The Public Enemy

All his life he took what he wanted...Why not women?
The Public Enemy (1931)
Timing: 1:23 (83 min)

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Release date
Country
Genre
Budget
$151 000
Box office
$557 000
Website
Scenario
Kubec Glasmon, John Bright
Producer
Camera operator
Devereaux Jennings
Composer
Artist
Audition
Editing
Edward M. McDermott
Whole Team (11)

Short description

Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.

What's left behind the scenes

  • The famous grapefruit scene was not originally in the script. James Cagney and Mae Clarke decided to play a similar prank on the crew. The director liked it and decided to include the scene in the film.
  • James Cagney (1899-1986) incorporated traits of Dean O'Banion (1892-1924, a gangster, the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the bootleg wars in Chicago in the 1920s) and two bullies he knew as a child in New York into the image of his character.
  • The film accurately points out that Chicago bootleggers focused primarily on the underground supply and trade of beer – unlike New York, where hard liquor was the main focus of bootlegging. The reason for this difference lies in geography: when it comes to alcohol content, much more beer is required to achieve the same level of intoxication, so engaging in the illicit distribution of beer in the limited spaces of Manhattan would not be a very practical undertaking.
  • In one of the scenes featuring characters played by James Cagney (1899-1986) and Edward Woods (1903-1989), actual machine gun bullets were indeed used. A firearms specialist climbed onto a platform approximately five meters from the target, and when James Cagney disappeared behind a wall, he opened fire, creating a circle of bullet impacts with a tight grouping.

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