The Public Enemy (1931)

Credits: Director. . . William Wellman Screenplay. . . Harvey F. Thew, based on the manuscript, “Blood and Beer” by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon Cinematography. . . Devereaux Jennings Music. . . David Mendoza Costume. . . Edmund Stevenson Art Director. . . Max Parker Editing. . . Edward M. McDermott

Cast: Tom Powers. . . James Cagney Gwen Allen. . . Jean Harlow Matty Doyle. . . Edward Woods Mamie. . . Joan Blondell Mike Powers. . . Donald Cook Nails Nathan. . . Leslie Fenton Ma Powers. . . Beryl Mercer Paddy Ryan. . . Robert Emmett O’Connor Putty Nose. . . Murray Kinnell Kitty. . . Mae Clarke

Scenes, Sequences, and Shots to Look For:

• opening sequence of shots showing Chicago in 1909
• scene in which Tom receives a beating from his father
• the welcome home dinner for Mike
• scene where Tom and Matt commit their first armed robbery
• the scene of Prohibition eve
• the grapefruit scene
• the “I ain’t so tough” scene
• ending sequence in which Tom appears on the doorstep

Background on Film

The film is based upon a 300-page draft of an unpublished novel called “Beer and Blood,” written by two former street thugs named John Bright and Kubec Glasmon. These men were first-hand witnesses to gang rivalries in Chicago, and both of them witnessed many of Al Capone’s murderous rampages. Darryl Zanuck, studio head at Warner Bros., thought the story was perfectly suited to Warners’ “headline policy” (that is, their tendency, in the 1930s, to base most of their films’ scripts on current newspaper stories. Warner Bros. bought the rights to “Beer and Blood” but never published it, instead producing a tie-in novelization of the movie plot written by an anonymous studio writer.

Edward Woods (who plays Matt Doyle) and James Cagney (who stars as Tom Powers) actually switched roles midway through the film, based on director William Wellman’s hunch that Cagney would make the “better gangster.”

The film is typically paired with Little Caesar (1930) and Scarface: Shame of a Nation (1931) as key examples of classical gangster cinema.

Terms and Films to Know this Week

Voice-over, soundtrack, non-diegetic sound, diegetic sound, Underworld, Little Caesar, Scarface: Shame of a Nation, Technicolor, the three-color system, the debate over sound, contrapuntal sound, The Jazz Singer, Vitaphone

Critical Commentary

“Although the gangster film’s story line includes criminal activities and ‘rackets,’ the backbone of a gangster film story is the metamorphosis of the gangster character. He will rise spectacularly and then fall horrendously until he’s finally destroyed” (xii).—Marilyn Yaquinto, Pump ‘Em Full of lead: A Look at Gangsters on Film. New York: Twayne, 1998

“In ways that we do not easily or willingly define, the gangster speaks for us, expressing that part of the American psyche which rejects the qualities and the demands of modern life, which rejects ‘Americanism’ itself.”—Robert Warshow, “The Gangster as Tragic Hero” (1948). In The Immediate Experience: Movies, Comics, Theatre, and Other Aspects of Popular Culture. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. press, 2001

“Gangster films are a socially antagonistic cinematic tradition allied to lower-class and ethnically marginalized American interests in the 1930s.” –Jonathan Munby, Public Enemies, Public Heroes: Screening the Gangster from Little Caesar to Touch of Evil. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1999

Discussion Questions

1) Consider carefully the character of Tom Powers as a gangster figure. Some critics have remarked that, compared to other gangsters (such as Tony Camonte in Scarface), Tom Powers is an “ordinary” criminal, possessed of “average” traits. Would you agree with this assessment? If so, what marks him as “ordinary?”

2) A key component of Tom Powers’ characterization is James Cagney’s performance. During the early 1930s, Cagney played a number of roles in which he was either featured as a gangster [Angels with Dirty Faces (1939) and The Roaring Twenties (1939)] or as a character possessed of “gangsterish” traits [The Picture Snatcher (1933) and G-Men (1935)]. What details of his performance did you find noteworthy (consider, for example, his physical stature, movements, dialogue, facial expressions, and gestures). Why is Cagney so well suited to the gangster figure?

3) How does Public Enemy exemplify the above statement by Robert Warshow that “gangster films are a socially antagonistic cinematic tradition?” In what ways does this film criticize American social life? Is this film meant to antagonize certain audience members? If so, whom?

4) Many commentators have praised Public Enemy for its documentary-like realism. Please comment on those elements of the film that seem to exemplify this realism.

5) Consider the major female characters in this film: Tom’s mother, Kitty, Mamie, and Gwen. How would you describe the function of each of these characters? Based on these four characters, would you agree with those critics who argue that gangster films betray a pronounced misogyny toward women?

6) Consider Tom’s relationship with Kitty and Gwen. Why are these relationships such failures? How would you describe Tom’s attitude toward these two women? Why does Gwen disappear from the screen after a certain point in the film?

7) Consider Tom and Matt’s friendship. What do you see as the basis/bases for their friendship? In what ways is this friendship related to Tom’s relationship with women?

8) One of the film’s peculiarities, according to some reviewers, is that it doesn’t end where it should. Many have argued that it would have been more appropriate for Public Enemy to end with the scene where Tom, after being gunned down, proclaims “I ain’t so tough” and falls in the gutter. Would you have preferred for the film to end with this earlier scene? What would have been achieved by doing so? What does the film achieve by ending where it does?

9) Like many gangster films, ThePublic Enemy is preoccupied with the urban street as a site of narrative action. Discuss scenes in which this observation is particularly evident.

10) Arguably, there are four parental figures in ThePublic Enemy: Tom’s father, Tom’s mother, Paddy Ryan, and Putty Nose. Comment on each of these characters as parents.

11) Please discuss the character of Mike Powers, Tom’s brother. A dutiful son, a war hero, and a consummate law-abider, Mike is nevertheless “afforded no authority, sympathy, or appeal in the film,” according to one reviewer. Would you agree with this observation? If not, why not? If so, why do you think Mike is treated so unkindly by the film?

12)“The grayish tones of Dev Jenning’s photography imply a neutrality of outlook, and it is only toward the end, when a sense of mounting drama permits it, that the images become more expressive and sinister.”  So writes one critic on the film. Would you agree with this assessment? If so, at which point in The Public Enemy does the cinematography become “more expressive and sinister?” Please single out a particular scene or sequence to discuss.

13) The Public Enemy begins and ends with official statements written by the film’s producers. What do these statements say? What are the purpose and/or effect of including these statements as framing devices for the film?