BACK
The Public Enemy 1931 1:24:00
THE PUBLIC ENEMY (Warner Brothers, 1931), directed by William A. Wellman, is a prime example of how a motion picture produced during the early sound era can still hold up today. A worthy follow-up to the studio's most recent gangster outing, LITTLE CAESAR (1930), that elevated Edward G. Robinson to stardom, THE PUBLIC ENEMY brought forth another new screen personality, James Cagney, in his fifth screen appearance, and the motion picture that started his road to fame as a top leading actor for the next thirty years. In THE PUBLIC ENEMY, Cagney displayed a new kind of movie thug: rough, particularly with guys who betray him; tough, especially with women who get on his nerves or play him for a sucker; and ready, to succeed, and will sock, punch, slap or kill anybody who gets in his way. His Tom Powers does have a soft spot for his mother, but he is far from being a "Momma's Boy." Being a natural talent, Cagney makes THE PUBLIC ENEMY all it's worth.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY plays in the biographical mode, displaying the origin of the two central characters, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, as boys leading to their adult lives as tough young men, with one being the more forceful, stronger and tougher than the other, having no remorse whatsoever for his actions. As the opening and closing titles imply, "Tom Powers is a problem that sooner or later, we, the public must solve." In spite of his upbringing being raised in a good home, even if it's in the poor section of town, with hard-working parents to support and care for him, the Tom Powers character in question indicates that he was born ... to be bad. Cagney expertly portrays him as the most vicious, cold-hearted thug in the history of crime. Profiled as a movie based on actual characters, with the names changed to protect the innocent, THE PUBLIC ENEMY may be trivial in that respect, but what is presented on screen ranks one of the most powerful stories ever filmed.
Starting off with brief segments indicating the passage of time, the story opens to the year 1909 with an overview of a city (Chicago) followed by the outlook of a small industrial town where Tommy Powers (Junior Coughlan) and his best pal, Matt Doyle (Frankie Darro) two pre-teen boys, coming out of a brewery drinking beer. They are next seen being chased by a store detective of a department store for shoplifting, later bringing the stolen goods of watches to their adviser, Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell), who sings songs while playing the piano at a place called The Red Oaks Club. Tommy, whose father (Purnell B. Pratt), an officer of the law, disciplines his son for his wrong-doings with the use of a wide leather strap against the boy's rear end whenever possible, which turns out to be of no consequence. Tommy's older brother, Mike, disapproves of his ways, but in spite of Mike showing signs of growing to become a decent citizen, it is evident that it is bad boy Tommy whom their mother (Beryl Mercer) favors. Next scene, 1915, brings out the now grown Tom Powers (James Cagney) and Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) still doing petty crimes for Putty Nose, who now offers the boys their diploma, guns. Their first real job into the real world is robbing the Northwestern Fur Trading Company. After being caught, the two nervous thugs make a run for it, leading to a chase and some shooting. Tom and Mike come out from a dark alley and immediately throw away the evidence used to kill their pursuer, a policeman. In spite of protection offered by their guider, Putty Nose disappears, leaving his "students" to take the blame. 1917 finds Tom and Matt employed as truck drivers; Tom's older brother, Mike (Donald Cook), a streetcar conductor, enlists in the Marines after the outbreak of the Great War (World War I). Before departing from home, Mike confronts Tom about rumors he's heard about the way he and Matt are earning their living, leading to an argument that finishes with a fight that gives Mike his last punch on Tom, causing both brothers to now become rivals. 1920, the Prohibition Era, finds Tom and Matt working for bootlegger Patrick J. "Paddy" Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor), as well as making friends with "Nails" Nathan (Leslie Fenton), an underworld chief. Mike, who has returned home a war hero and now supporting a wife, his childhood sweetheart and Matt's sister, Molly (Rita Flynn), refuses to have anything to do with Tom, much to the sorrow of their mother. Aside from their usual criminal activities bootlegging beer, the boys do find time for romance: Matt meets and soon marries Mamie (Joan Blondell) while Tom has short-lived encounters with both Kitty (Mae Clarke), and Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow). Tom becomes more interested in Gwen because she's more his type, but since his life of crime takes a priority, their relationship comes to a close. When things start to go well for Tom and Mike working for Paddy Ryan, Scheiner Burns, a rival gang leader, attempts to take over Ryan's establishment, leading to more gunplay, especially for Tom, who's become quick on the trigger, only to have things backfire on him.
