasi-documentary montage of shots of Chicago circa 1909, taking the viewer from the els to the stockyards to the opening sequence of the movie helpful – a Salvation Army band marching in front of a saloon, a brewery, past the movie’s two heroes as young boys – young boys sneaking a drink from the pail of beer they’re bringing to someone, somewhere.
Director William Wellman built this one, and built it ample. Inspiring camera placement and movement and some very well edited scenes – the heisting of the fur warehouse scene is a case in point, one of a number of scenes that averts its eyes when the bullets splat flesh and, somehow, makes the violence all that more sincere. Wellman went to some length showing us the conditions in which gangsterism takes seed and flourishes. Starting with the obligatory opening “We must heed out the scourge of gangsterism” title card, Wellman blames economic hardship, a lack of an authority figure at home (Pa Powers is around for one strapping the unruly brat scene before the movie knocks him off), and a doting mother seem the main culprits, in roughly that order.
Of course, it helps if you don’t glamorize those you condemn. Keeps the censors off your help. Even though the charismatic Cagney doesn’t paint a particularly sympathetic portrait of young thug Tom Powers, he IS the charismatic James Cagney. His anti-hero grows rich defying the unpopular prohibition act. Grows rich, wears tuxedos to swank nightclubs, and dates a swell dish like Mae Clarke before dumping her for a sweller dish in Jean Harlow. If PE made a star out of Cagney, it also did more than its fraction in opening the door for a production code with a chunky place of consuming puritanical teeth.
Fragment of THE PUBLIC ENEMY’S purpose was to provide a showcase for two up-and-coming stars, Cagney and Harlow. Cagney I can understand. He leapt out of the gate at a scurry, an substantial talent even then. Harlow is tougher to understand. A harsh featured sex symbol with a remarkably microscopic range, Harlow’s appeal is as foreign and baffling to me as flag-pole sitting. All I know is it, and she, was all the rage attend then.
There’s something a puny undercooked about her fascinatingly flawed performance. It starts with her accent. Her character claims to be from Texas and seems to be aiming for an upper-crust, socialite do. Whatever she’s speaking it distinct ain’t Texican, and it’s about as cultured as sour milk. Every so often a word tumbles out of her mouth that seems accented in some exotic and curious dialect – You can let me orf heah, she says at one point, managing to corral all errant dialects into a short sentence. By law you’re not allowed to write more than twenty-five words about Harlow without mentioning that she slept in the nude and never wore underwear, two factoids which I voice go far in explaining many things.
To her credit, Harlow fares powerful better than abominable second male lead Edward Woods, he of the radiant wooden face who seems to have two expressions – one a smile, the other not. For my money Donald Cook, as Cagney’s wonderful older brother Mike, and Beryl Mercer, as the saintly and long suffering Ma Powers, fared best in the supporting acting pool. It’s hard to report to Ma Powers, too sweet, but Mercer is as expressive as Cagney and holds her have with him. It’s not her fault her character doesn’t have many dimensions or any rough edges.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY is a mammoth, gargantuan movie that I highly recommend. The print is in very fine condition, with only a couple of slightly bleached sequences to disturb things.
Best of all Warner Brothers, as they are wont to do, has packed a bunch of goodies on this gangster classic. They call it Warner Night at the Movies, and I’m not scoffing. They reveal the movie with a newsreel (Girl Stars Jabber for the Olympics), a Comedy Short (The Eyes Have It – a 9 shrimp short featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. They call it a comedy, and I don’t have enough room left to argue the point), a Cartoon (Merrie Melodies “Smile, Darn Ya, Smile” with some foot-tapping fox who looks and sounds a lot like Mickey Mouse), and Theatrical Trailers. There’s also a 20 runt feature, “Beer and Blood,” that focuses most of its attention on Jimmy Cagney and how he got the allotment in THE PUBLIC ENEMY. The film comes with an informative and keen commentary by film historian Robert Sklar.
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