The Public Enemy (1931)

     Cagney and Harlow

"The Public Enemy, made in 1931 and directed by William Wellman is a melodramatic chronicle of the rise and fall of gangster Tom Powers (James Cagney) and is the greatest of the early 1930's gangster films. It is the movie that propelled Cagney, in his fifth screen appearance, to stardom, and it includes a splendid supporting cast including Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell, and Mae Clarke.

The genre's sometime sympathetic portrayal of ruthless criminals eager for the American dream of success at the deliberate and unlawful cost of others prompted the institution of the Production Code Administration to supervise the dubious moral value in Hollywood films.

Raised in Chicago slums, Powers and his friend Matt, turn at an early age to crime, graduating as young men to armed robbery and the murder of a policeman. Later Powers becomes involved in bootlegging during the Prohibition era, making real money for the first time. Though his brother and mother plead with him to go straight, Tom continues his rise to power in the gang,((( but after being badly wounded in a battle with rivals, he agrees to rejoin his family. He is taken from the hospital and murdered, his body dumped on the doorstep of his family home.

With its simplistic moralism, the plot of 'The Public Enemy' has dated poorly. But Cagney remains powerful and energetic as Powers, dominating the screen in every scene and setting the pattern for all gangster films to come, including 'The Godfather' series. Wellman directs the film with a strong visual sense, designing memorable scenes such as one in which Powers, in a sudden fit of anger, shoves a grapefruit into girlfriend Kitty's face.

The film received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and in 1998 was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Main Cast

James Cagney .... Tom Powers
Edward Woods .... Matt Doyle
Jean Harlow .... Gwen Allen
Donald Cook .... Mike Powers
Joan Blondell .... Mamie
Beryl Mercer .... Ma Powers
Leslie Fenton .... Samuel "Nails" Nathan
Murray Kinnell .... Putty Nose
Robert Emmett O'Connor .... Patrick "Paddy" J. Ryan
Mae Clarke .... Kitty