If not the most famous of the early gangster films, THE PUBLIC ENEMY is one of the most revived. Quite frank in its actions, and adult for its intentions, much of the then so-called violence occurs out of camera range. Yet, whatever is displayed on film is something not to forget. These days, there isn't a year that goes by in which THE PUBLIC ENEMY isn't televised. Because of its popularity, and due to frequent revivals, this, along with its predecessor, LITTLE CAESAR (1930), have become immortalized in cinema history.
Whenever a topic pertaining to THE PUBLIC ENEMY arises, it's not the story that immediately comes to mind, but Cagney with his individual scenes, including Tom (Cagney) ordering a beer in a bar, tasting it to discover it's not his brand, then squirting the product into the bartender's face; Tom's cold-blooded kill on Putty Nose as he shoots him in the head while his intended victim is playing his last song on the piano; Tom's offscreen shootout with a rival gang in a fancy nightclub, then stumbling out in the pouring rain to utter this classic line, "I ain't so tough" before falling into the puddle of water in the gutter. But all these scenes are pale in comparison by the time it reaches its most chilling yet unexpected climax ever recorded on film. Watch for it. But of all aforementioned scenes, the most famous of all happens to be the one involving Tom at the breakfast table with his live-in mistress, Kitty (Mae Clarke), which leads to harsh words that cause Tom to end their relationship by pushing a grapefruit smack into her face. Never has so few minutes of screen time have such an impact for so long. What's even more interesting is the fact that Mae Clarke, who appears unbilled, began her movie career in 1929 in leading roles. In spite of her potential as a fine young actress (as proven with her rarely seen WATERLOO BRIDGE for Universal in 1931), she wasn't nor ever became a top box office draw, yet, one wonders how or why someone of her current status ever got to appear in something categorized today as a cameo, yet at the same time, making cinema history involving only a grapefruit. Aside from Clarke's famous few minutes of grapefruit glory, Mia Marvin (with a face that resembles Maureen "Marcia Brady" McCormick from TV's 1970s sit-com, THE BRADY BUNCH'S) who appears near the end of the story, shouldn't go unmentioned playing a slut named Jane who shows great interest in Tom, enough so by getting him drunk so to seduce him. When Tom comes to his senses the following morning, he smacks some sense out of her and departs. Jean Harlow, billed second in the cast after Cagney, doesn't get any abuse from her leading man as the other two actresses. She makes her grand entrance 45 minutes into the start of the story, playing one of Tom's pickups. While Harlow's performance has been criticized to be one of her worst, chances are her portrayal might have been intented to be performed in that manner. Harlow's Gwen Allen is an uneducated blonde floozy with her gift for attracting men, since, as she puts it, "I've known ... dozens of them." What possibly hurts the film is not Harlow herself, but the inane dialogue she recites, especially during her "love scenes" with Cagney: ("Oh my bashful boy" or "Oh, Tommy, I could love YOU to death!"). Since this future MGM star had her limitations in THE PUBLIC ENEMY, it really didn't appear to do some or any damage to the story, yet it offers a look to one of the shining stars from the 1930s whose life and career had come to a sudden close at the age of 26 in 1937. THE PUBLIC ENEMY was her one and only Warner Brothers film. Joan Blondell, a stock player for Warners through most of the 1930s, is often overlooked as being one of the co-stars of THE PUBLIC ENEMY. Her scenes play mostly opposite Edward Woods as Tom's boyhood pal, Matt. Woods, whose has almost equal screen time with Cagney, is a Hollywood name very few would remember today. Several documentaries profiling gangster films have indicated Woods as the initial star of THE PUBLIC ENEMY with Cagney assuming the subordinate role, with director Wellman seeing an error with the casting and wisely having these actors switch roles. A smart move on Wellman's part, who made THE PUBLIC ENEMY one of the true classic crime dramas of its day. Donald Cook, Beryl Mercer and Robert O'Connor appearing in subordinate roles, are essential with their parts, but never outshine Hollywood's finest movie thug, a/k/a Public Enemy, James Cagney, whose tougher roles, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES (1938) and WHITE HEAT (1949) were years into his future. With limited underscoring, the theme song, "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles," like Cagney and his grapefruit, has long become associated with THE PUBLIC ENEMY.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY, which has become one of the first major movies from the Warner Brothers library to be distributed on video cassette, and later on DVD, can be seen quite frequently on Turner Classic Movies. It might not have the realistic violence as any crime film of today, but THE PUBLIC ENEMY presents itself as a gangster drama that doesn't have to be all blood and guts to become successful. Good acting, fine story, interesting characters supplied with tight action is all what is needed to make a good movie.