The Public Enemy
The Public Enemy

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- 76/100 based on 22,335 votes

Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are best friends and fellow gangsters, their lives frowned upon by Tom's straitlaced brother, Mike, and Matt's straitlaced sister, Molly. From their teen-aged years into young adulthood, Tom and Matt have an increasingly lucrative life, bootlegging during the Prohibition era. But Tom in particular becomes more and more brazen in what he is willing to do, and becomes more obstinate and violent against those who either disagree with him or cross him. W... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in The Public Enemy:

James Cagney
Jean Harlow
Edward Woods
Joan Blondell
Donald Cook
Leslie Fenton

Full Plot Details

Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are best friends and fellow gangsters, their lives frowned upon by Tom's straitlaced brother, Mike, and Matt's straitlaced sister, Molly. From their teen-aged years into young adulthood, Tom and Matt have an increasingly lucrative life, bootlegging during the Prohibition era. But Tom in particular becomes more and more brazen in what he is willing to do, and becomes more obstinate and violent against those who either disagree with him or cross him. When one of their colleagues dies in a freak accident, a rival bootlegging faction senses weakness among Tom and Matt's gang, which is led by Paddy Ryan. A gang war ensues, resulting in Paddy suggesting that Tom and Matt lay low. But because of Tom's basic nature, he decides instead to take matters into his own hands.

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Movie Reviews

Time Out - 10/10 by Geoff AndrewCagney's energy and Wellman's gutsy direction carry the day, counteracting the moralistic sentimentality of the script and indelibly etching the star on the memory as a definitive gangster hero.
The Guardian - 10/10 by David ThomsonThe deepest appeal of this 74-minute study in insolence is that Cagney is cock of the walk.
Empire Magazine - 10/10 by Jake HamiltonStill a classic of the gangster genre, showing neither glorifying the life nor pulling it's punches.
LarsenOnFilm - 10/10 by Josh LarsenCrime may not pay, but The Public Enemy was one of the first pictures to recognize that it sure can be exciting to watch.
Variety - 9/10 by Variety StaffThere's no lace on this picture. It's raw and brutal. It's low-brow material given such workmanship as to make it high-brow.
Slant Magazine - 9/10 by Chris BarsantiThere’s little denying the power of Cagney’s presence, from the first moment he’s on screen, he radiates such a brash Fenian cockiness you can imagine kids at the time flocking out of the theater and cocking their caps just like him. It’s a performance so perfect in its intensity that any other quibbles about the film ultimately recede into insignificance.
Filmcritic.com - 9/10 by Jay AntaniOverripe, rigid, and at times clunky ... and that's part of the enjoyment.
Video-Reviewmaster.com - 9/10 by Steve CrumTop notch Cagney gangster flick with memorable final scene.
Starburst - 9/10 by James Evans1931's The Public Enemy is still at this stage one of the best gangster films ever made.
Austin Chronicle - 8/10 by Marjorie BaumgartenThis criminal tale excited audiences and landed the kinetic Cagney on the movie map. Now a classic, this is the movie in which Cagney famously crams a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face.

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