The Public Enemy [Blu-ray]

Overview

William Wellman's landmark gangster movie traces the rise and fall of prohibition-era mobster Tom Powers. We are first shown various episodes of Tom's childhood with the corrupting influences of the beer hall, pool parlor, and false friends like minor-league fence Putty Nose. As young adults, Tom (James Cagney) and his pal, Matt Doyle (Edward Woods), are hired by ruthless but innately decent bootlegger Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor). The boys quickly rise to the top of the heap, with all the accoutrements of success: custom-tailored tuxedoes, fancy cars, and gorgeous girls. All the while, Tom's loving (and somewhat addlepated) mother (Beryl Mercer) is kept in the dark, believing Tommy to be a good boy, a façade easily seen through by his older brother Mike (Donald Cook). Tommy's degeneration from brash kid to vicious lowlife is brought home in a famous scene in which he smashes a grapefruit in the face of his latest mistress (Mae Clarke). Some dated elements aside, The Public Enemy is as powerful as when it was first released, and it is far superior to the like-vintage Little Caesar. James Cagney is so dynamic in his first starring role that he practically bursts off the screen; he makes the audience pull for a character with no redeeming qualities. The film is blessed with a superior supporting cast: Joan Blondell is somewhat wasted as Matt's girl, Mamie; Jean Harlow is better served as Tom's main squeeze, Gwen (though some of her line readings are a bit awkward); and Murray Kinnell is slime personified as the deceitful Putty Nose, who "gets his" in unforgettable fashion. Despite a tacked-on opening disclaimer, most of the characters in The Public Enemy are based on actual people, a fact not lost on audiences of the period. Current prints are struck from the 1949 reissue, which was shortened from 92 to 83 minutes (among the deletions was the character of real-life hoodlum Bugs Moran).

Product Details

Release Date:	05/21/2013
UPC:	0883929282609
Original Release:	1931
Rating:	NR
Source:	Turner Classic Movie
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	1:24:00
Sales rank:	15,550

Special Features

Commentary by Film Historian Robert Sklar; Leonard Maltin Hosts Warner Night at the Movies 1931 with Newsreel, Comedy Short The Eyes Have It, Cartoon Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! ; Theatrical Trailers; Featurette Beer and Blood: Enemies of the Public; 1954 Rerelease Foreword

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Cagney	Tom Powers
Jean Harlow	Gwen Allen
Edward Woods	Matt Doyle
Joan Blondell	Mamie
Beryl Mercer	Ma Powers
Donald Cook	Mike Powers
Leslie Fenton	Nails Nathan
Robert Emmett O'Connor	Paddy Ryan,Paddy Ryan
Murray Kinnell	Putty Nose
Mia Marvin	Jane
Ben Hendricks Jr.	Bugs Moran
Rita Flynn	Molly Doyle
Buddy Burroughs	Dutch
Snitz Edwards	Hack Miller
Adele Watson	Mrs. Doyle
Frank Coghlan Jr.	Tom as a Boy
Frankie Darro	Matt as a Boy
Robert E. Homans	Off. Pat Burke
Dorothy Gee	Nails' Girl
Purnell Pratt	Officer Powers
Lee Phelps	Steve, the Bartender
Helen Parrish	Little Girl
Dorothy Gray	Little Girl
Nanci Price	Little Girl
Ben Hendricks III	Bugs as a Boy
George Daly	Machine Gunner
Eddie Kane	Joe, the Headwaiter
Charles Sullivan	Mug
Douglas Gerrard	Assistant Tailor
Sam McDaniel	Black Headwaiter
William H. Strauss	Pawnbroker,Pawnbroker
Landers Stevens	Doctor
Russ Powell	Bartender,Bartender
Mae Clark	Kitty

Technical Credits

Kubec Glasmon

John Bright

Harvey Thew

William A. Wellman	Director
Kubec Glasmon	Screenwriter
John Bright	Screenwriter
Harvey Thew	Screenwriter
Darryl F. Zanuck	Producer

Editorial Reviews

America's love affair with the cowboys and desperadoes of the Old West -- fodder of so many hits in the silent era -- is transferred to the urban environment for the 1931 classic The Public Enemy. We meet Tom Power (James Cagney) and his pal Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) as Chicago street urchins who grow from young hoodlums to mob enforcers during prohibition. Raised in the school of hard knocks by a fence known as Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell), Matt and Tom hit the big time with bootlegger Paddy Ryan (Robert Emmett O'Connor). Swinging into the high society of the criminal element, Tom falls for a beautiful girl named Kitty (Mae Clarke) but can't stay put and quickly moves on to the even greater temptation of Gwen Allen (Jean Harlow). Tom's doting Ma (Beryl Mercer) turns a blind eye to his career, but his war-hero brother Mike (Donald Cook) is furious and sees that nothing good can come of Tom's life. The Public Enemy, directed by William Wellman (The Ox-Bow Incident), is perhaps the best of Hollywood's early celebrations of the criminal entrepreneurial spirit -- and, of course, Mike is there as a one-man banner for American truism. For, ultimately, crime does not pay, but boy all that opulence and gunplay sure is fun for a while!

Barnes & Noble - Matthew Johnson

One of the great pre-Production Code gangster films, William Wellman's The Public Enemy made James Cagney a star, providing him with his defining role: Tom Powers, a bitter Chicago gangster driven to a tragic end. Like its contemporaries Little Caesar and Scarface, The Public Enemy was surprisingly ambitious in its examination of the social causes that drive young men into a life of crime, closely examining the allure of street gangs to working-class youths. Although the film goes to great lengths to claim that it does not glamorize criminal activity -- providing a moralistic introduction and conclusion designed to ward off censorship -- many powerful people felt otherwise, and the film's notoriety helped install the more draconian Production Code of 1934. The film's mixed message occurs largely because Cagney is so charismatic an antihero, especially compared to his straight-arrow brother, played woodenly by Donald Cook. Though the film is sometimes visually static, a common problem given the constraints of early sound cinema, it remains bracing and brutal, filled with an air of menace and hopelessness. It features talented newcomers Jean Harlow and Joan Blondell, but its most (in)famous scene -- a shocking episode in which Cagney smashes a grapefruit into his moll's face -- features the little-known Mae Clarke.

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