THE PUBLIC ENEMY.
James Cagney & Donald Cook,
Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell, Mae Clarke.
Dir: William Wellman, 1931, Warner Bros.

SYNOPSIS:
Up there with Little Caesar, this movie can be blamed for setting the whole anti-social punk flick. It's an early piece of cinema and remains unstereotypical from its opening scene, through the (plausible) plot and right down to the gruesome ending (no bullet ridden Hollywood death scene for this hood). We also get to the see the criminal's wake in the lives of his victims, his friends and his family. The word classic is often bandied about by movie companies, but I think, for once, the term can genuinely be applied to this seminal film. You will never see a gangster film as good as this one.

"An uncomfortable moment came when that good actor Donald Cook, who was my brother in the film, had to display his war shattered nerves by hauling off and hitting me in the mouth. I've always suspected that Bill Wellman said to him 'Go ahead, let him have it. He can take it.' because when Donald belted me, he didn't pull a thing. Instead of faking it he just punched me straight in the mouth, broke a tooth and knocked me galley west."
- Jimmy Cagney.

REVIEWS:
"Roughest, most powerful and best gang picture to date. So strong as to be repulsive in some aspects, plus a revolting climax. No strong cast names but a lot of merit."
- Variety.
"The real power of the Public Enemy lies in its vigorous and brutal assault on the nerves and in the stunning acting of James Cagney."
- James Shelley Hamilton.
"The producers wanted to 'depict honestly an environment that exists today in certain strata of American life, rather than glorify the hoodlum'. The film had a different effect: Cagney was playful and dynamic, and so much more appealing than the characters opposed to him that audiences rooted for him in spite of themselves."
- Martin Quigley Junior.
"Although it doesn't flow as a narrative, this early gangster film still has vivid and startling scenes and was most influential in the development of the urban American crime film."
- Leslie Halliwell.