Year of Release: 1931Country of Origin: USA
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods
Plot outline: A young hoodlum rises up through the ranks of the Chicago underworld, even as a gangster's accidental death threatens to spark a bloody mob war (IMDb).
The Public Enemy is the movie that made James Cagney a star. Gifted at swaggering, tough guy roles, he was at the same time very appealing. This had the unwanted side effect of glamorizing crime lords, but it is doubtful that studio executives lost much sleep over this. As well they shouldn't have, as these movies all have the moral that crime doesn't pay. Contrary to popular opinion, the best moment in the movie isn't when Cagney shoves a grapefruit in his girlfriend's face, but when he and his buddy Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) hear that one of their own is dead, not by a rival gangster, but from being thrown off his horse. Even when they march into the stable in a welter of cold fury, you don't quite believe they're actually going to execute the horse, and yet they do. In a movie that begins and ends with high-toned messages about the evil hoodlums do to society, this was likely originally intended to illustrate the rapacious inhumanity of these gangsters (a horse?), but there's no denying its intrinsic black comedy. Studio-imposed moralizing aside, this is a movie with a wicked sense of humour - witness the scene in which a swishy haberdasher feels up Cagney's bicep while measuring him for a suit - that makes up for an occasionally stale plot. (BK, CB)
My judgement: ***1/2 out of 4 stars
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