Review #66: 'Scarface' (1932)

Commissioned by Howard Hughes in the Pre-Code era, Scarface arrived in a time when the public had a growing interest in organised crime. The James Cagney film The Public Enemy (1931), and the Edward G. Robinson-starring Little Caesar (also 1931), both had a nasty gangster as their protagonist, and portrayed their rise and fall through the criminal underworld. Whether the audience had a genuine fascination with a very real problem at the time, or they just enjoyed the exploitative violence and colourful characters, I don't know. Scarface remains one of the best examples of the genre, and a film that would directly influence many a modern-day gangster film.

Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) is the chief lieutenant in the new criminal organisation overlooked by Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins). They plan to bootleg alcohol on a large scale throughout the city, and Johnny hopes to unite all the gangs so they can operate efficiently without any trouble. Tony is warned not to try to muscle into the turf ran by an Irish gang, but Tony ignores these orders, and begins an extremely long and violent war. With his coin-flipping second-in-command Guino (George Raft), Tony gains more power, and soon the greed and ambition take over him. He also has an over-protective, almost incestuous, relationship with his sister Francesca (Ann Dvorak) and frightens off any man that shows an interest in her. Little does he know that she is secretly seeing Guino.

After many demands for script re-writes by the Hays Office (who would later introduce the ridiculous Hays Code), Howard Hughes finally put the film in production and told director Howard Hawks to 'make it as realistic and as grisly as possible'. Only passed by the censors a year after production was finished, Hawks would have to change the ending and introduce a title card damning the actions of the kind of criminals that the film portrayed. Still, Howard Hughes was forced to release it in states that lacked censorship rules, after refusing to edit the film any further.

The film still remains extremely violent even by today's standards. On one hand, it's an interesting commentary on the corruption of the American Dream, showing how greed can consume, and on the other it's an enjoyable and rough gangster film with exciting and impressively realised gun-fights and drive-by's. It's all anchored by Paul Muni, who gives a convincing and nasty performance. His character acts completely without remorse, and therefore extremely unlikeable. Tony Camonte is obviously based on Al Capone, complete with identical facial scar (hence the title), and apparently the set was visited by Capone's thugs.

I was quite surprised how much the Brian De Palma/Al Pacino remake took from this - the sibling jealousy, the shootout ending, the double-crossing of his boss - and out of the two, I feel this is ultimately the better film. There's just something authentic about the film that the remake failed to capture. I'll certainly be tracking down some more Pre-Code crime films after this, and if any of the others can capture the excitement and the grit of this, then it will be a great experience. And watch out for a small role for Boris Karloff!


Directed by: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson
Starring: Paul Muni, Osgood Perkins, Ann Dvorak, George Raft, Boris Karloff
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie