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Public Enemy / Enemies Of The Public
© Warner Bros. - all rights reserved
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| Tookey's Rating |
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6 /10
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| Average Rating |
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8.50 /10
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| Starring |
James Cagney  , Edward Woods, Jean Harlow |
| Full Cast > |
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Directed by: William Wellman
Written by: Harvey Thew, from a story by Kubec Glasmon, John Bright 
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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Anti Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1931 |
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| Genre: |
THRILLER
IMPORTANT
CRIME
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
BW |
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| Length: |
84 |
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Slum kids become gangsters (James Cagney, Edward Woods) but find that crime never pays.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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Until two days before shooting, Cagney was going to play the good guy, and Woods the anti-hero. Then the roles were reversed, and Wellman’s film started Cagney on the road to stardom. The new emphasis on sex, violence and the brutality of the streets turns this into a seminal gangster movie - but time has made it much less shocking and effective. Cagney remains very powerful, but some of the supporting performances are far from great. A few scenes are unpleasantly exploitative and misogynistic (notably the one pictured, where Cagney presses a grapefruit into Mae Clarke’s face). Far from deglamourising mobsters (Warner Brothers' stated intention), the film made it look as though being a gangster meant having a hell of a good time.
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