The Public Enemy

1931 film

For other uses, see Public Enemy (disambiguation).

The Public Enemy

Theatrical release poster

Directed by| William A. Wellman
Written by|

* Kubec Glasmon
* John Bright

Screenplay by| Harvey F. Thew[1]
Based on|

Beer and Blood

* John Bright
* Kubec Glasmon

Produced by| Darryl F. Zanuck
Starring|

* James Cagney
* Jean Harlow
* Edward Woods
* Joan Blondell

Cinematography| Devereaux Jennings
Edited by| Edward Michael McDermott
Distributed by| Warner Bros. Pictures

Release date

* April 23, 1931 (1931-04-23)

Running time

| 83 minutes[2][3]
Country| United States
Language| English
Budget| $151,000[4] or $230,000[5]
Box office| $557,000[5]

The Public Enemy (Enemies of the Public in the UK)[6] is a 1931 American pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The film was directed by William A. Wellman and stars James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Donald Cook and Joan Blondell. The film relates the story of a young man's rise in the criminal underworld in Prohibition-era urban America. The supporting players include Beryl Mercer, Murray Kinnell, and Mae Clarke. The screenplay is based on an unpublished novel—Beer and Blood by two former newspapermen, John Bright and Kubec Glasmon—who had witnessed some of Al Capone's murderous gang rivalries in Chicago.[7][8] In 1998, The Public Enemy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

## Plot[edit]

James Cagney, Jean Harlow and Leslie Fenton in a publicity still for the film

As youngsters in 1900s Chicago, Irish-Americans Tom Powers and his lifelong friend Matt Doyle engage in petty theft, selling stolen items to "Putty Nose". Putty Nose persuades them to join his gang on a fur warehouse robbery, assuring them he will take care of them if anything goes wrong. When Tom is startled by a stuffed bear, he shoots it, alerting the police, who kill gang member Larry Dalton. When they go to Putty Nose for help, they find he has left town.

Tom's straitlaced older brother Mike Powers tries and fails to talk Tom into giving up crime. Tom keeps his activities secret from his doting mother. When America enters World War I in 1917, Mike enlists in the Marines.

In 1920, with Prohibition about to go into effect, Paddy Ryan recruits Tom and Matt as beer "salesmen" (enforcers) in his bootlegging business. He allies himself with noted gangster Samuel "Nails" Nathan. As the bootlegging business becomes ever more lucrative, Tom and Matt flaunt their wealth.

Mike finds out that his brother's money comes not from politics, as Tom claims, but from bootlegging, and declares that Tom's success is based on nothing more than "beer and blood". Tom retorts in disgust: "Your hands ain't so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans."

Tom and Matt acquire girlfriends, Kitty and Mamie, respectively. Tom eventually tires of Kitty; when she complains once too often, he angrily pushes half a grapefruit into her face. He then drops her for Gwen Allen. At a restaurant on the night of Matt's wedding reception to Mamie, Tom and Matt recognize Putty Nose and follow him home. Begging for his life, Putty plays a song on the piano that he had entertained Tom and Matt with when they were children. Tom shoots him in the back.

Tom gives his mother a large wad of money, but Mike rejects the gift. Tom tears up the banknotes and throws them in his brother's face. "Nails" Nathan dies in a horse-riding accident, prompting Tom to buy the horse and shoot it. A rival gang headed by "Schemer" Burns takes advantage of the disarray resulting from Nathan's death, precipitating a gang war.

Later, Matt is gunned down in public, with Tom narrowly escaping the same fate. Furious, Tom takes it upon himself to single-handedly settle scores with Burns and some of his men. Tom is seriously wounded in the shootout and ends up in the hospital. When his mother, brother, and Matt's sister Molly come to see him, he reconciles with Mike and agrees to reform. However, Paddy warns Mike that Tom has been kidnapped by the Burns mob from the hospital. A member of the Paddy gang telephones Mike to say Tom is returning from the hospital; their mother is overjoyed and begins preparing Tom's bedroom. When Mike answers a knock on the door, Tom's tied-up body is propped against it, and he falls dead onto the ground. The film closes with Mike walking slowly towards the camera.

