Enjoyable film. Paul Muni as his best. George Raft as his go to guy, and of all people Boris Karloff as a rival gang leader. A joint venture between Howard Hawks and Howard Hughes. Worth seeing on TCM.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ZSMICHAEL,

Paul Muni speaking to George Raft: "In this business there's only one law you gotta follow to keep out of trouble: (pats shoulder holster under his jacket) Do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doing it."

Scarface, along with Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, formed the foundation of the (sound) gangster film. Of the three, I prefer Little Caesar. Paul Muni's Tony Camonte in Scarface is a stupid gorilla; James Cagney's Tom Powers in The Pubic Enemy is too nice of a guy. Edward G. Robinson's Caesar Enrico Bandello in Little Caesar is nothin' but business- an ambitious, asexual gangster.

Muni was a great stage actor, but Italian-Americans were none to happy with his portrayal of them in Scarface. It wasn't just the criminal element that bothered them. No real Italian or Itaian American has that kind of goofy, over-the-top accent. Muni made the same mistake with the (kind of) Polish accent he used in Black Fury (1935). Cagney was Irish-Norwegian and played an Irish-American gangster from Chicago and was completely believable in his role in The Public Enemy. Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born Jew whose specific heritage does not come up in Little Caesar, except to suggest that he was part of an immigrant scourge.

William Wellman directed both Scarface and The Public Enemy, and he was a true man's man director, but it's not surprising to me (in this instance, anyway) that I prefer a film directed by the very busy but also very pedestrian director Mervyn LeRoy. Robinson's seminal performance, story by the great W.R. Burnett, Tony Gaudio's cinematography and those great sets by Anton Grot make Little Caesar the best of these three.

I do like Wellman's use of symbolism in Scarface. Everytime someone gets killed, there is an "X" somewhere on the screen. Also, we have Boris Karloff, bowling ("Watch this one"). Very campy.

Scarface was actually filmed in 1931 but not released until the following year. Despite this being a pre-code filem, I think the censors took issue with the original ending of the film, and the studio also had to tack on that silly "The Shame of a Nation" crap to the title, and include a prologue in which authorities condemned gangsterism.

You are very correct with the Italian accent. I did enjoy the campy performance along with the way Muni moved his eyebrows. It is curious to see the term HOT used in the 1930's.

And when I say 'pre-code', I do mean pre-code. Camonte's male secretary, who provides comic relief tells someone on the phone to "fuck off". No, really, he does.

Oh, and my mistake- of course Scarface was directed by Hawks, not Wellman.

And although I say Muni's accent is not believable, if you want to see a truly unrealistic performance of a gangster, check out skinny little super-white-bread college boy Lew Ayres pushin' around everybody in Doorway to Hell. Unintentionally comical.

So, after the Production Code got teeth in the summer of 1934, it brought an end to the kinds of gangster portrayals we see in these three films mentioned above. But, Hollywood knew that gangster films were money makers, so they found ways around this. For example, notice how we get Cagney ostensiby playing an FBI agent in G-men in 1935, but he "goes undercover" and plays the role of- you guessed it- a gangster.
And then we have that interesting sub-genre of the comic gangster film- The Whole Town's Talking (directed by John Ford, no less) and The Little Giant. Both of those were Eddie G. portrayals. Brother Orchid, also Eddie G., and It All Came True, with Bogey hamming it up as gangster, but in a comedy. There are other films in that sub-genre, most of them pre-WWII. During the war, film noir began its rise, and once it took hold, there was no further pretense made about it. We had hardcore gangster portrayals once again, although still constrained to a degree by the production code.

Thanks I will check out those films. The male secretary was quite funny. Cannot follow the simplest of instructions.

Of the comic gangster films I mentioned, there's two of them really worth your while- In Ford's The Whole Town's Talking, Eddie G. plays a dual role. He plays a sort of milquetoast clerk who happens to look exactly like a notorious gangster (also played by Eddie G.). Pretty entertaining. Also, I have a particular affection for It All Came True. I find it to be a very charming film with a big heart, and Bogart is funny in it.

Thank you.

Favorite scene in The Public Enemy:
The Grapefruit Scene.

That was Cagney improvising.


Favorite scene in that film?

"I ain't so tough!"



BTW, Boardwalk Empire paid homage to Little Caesar. Here's the opening of the film. At 1:45 in the clip, Douglas Fairbanks orders "Spaghetti and coffee for two." The title of this episode of Boardwalk Empire is not coincidental.