Scarface (1932)
Directed by Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson

Film Review

Arguably the greatest gangster movie of all time, Scarface was so shocking to American sensibilities of the 1930s that it outraged public opinion and was quickly taken out of circulation by its producer, Howard Hughes.  The film was forgotten for fifty years, only to be resurrected after Hughes's death in the early 1980s.  It is now regarded as one of the most important examples of the gangster genre, and a pretty amazing example of 1930s American cinema.

The film is loosely based on a novel by Armitage Trail, a thinly veiled account of the murderous exploits of Al Capone, the most notorious gangster in history (who was famously imprisoned for tax invasion, the only part of his catalogue of crime that could be proven).  It was the third gangster film of significance, following Mervyn LeRoy's Little Caesar (1930) and Public Enemy (1931). 

In the film Tony Camonte (Capone in all but name) is portrayed as a psychopathic latter-day Cesare Borgia, an ape-like juvenile who glorifies in mayhem whilst harbouring incestuous proclivities for his younger sister.  The film is as much an intimate character study of someone who has no moral compass as it is a vivid portrayal of rampant gangster criminality in America during prohibition.

With Hughes's generous financial support, director Howard Hawks set out to deliver an authentic recreation of gangland Chicago in the late 1920s.  To that end, he staged some of the most ambitious action sequences of any film at the time, including fast-moving car chases and shockingly brutal street battles between rival gangs.  The authentic set design and Lee Garmes's stylishly expressionist cinematography create a chilling realism which makes the seemingly relentless round of killing genuinely horrific.  The sound of machine guns blazing mercilessly away in confined spaces continues to ring in your ears hours after the closing credits have rolled.

The great tragedy of this film is that it pretty well blighted the career of Howard Hawks, unquestionably one of America's finest filmmakers.  In technique and artistic vision, Hawks was years ahead of his time, but rarely did he receive the recognition he deserved.  Scarface was just one of his great achievements, a film that is peppered with moments of cinematic brilliance: the St Valentine's Day Massacre, cleverly shot as a shadow play; the stunning car chase in which Camonte's narrowly escapes death; and the harrowingly suspenseful climax.  Hawks was one of the first directors to employ a visual motif - the symbol X representing death throughout the film (in real life, this symbol was used to illustrate where the body of a murder victim was found).

Far from glorifying crime, Scarface is a potent warning of what can happen if a country allows crime to get out of control.  It's worth remembering that the main cause for the gangster activity in 1920s and 1930s America was alcohol prohibition.  Murder and widespread fear were the inevitable by-products of legislation that wasn't effectively backed up by policing.  The moral: don't ever introduce laws that can't be enforced.

Even before it was released, the film ran into difficulties for its graphic portrayal of violence.  There was an ongoing battle between Hughes and the censors, which resulted in several cuts being made and some new material being added to bolster the film's moral subtext.  The latter includes some introductory captions denouncing the government's inability to control gangster crime, and some new scenes which condemn the newspapers for sensationalising violent crime.   The original ending was also replaced with a specially shot sequence which emphasised Camonte's cowardice and satisfied the requirement for a just retribution.  As if that wasn't enough, the film was re-titled: Scarface, the Shame of the Nation  This tinkering delayed the film's release for two years and spectacularly failed to abate the storm of protest which erupted when the film finally hit the cinema screens in 1932.

Scarface may have been a commercial failure that did little for the fortunes of its director and producer, but for some of its cast members it marked the beginning of a successful career in the movies.  Paul Muni, who is brilliant in this film as the charismatically psychotic Tony Camonte, had a very successful career, taking the lead in such classics as I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), and winning the Best Actor Academy Award for his part in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935) (one of five nominations for the coveted Oscar).   Whilst Muni managed to escape typecasting, the same wasn't true of George Raft, who continued playing tough criminals in several popular gangster films throughout the 1930s and '40s.  Boris Karloff went off into a totally different sphere, becoming a stalwart of the horror genre, most famous for his iconic portrayal of Frankenstein's monster.

Since Scarface's ill-fated first airing, the gangster film has rapidly gained public acceptance and has proven to be one of the most enduring and successful genres in cinema, and not only in America.  Howard Hawks's original film has even inspired an updated remake: Scarface (1983), directed by Brian De Palma and starring Al Pacino.  No history of cinema would be complete without a substantial chapter devoted to the murky, cordite-fragranced underworld of the gangster.  It's a place that very few of us would ever want to visit in real life, but it's nonetheless a place which holds a dark fascination for many, many film enthusiasts.

Film Synopsis

Chicago in the late 1920s.  Alcohol prohibition has bred a new scourge - gangland crime - yet the authorities are helpless in preventing its spread.  Hired killer Tony Camonte takes out the gangster chief Louis Costillo, allowing his rival Johnny Lovo to seize control of the town's distribution of bootleg liquor.  Camonte's thirst for wealth and power doesn't end there.  He takes his killing spree to the northern part of the town, and the result is a full-scale war between Lovo's gang and that of a rival mobster, Gaffney...