## Cast[edit]

* James Cagney as Tom Powers
* Jean Harlow as Gwen Allen
* Edward Woods as Matt Doyle
* Joan Blondell as Mamie
* Donald Cook as Mike Powers
* Leslie Fenton as Nails Nathan
* Beryl Mercer as Ma Powers
* Robert O'Connor as Paddy Ryan
* Murray Kinnell as Putty Nose
* Purnell Pratt as Officer Powers

| style="text-align: left; vertical-align: top; " | Uncredited

* Mae Clarke as Kitty
* Frank Coghlan Jr. as Tom as a boy
* Frankie Darro as Matt as a boy
* Robert Homans as Officer Pat Burke
* Sam McDaniel as Headwaiter
* William H. Strauss as Pawnbroker
* Mia Marvin as Jane (Paddy Ryan's girlfriend)

## Production[edit]

### Development[edit]

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The screenplay which was written by Harvey F. Thew was based on a novel which was never published called Beer and Blood, by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon.[9][10] Bright and Glasmon based their novel on actual people, having witnessed some of Al Capone's murderous gang rivalries in Chicago. Warner Bros. studio head Jack L. Warner bought the rights to the novel and assigned director William A. Wellman to direct the film. Wellman, who had served in World War I like the brother of the main character, told Warner: "I'll bring you the toughest, most violent picture you ever did see".

### Casting[edit]

Edward Woods was originally cast in the lead role of Tom Powers and James Cagney was cast as Tom's best friend Matt Doyle, until director Wellman decided Cagney would be more effective in the part and switched the two actors[4] but never reshot the sequences with the characters as children, which is why the child playing Cagney's role looks like Woods while the one playing Woods' role looks like Cagney. Another reason for the switch is that the sound technology used in The Public Enemy was superior to that used in earlier films, making it no longer imperative to have an actor in the lead role who had impeccable enunciation.[citation needed]

Louise Brooks was the original choice for Gwen Allen, a woman with self-confessed weakness for bad men. She refused the role, which went to a younger actress, Jean Harlow. Brooks' name was in studio records/casting call lists playing "Bess" in this movie, but she and her character did not appear. Brooks later explained herself to Wellman (who had directed her in Beggars of Life (1928)) by saying that she hated making pictures because she simply "hated Hollywood".[11] In the opinion of Brooks's biographer Barry Paris, "turning down Public Enemy marked the real end of Louise Brooks's film career".[11]

Tom's first girlfriend Kitty was played by Mae Clarke, who was uncredited. Kitty is eventually dropped off by Tom for Gwen after he pushes half a grapefruit into her face, the most famous scene in the movie. Joan Blondell played Mamie, Matt's girlfriend. She had already worked with Cagney in Sinners' Holiday (1930) and would work with him on two films which also came out this year: Other Men's Women and Blonde Crazy. Other films that they worked together on were The Crowd Roars (1932), Footlight Parade (1933) and He Was Her Man (1934). Cagney once said that Blondell was the only woman he loved besides his wife. Donald Cook played Tom's brother, Mike.

### Filming[edit]

Filming took place in January and February 1931, with a small budget of $151,000.[12] During filming, Cagney also made Smart Money, co-starring Edward G. Robinson, who had finished his breakthrough film Little Caesar.

In the scene where Mike Powers punches his brother Tom, Wellman privately took Donald Cook aside and, explaining his desire for authenticity in Tom's reaction, asked the actor to really hit Cagney. Cook played his part a bit too well, and he struck Cagney in the mouth with such force, he actually broke one of Cagney's teeth.[citation needed] Yet in spite of his genuine shock and pain, Cagney stayed in character and played out the rest of the scene. In another incident, live ammunition was used in a scene where Tom Powers ducks around the corner of a building to take cover from machine gun fire; the use of live ammunition was common practice at the time.[citation needed] The bullets struck the wall of the building at the position where Cagney's head had been just a moment before.[13]

### Grapefruit scene[edit]

A controversial scene in which Tom (James Cagney) angrily smashes a half grapefruit into his girlfriend's face (Mae Clarke)

In a 1973 interview featured in the Turner Classic Movies documentary The Men Who Made The Movies: William Wellman, Wellman said he added the grapefruit "hitting" to the scene, because when he and his wife at the time would get into fights, she would never talk or give any expression. Since she always had a grapefruit for breakfast, he always wanted to put the grapefruit into her face just to get a reaction out of her, so she would show some emotion; he felt that this scene gave him the opportunity to rid himself of that temptation.[14][15]

Some, such as film critic Ben Mankiewicz, have asserted that Mae Clarke's surprised and seemingly somewhat angry reaction to the grapefruit was genuine, as she had not been told to expect the unscripted action.[16] However, in her autobiography, Clarke stated that Cagney had told her prior to that take what he planned to do. She said that her only genuine surprise came later, when she saw the grapefruit scene appear in the final film, as it had been her understanding that they were shooting it only as a joke to amuse the crew.[17]

According to Cagney, Clarke's ex-husband had the grapefruit scene timed, and would buy a ticket just before that scene went onscreen, go enjoy the scene, leave, then come back during the next show just in time to see only that scene again.[18]. The scene was parodied years later in the 1961 Cagney movie One, Two, Three when Cagney threatens Otto (Horst Buchholz) with a half grapefruit but then decides against doing so.

