100 All-Time Films (To see the entire list, click here)
William A. Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931)
It is interesting that I just got finished discussing Psycho as the transition from the Studio System to films as we know them today. The Public Enemy is the original gangster film that was altered to fit the strict Production Code when it was re-released in 1941. This film features the remarkable James Cagney as Tom Powers and shows his rise in the criminal underworld during Prohibition. Cagney gives an unrelenting performance and probably originated the ‘tough guy’ image we see in later films. If you haven’t seen the ‘grapefruit scene’, you’ve at least heard of it.
Wellman’s film depicted the cruel life of a gangster but had to show his demise (the Production Code wouldn’t allow him to live). I must say, the end of the film is one of the disturbing moments I’ve seen not just in classic films, but modern films as well. Seeing Powers strapped like a mummy and dropped in the doorway of his family’s home isn’t just a punishment for him (even though he is dead, ha), but for his family as well who are likely traumatized forever by the event. It immediately follows with this text before the credits.
“The end of Tom Powers is the end of every hoodlum. ‘The Public Enemy’ is not a man nor is it a character — it is a problem that sooner or later WE, the public, must solve.”
You can see that the film was about warning the audience about these terrible people and the results if we get involved in such actions by them. The problem was that it glorified the villain so much that I’m sure many gangsters were inspired by it. I mean, after seeing someone with the presence of Cagney have the audacity to smash a grapefruit in someone’s face, why wouldn’t we be inspired to actually do what we are thinking like Tom Powers?
