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 | Italian American | Mob Violence | Car Chase

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 | Norway:16 (1984) | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:PG (re-release) | USA:Passed (original rating) | Germany:16

Company:

The Caddo Company

Trivia:

Prominent use of the figure "X". Its first appearance is under the opening credits and from then on, whenever a character dies, the figure "X" is prominent in the scene. Some examples: during the shooting in the bowling alley, a pencil fills in a strike box on a scorecard. When a recreation of the St. Valentine's Massacre is shown, the scene begins in the rafters of the garage, where the roof support beams are seven "X" shaped pieces. When Tony kills his best friend at the door of his apartment, the number on the door is "X". This was done for a reason: newspapers at the time printed photos of crime scenes. The "X" would be used to mark the spot of where the body was found.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Just before Tony and Guino kill Johhny Lovo, Tony can be seen standing by the door to Lovo's office; as the characters are in the office, the letters on the glass pane should appear inverted (right to left), but they don't.

Quotes:

Tony Camonte: Hey, Cesca, you and me, huh? We'll show them. We'll lick them all, the North Side, the South Side! We'll lick the whole world!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Crossing Criminal Cultures (2007) (V)

Soundtrack:

St. Louis Blues

Ugly and brilliant

Rat-rat-a-tat goes Hawks's direction, opening and closing with a bang, and what's in between is pretty sensational, too. Muni, who could be an awful ham, is just right here -- slick and sexy and a little stupid, a hot-tempered paisano unable to control his ambitions or passions. The incest subplot, never overtly stated but always close to the surface, makes the movie seem startlingly modern. And the dialogue goes snap, snap, snap. The only place the movie stumbles is in a civics-lesson scene where the self-important newspaper editor spells out exactly what's wrong with the criminal justice system of 1932 and delivers his dull speech straight to the camera, like a high school lecture. It's the briefest of lulls in one of the most exciting early talkies, and certainly one of the greatest of all gangster flicks.