The Public Enemy
Director: William Wellman
Year Released: 1931
Rating: 1.0
Time has not been kind to this mobster film by William Wellman, involving a young thug played by James Cagney and his seedy associates. The disclaimers at the beginning and end attempt to turn the movie into a social message (regarding the potential to stop all crime, ha ha), but only succeed in being laughable, in a Reefer Madness-y kind of way. The gangsters all have stupid nicknames (ex: "Puddy Nose"), Cagney says "see?" about a million times, events transpire in an uninteresting, fragmentary way, with no real plot to speak of. Some of the acting (especially Cagney's brother) is terrible. One bright moment: the slightly icky feeling the ending give you, which is arguably its greatest strength. Both Martin Scorsese and The Sopranos have done wonders with the genre in recent years, reinventing the way we view and - and are captivated by - organized crime.
