 "Crime Doesn't Pay - forget the obvious lesson, enjoy the work of a master," | 2009-09-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A18SDN3HYFVH2L |
This is a film where you really have to talk about the beginning, at the beginning, as it sets the stage both formally and narratively in many ways. A street sign - a striking, brief pan past an obviously artificial, oddly angled and heavily Expressionistic street-alley, and then past a restaurant employee bringing in a sign for the night, into the restaurant and to rest on a group of men talking loudly, the remains of a party around them. The loudest man is Big Louie - he talks in a thick Italian accent about "having enough" and how satisfied he is...but his buddies tell him that, Johnny Lovo, apparently wants more; maybe he'll have to do something about that. We haven't been told that these men are mobsters, but we get the gist; they're fat and happy in the midst of the Depression, drinking the forbidden liquor that they doubtless control - but Johnny and more importantly his top lieutenant Tony Camonte want more, as Big Louie quickly finds out to his chagrin, gunned down as he tries to make a phone call, the sound of whistling as the camera pans from the silhouette of his assassin down to his dead body. One fantastic shot - I'd say one of the most impressive opening shots I've ever seen - lasting about 3 minutes and 20 seconds, giving us a prologue of much that's to come: the casual brutality of the whistling murderer, the lust for the good life, the impossibility of letting anybody else have a part of the pie.
Tony is played by Paul Muni in a ferocious yet rather pathetic way - he's tough, ambitious, street-smart, quick on his feet, yet so blinded by his emotions and passions that he dooms all of those around him and cannot stop, cannot ever have enough. Shortly after taking out Big Louie, he sets his sites on the north side gangsters, including Boris Karloff's wonderfully cynical Gaffney, and then it's only his own big boss himself, Johnny Lovo, standing in the way of him taking the town (Chicago, obviously, and in many ways Tony is Al Capone). We get the St. Valentine's day massacre, a half-dozen drive-by machine-gunnings...all the while Tony is becoming a big shot, scaring everybody, romancing Lovo's girl Poppy (Karen Morley), while trying to keep his younger and very anxious sister Cesca (Ann Dvorak) away from any man but...himself? The undercurrent of incest is powerful throughout the film; I suppose one could try to come up with a psychological reading as to why Tony's forbidden desires turn him mad and towards a life of crime - there's no father in the picture and his mother though stern is completely ineffective - but I'm not sure it's really there. In any case, his "protection" of his sister is so extreme as to eventually cost him his best friend, Guino (a very charming, low key George Raft), and it's emblematic of the madness that never allows him to stop, seeming to ignore any possibility that he can ever be overthrown.
The film seems to alternate visually between the dark expressionism that we're introduced to in that first shot: the crazy action scenes which really are something for a film from that period, machine guns blasting and cars crashing rapid-fire for several minutes at a time, most memorably in the rat-ta-tat that accompanies months of dates in a calendar flying - and a brighter, smoother camera-work for a couple of ballroom scenes. Even in opulent surroundings at last, Tony is never sated. Even if you've never seen the film or it's dubious "remake", it's not hard to guess the fate that's in store for him, and the genius of the film is that though we may not be able to feel much for Tony, who is never anything close to sympathetic, we can at least care a little for those who surround him like moths near the flame. His "secretary", the illiterate Angelo (Vince Barnett) who brings the film down a little with some ill-judged and draggy humor that sounds straight out of the Marx brothers, even manages a touching death - faithful to the last.
This struck me as in some ways atypical of director Howard Hawks - at least, it differs from his later work in that the male relationships are nearly all antagonistic rather than comradely; this is a film revolving really around one man who is always alone in his obsessive need to rule and dominate, a man who never has equals in his mind, and at the end has no one but the sister whose life he ruined, and then...the only fate a gangster could have in a film that tries to be both sensationalistic (succeeding well) and moralizing (not really). The DVD offers the alternate ending as well, so you can see Tony both shot to death and hanged. Did you learn your lesson? With the caveats of the obvious and unnecessary "message" being pushed on the audience (really only overt at the very beginning and ending) and those lame bits of vaudevillian humor, this is pretty damn impressive and probably my favorite of the early 30s gangster cycle. |
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| "Great gangster movie" | 2009-07-08 |
| - Reviewed By blueandbluemakesblue |
| It was fun watching this movie and seeing all the simalarities with the Al Pacino Scarface. I loved it. |
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 "Effective and not dated" | 2009-06-27 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1X054KUYG5V |
The Bottom Line:
Partly due to the better script and partly due to Paul Muni's trademarked over-the-top acting, the original Scarface holds up today far better than its arguably more famous Warner Brothers contemporaries (The Public Enemy and Little Caesar); whether you've seen the remake and want to see the original or whether you're just looking for an engaging gangster flick, check out the 1932 classic.
3.5/4 |
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| "Ahead Of Its Time" | 2009-04-22 |
| - Reviewed By ccthemovieman |
Action-wise, this movie was 60 years ahead of its time, at least in terms of the amount of violence in it. I think it's safe to say most classic films, including the crime movies, are much slower in pace than today's fare. Sometimes that's better; sometimes it isn't.
This movie is action-packed with few lulls and it's fun because of it, in this case. Paul Muni, as "Tony Camonte," the head gangster, is compelling and fun to watch. He's tough-as-nails until the end. The main women in here - Ann Dvoark and Karen Morely - are interesting, too. Don't be fooled by the billing of George Raft and Boris Karloff. In this film, they have very small roles.
This is Muni's show, though, all the way and few actors could ham it up in his day like him. It's a wild ride for the full 93 minutes.
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 "Famous film but obsolete now." | 2009-03-15 |
| - Reviewed By User: A19U5RYULZ0Z72 |
While "Scarface" was a shattering and powerful film in 1932, time has not dealt with it kindly. Presented with a Forward that offers the film as a document to demonstrate the need for political action to curb mob violence, Paul Muni stars as a practically neanderthal gangster who shoots his way to the top of the mobs during prohibition. Muni was a prestige actor who always immersed himself in his roles almost to the point of inertia. He is at his best here, completely and totally in character, but as usual, he verges on the monotonous. His number one henchman is the novice George Raft who has little dialogue but lots of charisma. He mostly stands in the background flipping a coin. The film was the most violent of all the gangster films and there are endless shootouts including a brief recreation of the St Valentines Massacre. In fact, the Forward tells us that every incident depicted in the film is a recreation of an actual incident.
From a cinematic viewpoint, the least dated aspect of the film is the performance of the sensational Ann Dvorak who plays Muni's teenage sister with none too subtle hints of incest. The ethnic background is also well depicted with Muni's mother less than enchanted with her violent son.
The print of the the film is not very good. The soundtrack comes and goes as the actors move to and from the microphones. The visuals are dark and the contrast is poor so it is sometimes hard to see what is happening. The DVD includes an alternate ending which shows "Scarface" being hanged rather than simply gunned down in the street. The alternate ending allows a judge to deliver a speech about the need to eradicate the gangsters and makes a more logical book end piece to the Forward. It adds to the documentary aspect of the film but adds nothing in terms of cinematic impact.
The fine gangster films of the 70s, including the remake of this film by Brian de Palma, have made this film obsolete except, of course, as an important component of the 30s gangster cycle. The package would have been vastly improved with an erudite commentary. |
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| "Decent Movie" | 2009-01-23 |
| - Reviewed By dmyers86 |
| The movie was fair. If this was based on Al Capone, there are other movies based on his reign that are more detailed and better written |
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