"Do it first, do it yourself and keep on doing it." Tony Camonte

Director Howard Hawks created the definitive gangster movie in "Scarface." One of the original talkie gangster films along with Little Caesar and Public Enemy, Scarface took the genre a step further to portray actual events and thinly disguised characterizations of real Chicago gangsters Al Capone and his predecessors Johnny Torrio and Big Jim Colossimo.

It is the "Roaring 20s": as the film opens, a long tracking shot follows a janitor cleaning up after a wild party. From outside on the sidewalk where he picks up a sandwich board sign advertising the "1st Ward Stag Party" that has ended, it follows him inside through the ankle deep confetti and debris he will have to clean up. He stoops and picks up a brassiere from the floor. The camera swings over to the side where the last few revelers are seated, discussing their plans for future crimes. The last guests leave, with only "Big Louie" Costillo remaining. Big Louie is the crime boss of Chicago. The camera shifts back to the center. In the background can be discerned a small, shadowy figure. Big Louie goes into a phone booth to make a call. A large shadow is making its way towards the phone booth, accompanied by a whistled tune. The voice over says "Hello" to Big Louie and shots ring out. Wiping the fingerprints from the gun the shadow departs. So Hawks dealt with the assassination of "Big Jim" Colossimo, the original godfather of Chicago. Johnny Torrio and Al Capone had dispensed with him in similar fashion to that shown in this fictionalized version. Torrio's turn was next.

The next scene is a newspaper office. Because of the Costillo assassination, the editor tells them to put "Gang War" in the next headline. The scene switches to a barber shop, where Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) is having a shave and a haircut. The police come in and take him and his associate Guino (George Raft) downtown for questioning. They are quickly rescued by their shyster lawyer who arrives with a writ of habeas corpus, which the illiterate Camonte calls a writ of hocus pocus when he explains to his new godfather Johnny Lovo. Lovo is the thinly disguised name for real-life figure Johnny Torrio. Lovo (Osgood Perkins) is content to rest on his laurels, not so the ambitious Camonte. He immediately begins to plot how to take over the Chicago underworld himself…

Camonte begins a war against all the other gangs, particularly the one run by the Irish thug Gaffney (Boris Karloff), boss of the North side. Gaffney is killed while bowling, his body falling to the ground just as a strike he has just thrown is marked on the card with a big X, the last pin wobbling to fall by itself in a poetic display of photography. The irate Lovo puts a contract on Camonte but he escapes and confronts him at his hideout. Lovo begs for mercy but Camonte's pal Guino finishes him off. Now, Tony Camonte is the boss of all Chicago. Unfortunately, when you reach the top, the only way is down…

Cameraman Lee Garmes lent a stylish look to the photography with its stark black and white contrasts and innovative camera angles. Many of the gunplay scenes were shot with live ammunition on the stage without the actors, then reshot with the actors and the takes superimposed to make an extremely realistic impression on the viewer. Extremely realistic gunfire and car wrecks characterize this film.

Howard Hawks deserves credit for making the hardest hitting, most stylish gangster movie of the era. He shot Paul Muni as Camonte in a curious simian-like manner that made him appear stupid, coarse, and loose-limbed. Muni, a stage actor, had the tendency to overact with broad gestures, but here it is perfect for the slow-witted Camonte. Camonte also had an unnatural thing for his sister, played by Ann Dvorak. This incestuous subplot, together with the extreme violence held the picture back over a year trying to get it past the censors. Finally, Producer Howard Hughes released it unchanged without their approval. George Raft, as Guino Rinaldo, became indelibly fixed in the public imagination as the gangster who "flipped a coin."

Hawks used plenty of symbolism in the film, with Xs indicating murders, for example, in the reenactment of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the camera panned up into the rafters to reveal seven Xs, the number of victims gunned down just prior. Camonte also had a habit of whistling just before he murdered somebody. Altogether, a very satisfying movie. The 1983 remake starring Al Pacino, while a great movie, does not measure up to the quality of the original Scarface. See this!

Five Stars.

For fans of gangster movies I highly recommend: Little Caesar, Public Enemy, Scarface (1983), Mobsters, Goodfellas, and Billy Bathgate.





Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age