### Prologue and epilogue[edit]

The film featured a prologue[6] "apprising the audience that the hoodlums and terrorists of the underworld must be exposed and the glamour ripped from them" and an epilogue "pointing the moral that civilization is on her knees and inquiring loudly as to what is to be done." At the film's premiere in New York City, the film's prologue was preceded by a "brief stage tableau, with sinuous green lighting, which shows a puppet gangster shooting another puppet gangster in the back."[2]

## Music[edit]

The soundtrack included the following songs:[19]

* "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles"
* "Hesitation Blues"
* "Toot, Toot, Tootsie (Goo' Bye!)"
* "Maple Leaf Rag"
* "Brighten the Corner Where You Are"
* "Smiles"
* "I Surrender Dear"

The music was performed by the Vitaphone Orchestra, led by conductor David Mendoza.[1]

## Reception[edit]

### Box office[edit]

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $464,000 domestically and $93,000 internationally.[5]

### Critical response[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 33 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10.[20]

Andre Sennwald, who reviewed the film for The New York Times upon its April 1931 release, called it "just another gangster film at the Strand, weaker than most in its story, stronger than most in its acting, and, like most, maintaining a certain level of interest through the last burst of machine-gun fire"; Woods and Cagney give "remarkably lifelike portraits of young hoodlums" and "Beryl Mercer as Tom's mother, Robert Emmett O'Connor as a gang chief, and Donald Cook as Tom's brother, do splendidly."[2]

Time magazine called The Public Enemy "well-told" and noted, "Unlike City Streets, this is not a Hugoesque fable of gangsters fighting among themselves, but a documentary drama of the bandit standing against society. It carries to its ultimate absurdity the fashion for romanticizing gangsters, for even in defeat the public enemy is endowed with grandeur."[21] Variety called it "low-brow material given such workmanship as to make it high-brow" which attempts to "square everything [with] a foreword and postscript moralizing on the gangster as a menace to the public welfare."[6]

A theatre in Times Square ran The Public Enemy 24 hours a day during its initial release.[18] At the 4th Academy Awards, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story, losing to The Dawn Patrol.

Teaser trailer of The Public Enemy.

## Subsequent recognition[edit]

In 1989, an animatronics version of a scene from The Public Enemy was incorporated into The Great Movie Ride at the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Orlando, Florida. In 1998, The Public Enemy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2001, the Sopranos episode "Proshai, Livushka" featured title character Tony Soprano watching scenes from the film, becoming overwhelmed with emotion. In 2003 the character of Tom Powers was among the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains, placing 42nd in the villain list. In 2008, the film appeared on one of the AFI's 10 Top 10 lists—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres. The Public Enemy was listed as the eighth best in the gangster film genre.[22]

## Re-releases[edit]

The film was re-released in 1941 after the Production Code was put into effect. Three scenes from the film were cut because of the Code. One is of a markedly effeminate tailor measuring Tom for a suit, another where Mamie serves Matt breakfast in bed, and the third showing Tom being taken advantage of by Paddy Ryan's girlfriend while hiding out in her apartment.[23] These three scenes were later restored for all DVD and Blu-ray releases, and on Turner Classic Movies.

The film was also re-released in 1954, with a written prologue added before the opening credits, advising that gangsters such as Tom Powers and Caesar "Rico" Bandello, the title character in Little Caesar (played by Edward G. Robinson), are a menace that the public must confront.[23]

## Preservation status[edit]

As with many a Warner/First National pre-code talkie, a print has been in the Library of Congress since the 1970s. The film has been available to the public for several decades, due to several video and DVD releases.[24]

