Scarface (1932)

Motions pictures have always had a way of holding a mirror to society, shining light on ugliness that is sometime ignored by the naive audience sitting in the theaters. Scarface was a picture made to entertain and in the world it was created it was an especially gutsy picture to make. In a time where prohibition was instated and organized crime was an issue in the major cities, filmmaker Howard Hughes would produce a film that resembled the doings of major crime boss Al Capone. Hughes and directors Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson would try to bring to the screen the gritty realities of gang warfare and the violence that seemed to haunt the great cities of America and always seem to allude the authorities. The film opens with a dare to the government to end these gangsters that actually ran the streets, but in actuality the film was just meant to entertain and would bring us one of film's greatest gangster pictures of all time.

Scarface is a rather simple story of one gang member's rise to power due to his greed to be greater than all his rivals, rising so far that his mini-empire collapses in on itself ruining his organization, those he loves, and ultimately himself. It shares many similarities to the other popular gangster films of the time, Public Enemy and Little Caesar, carrying this similar story arch. But this film would touch a little bit more on the events of Al Capone's real life rise to power in the city of Chicago including the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The film follows mobster Tony Comonte (Paul Muni), his rise in the organization of crime boss Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins) as they take over control of bootlegging in the city's south side. But Tony eyes are on larger things, expanding business to the north side engaging in a dangerous gang war that kills many. Tony's work gets mixed up with his family as his sister, Francesca (Ann Dvorak,) falls for a friend of Tony's and as the gang war gets away from him his sister is shot leaving Tony with nothing left to live for before meeting his own death by lead poisoning at the hand of officers. It is a kind of "crime doesn't pay" type of ending that is familiar to the genre during the time of the Hay's office of motion picture censorship.

Let me say the quality of the picture is magnificent. The picture has the feel of film shot in a studio, as almost all films in America where at this point, but the art direction and the cinematography is superb. The use of shadows and camera movement draws you into the story supplying the perfect mood for each scene. The way the story is pieced together and planned out by Hawks makes this one fine film to watch. Hawks even gets particularly playful with the hint of who is going to be killed as the letter "X" appears near the victim before his end. It is very clear why AFI gave this a spot on the top ten gangster film of all time, landing at number six. In the period where mobsters actually existed, and the genre was hitting its heyday, this particular picture has the images that became synonymous with the genre. With the hard-nosed looking mobsters, the roaring of tommy guns, to even the one man that gives the glare while flipping a continually flipping a coin in the air the picture has it all. This film is a gangster film by all respects that one should try to see.

The true story of the picture is that of the struggle to have the film made and distributed with trouble of censorship and what actual mobsters, including Capone himself, thought about it. The picture was based on a novel of the same name, and when word it was being made into a movie it was said that two of Capone's men came out to see if it was indeed about him. Keep in mind "Scarface" was an actual nickname of Capone, and he did take over the south side of Chicago before allegedly planning the St. Valentine's Day Massacre to win control of the north side. When the men were told it was a fictitious story the men left, but then the Hay's Code, film's self censoring board, stepped in. First the Hay's people demanded rewrites, but producer Hughes demanded Hawks to go make the picture as planned. When completed the Hay's office demanded edits. Hugh's refused, then certain state censors would not allow the film to be shown due to great violence. There was an attempt to make a safer ending where Tony was brought to jail and not slain in gunfire, but it didn't work and still didn't pass censors, so Hughes decided to leave the film as it originally was and let those states that would show it play the film while other states refused. That is how the film officially released.

The film would be one of mixed reviews. Many found it glorified violence, but in the time of the great depression anti-heroes were sometimes necessary as not everyone believed in the government. Hughes did try to please these nay-sayers by adding the subtitle "The Shame of a Nation" to the film, and a preface denouncing the acts of gangsters, issuing a dare to the government to stop such acts. Actually the film is quite violent for its time, not that there is blood or anything gruesome like that, but many characters are shot and killed on screen. The true event of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre is featured in the film which was a major gruesome story of its time. With that in mind it is rather funny to note that Al Capone enjoyed the film rather much, even owning a print for himself. So despite the fight with censors and the real mob the film did well for itself.

Paul Muni and cast does a very good job with this film. Muni, a previously Oscar nominated actor would soon take off in his career. His future work would be awarded an Oscar for acting and six total nominations for his contributions to film. The cast included Ann Dvorak in the middle of her long career, screen character actor Osgood Perkins as Lovo, a future Hollywood long-timer George Raft, and even a small role for Boris Karloff, best known as Frankenstein's monster," as a rival gangster who is shot and killed. Karloff was actually in many more gangster films, but his horror film role out-shined everything else he did, even being labeled Boris "Frankenstein" Karloff.

Scarface obviously had a very popular remake in in 1983 starring Al Pacino. A rarity that a remake outshine an original classic, but with a famous line like"Say hello to my little friend" and the poster image of Pacino made the Brian de Palma picture a huge hit for many people in the late twentieth century, covering the walls of many college dorm rooms. But on the AFI list this Scarface would be the one given the higher praise, with its 1983 counterpart landing at number ten. The picture is a classic from a time when the genre was in its heyday.