THE PUBLIC ENEMY presented by Forbidden Hollywood
Schedule
Mon Jun 03 2024 at 07:00 pm
Location
Arkadin Cinema & Bar | Southhampton, MO
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The Public Enemy: “That’s not a motion picture. It’s beyond a motion picture.” MGM producer Irving Thalberg spoke those words to Warner Brothers’ head of production Darryl F. Zanuck after Zanuck previewed for him the studio’s 1931 release “The Public Enemy.” Thalberg wasn’t wrong: director William Wellman’s tale of small-time Chicago hood Tom Powers’ (played by James Cagney in a star-making performance) rise to enforcer for a prominent bootlegger during Prohibition ended up becoming arguably the most influential of the onslaught of crime pictures that became incredibly popular at the box office circa 1931.Whether or not “The Public Enemy” set a good example for audiences was hotly debated by morality groups, studio personnel, and moviegoers nationwide, with even Al Capone himself (the gangster whose exploits inspired the unpublished novel the film was based on) stating that, “These gang pictures— that’s terrible kid stuff. They’re doing nothing but harm to the younger element of the country.” “The Public Enemy” neither endorses Tom’s criminal lifestyle nor condemns it, portraying the ineffectualness of the police alongside the lucrativeness of Tom’s career, Cagney’s brazen charm and the addition of some family drama casting him as a largely sympathetic character. The film is rife with overt sexuality (the revolving door of Tom and his friend Matt’s women includes Joan Blondell, Mae Clarke, and Jean Harlow), extreme violence (with live ammunition used in several scenes), and one of the Pre-Code era’s most explicit depictions of a homosexual character, but it harasses all of that to ultimately craft a damning portrait of toxic masculinity. As frequently as the hallmarks of the gangster genre established in “The Public Enemy” have been referenced and parodied in Hollywood over the decades, the original film is as exciting as it was the day it was released, right down to its chilling final shot.
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Where is it happening?
Arkadin Cinema & Bar, 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, MO 63116-2310, United States,St. Louis, Missouri, SouthhamptonEvent Location & Nearby Stays: