SCARFACE (1932)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Action / Crime

Director: Howard Hawks

Cast: Paul Muni / Ann Dvorak / George Raft

Plot

The bloody rise and fall of ruthless gangster Tony “Scarface” Camonte unfolds against the backdrop of prohibition era Chicago.

What I Liked

Legend has it that “Scarface” screenwriter Ben Hecht was visited late one night by some unsavory looking characters who wanted to know exactly what the script he was writing was all about.  They had heard about the title and virtually everyone in American then knew that there was a real life gangster out there who went by that nickname, none other than Chicago boss Al Capone.  As the opening text of the film suggests, much of Hecht’s script was based on real life events (such as the assassination of Capone’s predecessor, the war with Irish gangsters for control of the city’s bootlegging, and a definitive depiction of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre).  Capone’s men needed to make sure that the life on screen didn’t match the life of their boss too closely.  Hecht apparently assured them it wouldn’t and the result is the most spastic and violent of the spate of high profile gangster films made in the 1930s.

Paul Muni is flamboyantly rambunctious and unhinged as the title character.  Some may say he’s overplaying it, but I think his intention was to portray the character as childlike in his unpredictability and his love of violence.  The supporting cast is more than adequate.  Ann Dvorak plays Camonte’s sister, as wild and passionate as her brother but with more sultry dance moves.  Boris Karloff has a few choice scenes as Gaffney, bootlegging king of Chicago’s North Side.  Camonte’s sidekick is played by George Raft, who grew up on the streets of New York in the same neighborhood as world famous gangsters Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel and knew both well.  He based his performance on the real life characters who were his boyhood chums.

Acting aside, it is the overall rapid-fire energy of the movie that really leaves the most lasting impression.  Just like its main character, the film seems to be unhinged with excitement, from the rowdy arguments, to the raucous jazz music, to the roar of machine gun fire.  Claiming to be a condemnation of gangsterism, it is instead a tour de force of exploitation, embracing the fascinating lunacy of its villain and his “The World is Yours” lifestyle.

What I Disliked

As can be insinuated from the above, “Scarface” makes no attempts at subtlty, not in the script, the directing, the action, or the acting.  Some have made attempts to compare it to mythology and Shakespeare, but in truth it is merely 93 fast-paced minutes of pure entertainment value with very little substance underneath.  Not that there’s anything wrong with well-executed entertainment, but those looking for art, soul, and philosophy should look elsewhere.

Most Memorable Scene

Vince Barnett may play a horrible Italian American stereotype as the language-challenged Angelo, Camonte’s inept secretary, but he is nonetheless hilarious as the film's comic relief.   The scenes where Camonte tries to teach him how to answer the phone properly and Angelo does his absolute best to a fault are terrific comedy, stereotypes aside.  They bring some light-heartedness to an otherwise intensely cynical crime movie.

My Rating: 4 out of 5