The Public Enemy (1931)

The Public Enemy (Enemies of the Public in the UK[5]) is a 1931 American all-talking pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros.

Directed by William A. Wellman. With James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell. 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.

The Public Enemy (1931) is one of the earliest and best of the gangster films from Warner Bros. in the thirties. The film's screenplay (by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon), which received the film's only Academy Award nomination, was based upon their novel Beer and Blood.

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

An Irish-American street punk tries to make it big in the world of organized crime.

Matt (Edward Woods) is getting on a little better with his gal (Joan Blondell) than Tom (James Cagney, title character) with his (Mae Clarke), all of them living high in a posh Chicago hotel when mob boss Nails (Leslie Fenton) rings up, bringing about a fruit-related milestone, in The Public Enemy, 1931.

Oscar-winner James Cagney ("Yankee Doodle Dandy," "Angels with Dirty Faces") became a superstar with his gritty performance as a prohibition-era Irish-Americ...