Scarface (1932)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Directors:

Howard Hawks
Richard Rosson (co-director)

Writers:

Armitage Trail (novel)
Ben Hecht (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 April 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Plot:

An ambitious and near insanely violent gangster climbs the ladder of success in the mob, but his weaknesses prove to be his downfall.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Gangster | Barbershop | Bullet Proof Automobile | Secret Love

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Paul Muni	...	Antonio 'Tony' Camonte
Ann Dvorak	...	Francesca 'Cesca' Camonte
Karen Morley	...	Poppy
Osgood Perkins	...	John 'Johnny' Lovo
C. Henry Gordon	...	Insp. Ben Guarino
George Raft	...	Guino Rinaldo
Vince Barnett	...	Angelo
Boris Karloff	...	Gaffney
Purnell Pratt	...	Mr. Garston, publisher
Tully Marshall	...	Managing editor
Inez Palange	...	Mrs. Camonte
Edwin Maxwell	...	Chief of detectives

Also Known As:

Scarface, the Shame of the Nation
The Shame of a Nation

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) | Finland:K-15 (2005) (DVD) | Netherlands:6 (DVD rating) | Brazil:14 | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | West Germany:16 (f) | Norway:16 (1984) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG (re-release) | USA:Passed (original rating)

Company:

The Caddo Company

Trivia:

The film's release was delayed almost a year due to producer Howard Hughes' protracted battles with the Hays Office and regional censor boards.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Poppy visits Tony, she hold the flower, but Tony has it in the next shot.

Quotes:

Tony Camonte: There's only one thing that gets orders and gives orders.
[points to Tommy Gun]
Tony Camonte: And this is it. That's how I got the south side for you, and that's how I'm gonna get the north side for you. It's a typewriter. I'm gonna write my name all over this town with it, in big letters!
John 'Johnny' Lovo: Hey, stop him somebody!
Tony Camonte: Get out of my way Johnny, I'm gonna spit!
[starts firing]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Italians in America (1998) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Some of These Days

Arguably superior to De Palma's remake

Many purists would jump at this as being the definitive "Sacrface," but so much had changed in the fifty-one years between the two movies that it is nearly impossible. Whereas the Al Pacino cult classic spanned close to three hours and included almost every imaginable cause of death, this version is a mere hour and a half, give or take a few minutes, and unlike the remake, takes place entirely in Chicago.

Made as an anti-gangster film, with a message buried under the many bodies that pile up, this is a surprisingly brutal movie for its time, and got a reputation as such. This was just before the so-called "Golden Age" of cinema, and in a time like that, chances are a movie this unapologetic wouldn't get made. But it is a masterful gangster film.

Paul Muni is Tony Camonte, a pseudo-Capone psycho who believes in doing the dirty work himself, is a sleazebag. He talks in a lisp that holds him apart from the gangsters of Cagney and Bogart as a man who, even then, seems ethnic. To boot, his "secretary" is an immigrant who is only semi-literate and can't hear people well on the phone. Boris Karloff shows up as an Irish gangster, Gaffney, who falls under Camonte's gun. Aside from an entire segment where Camonte goes seemingly from point A to point B with the same tommy gun and kills off the competition, this is a brilliant milestone in the gangster genre, and probably the best of the era. Even now, it proves what people could accomplish by mere suggestion, sparing much of the language that is in movies (and, indeed, used in real life) today.