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The Public Enemy (1931) | |
The Story (continued)
The fact of elder son Mike's noble enlistment in the war in Europe as a Marine upsets Ma Powers (Beryl Mercer), and she begs younger son Tommy not to abandon her: "Tommy, promise me you won't go. You're just a baby!" Since his father has died, the task of raising Tom has fallen to his pathetic, clinging mother and to his respectable brother. In the upstairs bedroom, Tom speaks to his favored brother as he packs to leave home, and receives a lecture:
Following the war in 1920, on the eve of Prohibition, the storeowner of the Family Liquor Store has painted a sign on his window: "Owing to Prohibition, Our Entire Stock Must Be Sold Before Midnight." The liquor store shelves are emptied as staggering party-goers on foot stock up with brown paper-wrapped packages. Some of the purchases fall to the ground and smash on the sidewalk. People load up a limousine and a flower delivery van with bottles. Even a baby carriage is filled with booze, displacing the infant of a young couple. In the next remarkable scene, the potato chip scene at Paddy's bar counter, Paddy informally tells Tom and Matt that the coming of Prohibition will bring other financial benefits - multi-million dollar profits for illegal bootleggers. As Tom and Matt quietly lean against the counter, drinking coffee and eating food, Paddy (in a zooming closeup) quickly and greedily shoves handfuls of potato chips into his mouth, with the excess crumbling out, as he lures them into the lucrative liquor business. Paddy wants them to keep on the look-out for federal stashes of impounded liquor that can be stolen:
In their next gasoline "delivery" job to a U.S. Bonded Warehouse, Tom and Matt actually drain beer from impounded beer barrels into their gasoline tank, and soon share a generous cut of the profitable proceeds. Paddy encouragingly prods them: "I'll make big shots out of you yet." After the two enterprising young men acquire new-found wealth, they outfit themselves with smart-looking, tailor-made clothes - amorally enjoying life's pleasures. With fast money comes a flashy roadster car and the fast life, and they celebrate at an extravagant swanky nightclub. As they enter, a brass orchestra plays Toot Toot Tootsie, and they soon find themselves dancing with attractive fast women: Matt with blonde floozy Mamie (Joan Blondell) and Tom with Kitty (Mae Clarke). The two acquire a new crime boss named Samuel "Nails" Nathan (Leslie Fenton), who has plans to manufacture illegal booze (through the Lehman Brewing Company) and distribute it. Tom and Matt, as feared criminals, are "the official signers and sealers," forcing and terrifying speakeasy owners into buying their illegal booze (rather than from rival competitor Schemer Burns), as Nathan explains to them:
When Tom's brother Mike returns home as a wounded veteran of World War I, Mike learns from Officer Pat Burke (Robert E. Homans) that Tom has moved out of the house and is "runnin' around with a couple of gals at the Washington Arms Hotel. Well, the worst part of it is that he's been lyin' to his mother. He's leavin' her think that he's made an honest success. Why, sure it's only a question of time when he's gonna be caught...Beer, bootlegging, he's one of Paddy Ryan's gang...A wicked business." Tom's mother is naively unaware of her son's criminal activities. For the welcome home dinner, Tom and Matt thoughtlessly contribute a huge keg of beer for the occasion and place it in a central, conspicuous place on the dinner table where it blocks the characters' views of each other. Mike, who appears emotionally impaired by his war wounds, refuses to share in the beer drinking (even Ma has a beer). In an outburst, Mike criticizes his brother's illicit activities during the "swell celebration":
As Tom departs, he tells his good-hearted mother to send his clothes (after laundering) to the Washington Arms Hotel, where he has moved into an apartment with Matt and his girlfriend.
He looks down, makes a nasty grimace, and then impulsively picks up a grapefruit half from his plate and contemptuously pushes it into her face to end their relationship. She looks down, physically and painfully hurt and emotionally embarrassed by his crudeness. It is one of the single-most cruel acts ever depicted in a film. His life of crime has made him cruel and hardened. |
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