Only four years after silent movies became talkies, James Cagney hit the screen in THE PUBLIC ENEMY talking faster than the machine gun his character totes. The film traces the short, violent career of Roaring Twenties gangster Tom Powers (Cagney), who powers his way to the top as a bootleg kingpin only to fall face forward, wrapped like a mummy and dead as one, in his mummy’s doorway. Lots of great scenes, as when Cagney famously pushes a grapefruit half into Mae Clark’s face. But it's that final one you remember - as powerful today as it surely was 75 years ago.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)
The rise and fall of a badboy bootlegger
Only four years after silent movies became talkies, James Cagney hit the screen in THE PUBLIC ENEMY talking faster than the machine gun his character totes. The film traces the short, violent career of Roaring Twenties gangster Tom Powers (Cagney), who powers his way to the top as a bootleg kingpin only to fall face forward, wrapped like a mummy and dead as one, in his mummy’s doorway. Lots of great scenes, as when Cagney famously pushes a grapefruit half into Mae Clark’s face. But it's that final one you remember - as powerful today as it surely was 75 years ago.
