1930 was a dark year in the world which was in the middle of the Great Depression. The despair of the people resulted in the rise of crime on one hand and the sideway glance and romanticism of the Gangster on the other. It was during this time that the movie industry having just discovered sound, took to giving us our vision and their rendering of the lone and organized gangster. The first and trend setting gangster movies came out during this period and were the front runners of today’s violence that we see in modern movies. They gave us very unique Hollywood stars and movie characters that all began with…
Little Caesar (1930)
Edward G. Robinson had a long and illustrious career but throughout his career he never played a more ruthless person then Caesar Riko Bondello. This film today looks simple in its telling of two great boyhood friends who take different paths, but is a storyline that has been followed by countless similar themed films ever since. Riko steps over from his former bosses and will do anything to succeed. His death at the end comes as a surprise even to him. All in all the film is small and not to inspiring but was a trend setter. It also made great use of the long shadows within its B & W photography depicting many a murder as the shooting of an adversary’s shadow. The producers of this film paid close attention to the dark German films of the previous decade.
The Public Enemy (1931)
This is the film that created the Cagney gangster and “you dirty rat”. Cagney is evil beyond reproach as Tom Powers. He rises to power by killing all in his way. Everyone sees that he is bad. Even his Mother and brother who plead with him to change. The plot of the film is simple. Bad boy become a bad man who becomes a killer and leader of killers. Pisses everyone off and in the end is killed by those who fear him. At the end he wants to return to his roots but it is too late. Dead young and after causing evil to all around him. The thing that makes this film stand out however is the powerful performance of James Cagney. His personality or Powers personality flies off the screen in each scene. His anger looks real that you are afraid of him from the first moment. His vengeance is harsh and you feel his psychotic nature and is a performance that all lovers of acting have to see. AL Pacino, Deniro and NIckolson owe a lot to the great Cagney and this performance.
I am a fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
I decided to talk about this film on this Post about early Gangster films even though this is not a Gangster movie but our hero and protagonist played by the great Paul Muni end up a real fugitive and we just know he will become a gangster through no fault of his own. Anybody who has not seen this movie and sees it for the first time now, will be surprised as to how many movies have used it as their inspiration. (For example: The Coen Brothers “O Brother, where Art Though?” and ” Shawshank Redemption”). This is the granddaddy of all prison films. We have a decent guy hungry and looking for work that does not exist resulting in his being framed for stealing food and sent to hard labor in the Deep South prison of the depression days. Here the movies show us prison for the first time. Cold, Dark small cells. Steel chains tied to boney legs. Sadistic Guards and legalized murder. Prison escapes and a kangaroo courts. All done in fast paced 93 minutes of well-acted suspense. It shows a good honest man who society tortures and brutalizes so that all that is left is to live in the shadows. The ending scene is haunting as we only see our hero in the shadows of the house of his ex-wife and when she asks him “how will you live?” His response is the short and terse “I steal”. A must see movie.
Scarface: The shame of a Nation (1932)
If you saw Al Pacino in DePalma’s powerful move Scarface, you probably did not know that the film took its themes and outline from this early talkie masterpiece. This scarface is better than the newer one and the newer one is very good. Once again we have a megalomaniac and powerful Kingpin. This time taken from, an, at the time real life hoodlum named Al Copone. The name was changed and the scar added to the face to give added menace, but make no mistake Howard Hawks the director was trying to show crime riddled Chicago and the Mafia run by a monster who ran that city. Paul Muni does a magnificent job in the lead. The core of the film is that in the beginning we see our scar faced antihero as a strictly businesslike kingpin who is calculated in all he does. What makes the movie what it is however is the complex relationship that he has with his best friend and his young and pretty kid sister. He can’t stand any man looking at her and especially his best friend. We see a mindset full of what? Incest maybe. Homosexual feelings to the friend maybe. Maybe he just hates who he is and wants something better for his sister. After watching the end of this film, I came to the realization that it was not only an influence to the later film of the same name, but also to Coppola’s great Godfather (Michael also kills his sister’s husband). This is powerful stuff and the acting is superb. Another must see for move lovers everywhere.
1001 Movies before you die 