The Public Enemy

Becoming a star in Hollywood is a tricky business. However, for a select few, that once-in-a-lifetime role comes along early and overnight they are the new sensation. James Cagney was a moderately successful theater actor, whose credits were primarily musicals and comedies. However his first drama, "Satan's Holiday" on Broadway, caught the attention of some Hollywood producers, and he was brought west to do the film version. Then, at the ripe old age of 32, after a decent but thoroughly unspectacular theatrical career, James Cagney got that once-in-a-lifetime role, as Tom Powers in "The Public Enemy". In 1930 the gangster movie craze began with Edward G. Robinson's own star-making turn as Rico "Little Caesar" Bendello in "Little Caesar". The very next year the genre would do likewise for Cagney. As the psychotic Tom Powers, Cagney announced to the world that there was a new star in town. Impossibly charismatic, Cagney absolutely dominates the screen, chewing scenery with his tough guy patois and shooting up scenery with his signature tommy guns. Oddly enough, the new tough guy leading man almost ended up being Edward Woods, who was signed for the role of Tom Powers. But after only a few days of shooting, director William Wellman noticed how Cagney was overwhelming his co-star and promptly switched roles. The rest of course is history. Woods went on to cinematic obscurity and Cagney became the defining star of a new genre.

As the film opens, Tom and his buddy Matt Doyle are just kids. However the dark path their lives are going to take is unmistakable, as Tom is already a delinquent, and Matt is too meek to stand up to the brash Tom. As the action shifts to the boys as teenagers, they are now established in the underworld, working for a low level fence Putty Nose. Their first major job is robbing a fur company, and during the theft a policeman is shot and killed by Tom. Putty Nose deserts the boys who come to him looking for help, a betrayal Tom remembers vividly, when he catches up with Putty Nose, now a pathetic old man, years later and cold bloodedly kills him. The sensational theft of the fur company earns the boys respect in the underworld however, and soon they are working for someone a little higher on the pecking order, Paddy Ryan. Ryan is a bootlegger, and Tom and Matt quickly become top enforcers for his racket, mostly thanks to Tom's brutal instincts and tactics. Inevitably a bigger fish gets wind of Tom Powers, whose reputation is vastly preceding him by this point, and it is not long before Tom and Matt are working for Nails Nathan, based on Dion O'Bannon, a notorious gangster in Chicago and chief rival of the Capone gang. In addition to fighting the war on the streets, Tom also has to deal with two other adversaries: his brother, and his women. Tom's brother Mike is a straight arrow type, just back from serving in World War I, when he learns Tom is a quickly rising force in the underworld. He forbids Tom from visiting home and helping out their mother, who despite Mike's good intentions, cannot bring herself to disown Tom, despite his violent lifestyle. Tom also has to deal with the women in his life. Initially he and Matt find two girls, Kitty and Mamie, respectively. Tom's girl Kitty, played by Mae Clarke, just one of the many victims Tom Powers leaves in his path throughout the film, suffers an indignity far worse than being gun downed however. In perhaps the most famous use of fruit in cinematic history, Tom dismisses the pushy Kitty by shoving a half of grapefuit in her face during breakfast, but he does so with such fury and malice that he might as well have killed her, his intent is that diabolical. Soon after Tom finds Gwen, a fast living materialistic dame, who while an incredibly shallow character, is significant for being the first major role portrayed by Jean Harlow, who would go on to become a huge star.

This being the 1930's, the studios had to be careful not to glorify the criminal lifestyle too greatly, or else face the wrath of the conservative majority. Thus in all of the 1930's gangster epics, the main character always gets it in the end, albeit in spectacular fashion. "The Public Enemy" provides an ending as bombastic as any of the others, with Tom getting cornered by the police, blasting his way out, but not before being riddled with bullets and slumping into the gutter he remarks the classic line: "I ain't so tough." Still alive from the shootout he is put into intensive care with police protection from the underworld interests that would love to see the great Tom Powers dead. They soon get their wish as back at Tom's family's home, Mike is trying to console their hysterical mother when they are interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. Mike goes to answer it and is shocked when he finds Tom, wrapped up in his hospital blankets, slumped in the door way. Thinking somehow Tom escaped he begins to lecture him, then suddenly realizes he is wrong as his body crashes to the floor. Tom has been killed, his body smuggled out and deposited at his mother's home as a message: Tom Powers ain't so tough anymore. The image of Tom's pathetic corpse wrapped in his blankets, dead on his mother's floor, is a stark message Hollywood (had to) impart on the film going public. The film, like "Little Caesar" before it, and "Scarface" after it, contains a silly epilouge in which a policeman, speaking directly to the screen, deplores the actions of Tom Powers in the film, as well as those who would act like him in real life. Howard Hawks was even forced to add the ridiculous subtitle "Shame of the Nation" onto his film, when censors complained about its unprecedented levels of violence, as well as a incest subplot, played out completely in Brian DePalma's subtlety free remake 50 years later. While "Little Caesar" came first, and "Scarface" is ultimately the most sensational of the genre, "The Public Enemy" deserves lasting credit though for establishing James Cagney as a huge star, and while he would go on to make several other classic gangster films, such as "Angels With Dirty Faces" and "White Heat", he proved his versatility in musicals such as "Footlight Parade" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and comedies such as "One, Two, Three". He would later admit to feeling trapped by the tough guy roles he was pigeonholed in, but the reality of it is, no one was tougher than James Cagney.