Though self-serving, the claims that the 1930s were the “golden age” of Hollywood gangster movies and that the studio making the most of them was Warner Brothers are sound. The 2008 feature-length documentary narrated by Alec Baldwin focuses primarily on the unholy trinity of versions of the rise and fall of Al Capone: “Little Caesar” with Edward G. Robinson, “Public Enemy” with James Cagney, and “Scarface” with Paul Muni. The first two were produced by Warner Brothers and Paul Muni became a Warner Brothers star after being directed by Howard Hawks in “Scarface,” produced by Howard Hughes (RKO). One thing I learned from the documentary is that various localities, including New York City and Chicago banned “Scarface.”

What I found most interesting was the set of clips dating from 1898 to 1927 (I really need to watch Josef von Sternberg’s “Underworld”!). I was also interested in the snippets of interviews of Molly Haskell, Edward G. Robinson, Virginia Mayo, and Joan Blondell, and directors William Wellman and Raoul Walsh. And I enjoyed the clips from “golden age” movies; I’ve seen almost all of the movies that were excerpted.

Although relating the rise of organized crime in the US to the imposition of Prohibition, writer-director Constantine Nasr attributes the decline of the genre not to its repeal, but to the imposition of censorship (the Hayes Office rigorously controlling what got filmed). The seminal get-rich sagas of bootleggers, who (unlike the real Al Capone) were all gunned down were made in 1931 and 1932, while Prohibition was still in effect (and the Production Code was an aspiration of small-p prohibitions). The gangsters branched out into other endeavors (some even legal) and Warners recycled Cagney and Robinson (usually separately, but once together) as ruthless (except to treasured mothers in Cagney’s case… and Muni’s in “Scarface”), caring little for women except as trophies, and preoccupied with male rivals.

Both Cagney and Robinson tired of playing variants on their Al Capone characters (though they often got no further than playing tough-guy cops or parodies of their foundational roles) and Warners elevated George Raft, whose swelled head led him to turning down roles that went to Humphrey Bogart, notably Raoul Walsh’s (1941) “High Sierra.” I’m not convinced that the fugitive’s melodrama in that qualifies as a “gangster movie,” and Bogart’s other 1941 breakthrough, as detective Sam Spade in “The Maltese Falcon” is often claimed to be the first “noir” film (though I guess Sidney Greenstreet has a gang of sorts with Peter Lorre and Elishu Cook, Jr. in it).

Probably because the movies were not made by Warner Brothers, the series of 1950s movies focused on criminal syndicates made by Phil Karlson (usually starring John Payne) and others (see Jules Dassin's "Thieves' Highway," for instance) and others goes unmentioned (even the 1951 WB “The Enforcer” in which Bogart discovered murder for hire). A surprising amount of attention is lavished on the gangster on the run played by Edward G. Robinson in “Key Largo,” which I don’t consider a “gangster movie” (rather, a romance with a gangster making difficulties)—and the least interesting Bogart-Bacall teaming.

The 1960 “Murder Inc.” and “The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond” are passed over, as are both the popular tv series and the movie "The Untouchables" (focused on lawmen trying to take down none other than Al Capone). With Martin Scorcese providing some comments, his “Goodfellas” is mentioned, but not “The Godfather”; his “Departed” is excerpted with no mention that it was a remake of the Hong Kong “Infernal Affairs” trilogy.

Indeed, there is no mention of gangster movies made outside Hollywood, neither Fritz Lang’s seminal “Dr. Mabuse” movies from the 1920s and 30s nor the French New Wave movies nor the Hong Kong and Korea gangster sagas.

In short, the totally ethnocentric documentary is an ad for DVDs of Warner Brother movies of the 1930s. And, despite noting the rise of organized crime as an unanticipated consequence of Prohibition, there is not even a whisper that the attempts to prohibit drug use (the “war on drugs,” which has also been lost since the demand for the products made illegal have continued) has led to a repetition of providing opportunities for untaxed and often violent enterprises (check out “Breaking Bad” and “The Wire”, etc.). So add “bland” and “timorous” to “ethnocentric” and “self-serving”!

©2012, Stephen O. Murray

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