MovieChat Forums > The Public Enemy (1931) Discussion > Public Enemy, Little Caesar, or Scarface...

Public Enemy, Little Caesar, or Scarface?


The years 1931 and 1932 saw three very comparable Hollywood gangster movies that generated a new genre of film noir that dealt with Capone-like Capos, unafraid to take on Italian names and point fingers at ethnic minorities and their involvement in a new organized crime in America. Little Caesar (1930-1), The Public enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932). You've got Edward G. Robinson, James Cagney, and the great Paul Muni, 2 Jews and an Irishman, playing Capone-like wanna-be dons, all three with virtual perfection. I think Cagney was the toughest, Robinson the most scheming and intimidating, and Muni the meanest and cruelest when you line them up in comparison. As to the most credible performance and the best screenplay, it's hard to find favorites when all three deliver the goods to perfection. You could watch all 3 in a row and find a continuity yet a difference that boggles the imagination. 3 great masterpieces, all delivered by different sources, yet remarkably very similar and ultimately satisfying. I can't put one above another so I rate them an all-out tie. Paul Muni was the bugsiest though (insane), without a thread of decency.

reply

Well said.



Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.

reply

I am shamefaced to have to admit that somehow I have never seen Scarface, though I want to. As to the other two, I'd have to disagree with you--The Public Enemy is by far the greater film. Little Ceasar has little else going for it beyond Robinson's performance. Of course, that's not nothing--Robinson's starmaking performance is electrifying and makes the picture still worth seeing today. But otherwise, the movie is just not that good. In particular, it's poorly paced and the chronology makes little sense. Although Cagney's performance is, no doubt, the standout element of The Public Enemy, that movie has a lot more going for it, in particular the dynamic (and, for 1931, groundbreaking) direction by Willam Wellman. Finally, I'd also add that while Robinson's character was clearly based, at least in part, on Capone, Cagneys part, and performance, was not.

reply

Love them all equally.

reply