Anyone notice that the scenes with the kids at the beginning must have been filmed before they recast the two leads? The kid that grows up to be Tom Powers looks like Edward Woods and the kid who grows up to be Matt Doyle looks like James Cagney.
"All this machine does is swim and eat and make little sharks and that's all."
This really confused me as well and i couldnt work out which acter was tom/matt when they were older for quite a while.
shareThat's because originally thats how the film was cast, Edward Woods was going to play Tom Powers and Cagney was going to play Matt Doyle. It wasn't until later on at the directors request that they had switched roles. The begining had already been shot so they left it as is.
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Also, Donald Cook must have been cast before the change, because he looks much more like the brother of Edward Woods than he does James Cagney.
"You, slave, will be torn apart by horses, to the plaudits of the troops and the amusement of the children."
Yeah, even the mother casting makes more sense for a darker actor. The policeman father works with either boy since he's more neutral looking.
Too bad the movie studio bigwigs couldn't know what an influential, classic movie Public Enemy would become. They'd shell out the bucks to re-do the kids' scenes for sure. Ma and Mike Powers did such good jobs, I could live with them remaining in the roles.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.share