## See also[edit]

* List of crime films of the 1930s

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b "Credits: The Public Enemy". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on May 27, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
2. ^ a b c Sennwald, Andre (April 24, 1931). "Two Thugs". The New York Times. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
3. ^ "Release: The Public Enemy". BFI Film & TV Database. Archived from the original on May 27, 2009. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
4. ^ a b Dirks, Tim (2006). "The Public Enemy (1931)". The Greatest Films. filmsite.org. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
5. ^ a b c Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 1-31 p. 11 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551
6. ^ a b c "The Public Enemy (UK: Enemies of the Public)". Variety. 1931. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
7. ^ Whiteley, Chris. "The Public Enemy (1931)". Hollywood's Golden Age 2010-18. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
8. ^ "AFI|Catalog". catalog.afi.com.
9. ^ "The Public Enemy". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on May 9, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
10. ^ "The Public Enemy (1931) - Credits". Turner Classic Movies. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
11. ^ a b Paris (1989), p. 359
12. ^ "Business Data for The Public Enemy (1931)". IMDb. Retrieved December 9, 2006.
13. ^ Watson, Teresa. (September 2008). "James Cagney - Star of the Month", midnightpalace.com; accessed October 9, 2015.
14. ^ "1978 interview with Wellman". Film Comment. Archived from the original on June 9, 2008. Retrieved June 5, 2008.
15. ^ "The Men Who Made the Movies: William Wellman". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved September 17, 2022.
16. ^ Turner Classic Movies (October 17, 2010). The Public Enemy
17. ^ Clarke, Mae. Featured Player: An Oral Autobiography of Mae Clake, Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1996
18. ^ a b Cagney, James (2005). Cagney by Cagney. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-52026-3.
19. ^ "IMDb: The Public Enemy (1931)". IMDb. Retrieved July 29, 2009.
20. ^ "The Public Enemy". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved June 30, 2019.
21. ^ "Cinema: The New Pictures". Time. May 4, 1931. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
22. ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10". American Film Institute. June 17, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008.
23. ^ a b Gallagher, John (February 2005). "The Warner Brothers Gangster Collection". Between Action and Cut. National Board of Review. Archived from the original on December 6, 2012. Retrieved July 12, 2011.
24. ^ Catalog of Holdings The American Film Institute Collection and The United Artists Collection at The Library of Congress, (<-book title) p.146 c. 1978 by The American Film Institute

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## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Public Enemy.

* The Public Enemy at IMDb
* The Public Enemy at the TCM Movie Database
* The Public Enemy at AllMovie
* The Public Enemy at the American Film Institute Catalog
* The Public Enemy at Rotten Tomatoes

Wikiquote has quotations related to The Public Enemy.

* v
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Films directed by William A. Wellman

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* The Man Who Won (1923)
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* Cupid's Fireman (1923)
* Not a Drum Was Heard (1924)
* The Vagabond Trail (1924)
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* When Husbands Flirt (1925)
* The Boob (1926)
* You Never Know Women (1926)
* The Cat's Pajamas (1926)
* Wings (1927)
* The Legion of the Condemned (1928)
* Ladies of the Mob (1928)
* Beggars of Life (1928)
* Chinatown Nights (1929)
* The Man I Love (1929)
* Woman Trap (1929)
* Dangerous Paradise (1930)
* Young Eagles (1930)
* Maybe It's Love (1930)
* Other Men's Women (1931)
* The Public Enemy (1931)
* Night Nurse (1931)
* The Star Witness (1931)
* Safe in Hell (1931)
* The Hatchet Man (1932)
* So Big (1932)
* Love Is a Racket (1932)
* The Purchase Price (1932)
* The Conquerors (1932)
* Frisco Jenny (1932)
* Central Airport (1933)
* Lilly Turner (1933)
* Heroes for Sale (1933)
* Midnight Mary (1933)
* Wild Boys of the Road (1933)
* Female (1933)
* College Coach (1933)
* Looking for Trouble (1934)
* Stingaree (1934)
* The President Vanishes (1934)
* Call of the Wild (1935)
* Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936)
* Small Town Girl (1936)
* A Star Is Born (1937)
* Nothing Sacred (1937)
* Men with Wings (1938)
* Beau Geste (1939)
* The Light That Failed (1939)
* Reaching for the Sun (1941)
* Roxie Hart (1942)
* The Great Man's Lady (1942)
* Thunder Birds (1942)
* Lady of Burlesque (1943)
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* Buffalo Bill (1944)
* This Man's Navy (1945)
* The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
* Gallant Journey (1946)
* Magic Town (1947)
* The Iron Curtain (1948)
* Yellow Sky (1948)
* Battleground (1949)
* The Next Voice You Hear...  (1950)
* The Happy Years (1950)
* Across the Wide Missouri (1951)
* It's a Big Country (1951)
* Westward the Women (1951)
* My Man and I (1952)
* Island in the Sky (1953)
* The High and the Mighty (1954)
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* Ring of Fear (1954)
* Blood Alley (1955)
* Good-bye, My Lady (1956)
* Darby's Rangers (1958)
* Lafayette Escadrille (1958)

