What a terrific film THIS is!

William Wellman’s “Public Enemy” is a tour-de-force performance by James Cagney, wrapped within some pretty direction and supported by a simple but effective screenplay.

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First, Mr. Cagney is clearly lightyears ahead of everyone else on the conceal in terms of acting style, technique and ability. The quote I consume in the title of my review comes from Mr. Scorsese, who screened this film prior to beginning “The Aviator” for several members of the cast and crew. One young actor famed that it appeared that new hide acting began with Cagney’s performance, and that actor could not have been more good. It’s almost certain in retrospect.

Second, Wellman’s direction I didn’t peer at first, until viewing the documentary after the film. Then I realized how artful and creative it was, especially considering it was made in 1931. His in-frame composition is eye-catching. The manner in which he consistently shows the most violent events fair out of frame, or unprejudiced out of eye of the viewer, adds tremendously to the gravity and drama of each event. Things like the music…here’s an extraordinarily clever expend of source music…the soundtrack comes from things ON the mask. A piano player, a radio, a 78 RPM disc…again, I didn’t remove up on this until I saw the documentary.

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Let me gain to that documentary accurate now. Warner’s makes awesome discs, and the care they’ve effect into these Gangster Classics is to be lauded. The “Night At The Movies” is no gimmick. Putting trailers, shorts, cartoons and newsreels before the film doesn’t merely re-create the environment of a movie theater support then. The elements are selected to provide context for the film you are about to stare. They perform the movie better.

Then, the short documentary included here is a model of how these should be done. This is a perfect 20 limited class on “Public Enemy.” Concise and thorough, with everything you need to know, along with things you never even considered. For more insight and depth, an audio commentary is provided, but all you need to know to fully like this film is in that wonderful 20 minutes.

I agree with Mr. Scorsese that this film appeals to younger viewers (high school/college) as well as cineastes. Cagney is alive in the procedure few actors EVER are on mask.

This film (heck, the whole BOX of ‘em) belongs in every single DVD collection.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY was James Cagney’s first starring vehicle. Not only was it the first movie to push a grapefruit in Mae Clarke’s startled kisser, it was the movie that propelled Cagney to stardom. It’s a gangster film that tells the myth of the meteoric rise and early drop of young street punk Tom Powers.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY opens with a quasi-documentary montage of shots of Chicago circa 1909, taking the viewer from the els to the stockyards to the opening sequence of the movie superb – a Salvation Army band marching in front of a saloon, a brewery, past the movie’s two heroes as young boys – young boys sneaking a drink from the pail of beer they’re bringing to someone, somewhere.

Director William Wellman built this one, and built it capable. Spellbinding camera placement and movement and some very well edited scenes – the heisting of the fur warehouse scene is a case in point, one of a number of scenes that averts its eyes when the bullets splat flesh and, somehow, makes the violence all that more trusty. Wellman went to some length showing us the conditions in which gangsterism takes seed and flourishes. Starting with the obligatory opening “We must sign out the scourge of gangsterism” title card, Wellman blames economic hardship, a lack of an authority figure at home (Pa Powers is around for one strapping the unruly brat scene before the movie knocks him off), and a doting mother seem the main culprits, in roughly that order.

Of course, it helps if you don’t glamorize those you condemn. Keeps the censors off your relieve. Even though the charismatic Cagney doesn’t paint a particularly sympathetic portrait of young thug Tom Powers, he IS the charismatic James Cagney. His anti-hero grows rich defying the unpopular prohibition act. Grows rich, wears tuxedos to swank nightclubs, and dates a swell dish like Mae Clarke before dumping her for a sweller dish in Jean Harlow. If PE made a star out of Cagney, it also did more than its fraction in opening the door for a production code with a pudgy place of exciting puritanical teeth.

Portion of THE PUBLIC ENEMY’S purpose was to provide a showcase for two up-and-coming stars, Cagney and Harlow. Cagney I can understand. He leapt out of the gate at a hobble, an colossal talent even then. Harlow is tougher to understand. A harsh featured sex symbol with a remarkably dinky range, Harlow’s appeal is as foreign and baffling to me as flag-pole sitting. All I know is it, and she, was all the rage help then.

There’s something a shrimp undercooked about her fascinatingly flawed performance. It starts with her accent. Her character claims to be from Texas and seems to be aiming for an upper-crust, socialite carry out. Whatever she’s speaking it clear ain’t Texican, and it’s about as cultured as sour milk. Every so often a word tumbles out of her mouth that seems accented in some exotic and unfamiliar dialect – You can let me orf heah, she says at one point, managing to corral all errant dialects into a short sentence. By law you’re not allowed to write more than twenty-five words about Harlow without mentioning that she slept in the nude and never wore underwear, two factoids which I deny go far in explaining many things.

To her credit, Harlow fares worthy better than awful second male lead Edward Woods, he of the pretty wooden face who seems to have two expressions – one a smile, the other not. For my money Donald Cook, as Cagney’s well-behaved older brother Mike, and Beryl Mercer, as the saintly and long suffering Ma Powers, fared best in the supporting acting pool. It’s hard to recount to Ma Powers, too sweet, but Mercer is as expressive as Cagney and holds her occupy with him. It’s not her fault her character doesn’t have many dimensions or any rough edges.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY is a sizable, titanic movie that I highly recommend. The print is in very pleasurable condition, with only a couple of slightly bleached sequences to disturb things.

Best of all Warner Brothers, as they are wont to do, has packed a bunch of goodies on this gangster classic. They call it Warner Night at the Movies, and I’m not scoffing. They indicate the movie with a newsreel (Girl Stars Utter for the Olympics), a Comedy Short (The Eyes Have It – a 9 dinky short featuring Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. They call it a comedy, and I don’t have enough room left to argue the point), a Cartoon (Merrie Melodies “Smile, Darn Ya, Smile” with some foot-tapping fox who looks and sounds a lot like Mickey Mouse), and Theatrical Trailers. There’s also a 20 slight feature, “Beer and Blood,” that focuses most of its attention on Jimmy Cagney and how he got the fraction in THE PUBLIC ENEMY. The film comes with an informative and attractive commentary by film historian Robert Sklar.

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