Public Enemy (1931)
The first time I watched James Cagney was when RTM screened 1942 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. It narrated the biography of George M. Cohen, an American musical composer who in his later part of his life remained unknown. I vividly remember a scene where he stood incognito amongst the crowd looking at the band march by to the ecstatic youngsters singing to the tune. Little did the crowd know who was standing among them - the composer of the song, until he tells them his life story! That was another movie...
Well, this 1931 action movie is one of the early action movies which talks about the glamorous life of gangland and the downside too. From the outset, the director had warned viewers that the film does not glamorise hoodlums. Even though proclaiming to be of the contrary, the story was supposedly based on lifetimes of many baddies of that era.
The story starts in 1909 with the tale of two young boys grow up doing pranks and soon graduating to bigger crimes in life. Being in the Prohibition Era and all, they get drafted into smuggling booze and enjoying the high life. Everything has a price and it costs dearly. In between comes a family, a doting mother and a righteous brother who follows the virtuous road.
An interesting trivia that developed during the course of filming is that they director decided to switch the main two lead actors. The child actors who represent them were not switched, so you have the young actors with mannerisms and physique of the other at childhood. Another trivia is the famous grapefruit scene. It is supposed to mimic a gangster who threw an omelette at his girlfriend at breakfast table. In this film, the scene was unrehearsed and gave the actress a shock. It was meant to be that way!
A memorable line from the flick, when two brothers are arguing on the money that Tom (the gangster brother, James Cagney) that he gives their mother. Mike, the elder one is a war veteran of WW1, is sceptical of the origin of Tom's wealth which is not from politics as he claimed but from bootleg. His success is from beer and blood. Tom, ridiculing his soldier brother says, "Your hands ain't so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans."
The first time I watched James Cagney was when RTM screened 1942 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. It narrated the biography of George M. Cohen, an American musical composer who in his later part of his life remained unknown. I vividly remember a scene where he stood incognito amongst the crowd looking at the band march by to the ecstatic youngsters singing to the tune. Little did the crowd know who was standing among them - the composer of the song, until he tells them his life story! That was another movie...Well, this 1931 action movie is one of the early action movies which talks about the glamorous life of gangland and the downside too. From the outset, the director had warned viewers that the film does not glamorise hoodlums. Even though proclaiming to be of the contrary, the story was supposedly based on lifetimes of many baddies of that era.
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| James Cagney |
The story starts in 1909 with the tale of two young boys grow up doing pranks and soon graduating to bigger crimes in life. Being in the Prohibition Era and all, they get drafted into smuggling booze and enjoying the high life. Everything has a price and it costs dearly. In between comes a family, a doting mother and a righteous brother who follows the virtuous road.
An interesting trivia that developed during the course of filming is that they director decided to switch the main two lead actors. The child actors who represent them were not switched, so you have the young actors with mannerisms and physique of the other at childhood. Another trivia is the famous grapefruit scene. It is supposed to mimic a gangster who threw an omelette at his girlfriend at breakfast table. In this film, the scene was unrehearsed and gave the actress a shock. It was meant to be that way!
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| The Grapefruit scene! |
A memorable line from the flick, when two brothers are arguing on the money that Tom (the gangster brother, James Cagney) that he gives their mother. Mike, the elder one is a war veteran of WW1, is sceptical of the origin of Tom's wealth which is not from politics as he claimed but from bootleg. His success is from beer and blood. Tom, ridiculing his soldier brother says, "Your hands ain't so clean. You killed and liked it. You didn't get them medals for holding hands with them Germans."
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