* v
* t
* e

Darryl F. Zanuck

Producer|

* Old San Francisco (1927)
* The First Auto (1927)
* The Jazz Singer (1927)
* Tenderloin (1928)
* The Show of Shows (1929)
* Three Faces East (1930)
* The Doorway to Hell (1931)
* Little Caesar (1931)
* Illicit (1931)
* The Public Enemy (1931)
* The Man Who Played God (1932)
* The Rich Are Always with Us (1932)
* Doctor X (1932)
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* The Cabin in the Cotton (1932)
* Three on a Match (1932)
* 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)
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* 42nd Street (1933)
* The Working Man (1933)
* Ex-Lady (1933)
* The Bowery (1933)
* Blood Money (1933)
* Moulin Rouge (1934)
* Looking for Trouble (1934)
* Born to Be Bad (1934)
* Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (1934)
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* Folies Bergère de Paris (1935)
* Les Misérables (1935)
* Cardinal Richelieu (1935)
* Call of the Wild (1935)
* Metropolitan (1935)
* Thanks a Million (1935)
* The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (1935)
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* A Message to Garcia (1936)
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* Poor Little Rich Girl (1936)
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* Sanctuary (1961)
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* The Chapman Report (1962)
* The Visit (1964)

Writer|

| as Mark Canfield|

* The Desired Woman (1927) (story)
* Maybe It's Love (1930)
* Baby Face (1933) (story)
* Crack in the Mirror (1960)

|

as Melville Crossman|

* Tenderloin (story) (1928)
* State Street Sadie (story) (1928)
* Thanks a Million (story) (1935)
* A Yank in the R.A.F. (story) (1941)
* Thunder Birds (original story) (1942)
* China Girl (story) (1942)
* The Purple Heart (story) (1944)

as Gregory Rogers|

* Find Your Man (Rin Tin Tin story) (1924)
* The Lighthouse by the Sea (Rin Tin Tin story) (1924)
* Three Weeks in Paris (story, screenplay as Darryl Zanuck) (1925)
* The Midnight Taxi (story) (1928)

as self|

* A Broadway Butterfly (1925)
* Red Hot Tires (1925)
* Hogan's Alley (1925)
* The Caveman (scenario) (1926)
* The Little Irish Girl (adaptation) (1926)
* The Social Highwayman (1926)
* Footloose Widows (1926)
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* The Better 'Ole (screenplay) (1926)
* Tracked by the Police (Rin Tin Tin story) (1927)
* Old San Francisco (1927)
* The First Auto (story) (1927)
* Good Time Charley (story) (1927)
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* My Man (story) (1928)
* Hardboiled Rose (story) (1929)
* Madonna of Avenue A (story) (1929)
* Say It with Songs (story) (1929)
* The Life of the Party (1930)
* Little Caesar (story – uncredited) (1931)
* The Dark Horse (story) (1932)
* Lady Killer (story – uncredited) (1933)
* Folies Bergère de Paris (contributing writer – uncredited) (1935)
* G Men (story) (1935)
* This Is My Affair (story – uncredited) (1937)
* Alexander's Ragtime Band (contributing writer – uncredited) (1938)
* The Great Profile (story – uncredited) (1940)
* Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942)

People|

* Virginia Fox (wife)
* Richard D. Zanuck (son)
* Dean Zanuck (grandson)

* v
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* e

AFI's 10 Top 10

American Film Institute

Animation|

* Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
* Pinocchio
* Bambi
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* The Verdict
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Epic|

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* Saving Private Ryan
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* It's a Wonderful Life
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* Harvey
* Groundhog Day
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Gangster|

* The Godfather
* Goodfellas
* The Godfather Part II
* White Heat
* Bonnie and Clyde
* Scarface (1932)
* Pulp Fiction
* The Public Enemy
* Little Caesar
* Scarface (1983)

Mystery|

* Vertigo
* Chinatown
* Rear Window
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* The Maltese Falcon
* North by Northwest
* Blue Velvet
* Dial M for Murder
* The Usual Suspects

Romantic comedy|

* City Lights
* Annie Hall
* It Happened One Night
* Roman Holiday
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* When Harry Met Sally...
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* Moonstruck
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* Sleepless in Seattle

Science fiction|

* 2001: A Space Odyssey
* Star Wars
* E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
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* Blade Runner
* Alien
* Terminator 2: Judgment Day
* Invasion of the Body Snatchers
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Sports|

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* The Hustler
* Caddyshack
* Breaking Away
* National Velvet
* Jerry Maguire

Western|

* The Searchers
* High Noon
* Shane
* Unforgiven
* Red River
* The Wild Bunch
* Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
* McCabe & Mrs. Miller
* Stagecoach
* Cat Ballou

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Norway
* Spain
* France
* BnF data
* Germany
* Israel
* United States

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