Line #25 Film/ThePublicEnemy1931


1	[[quoteright:325:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/The_Public_Enemy_3497.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:325:''"I ain't so tough!"'']]
3
4	->''"I know what you've been doing all this time, how you got those clothes and those new cars. You've been telling Ma that you've gone into politics, that you're on the city payroll. Pat Burke told me everything. You murderers! There's not only beer in that jug. There's beer and blood -- blood of men!"''
5	-->-- '''Mike Powers''', confronting his brother
6
7	''The Public Enemy'' is a 1931 [[UsefulNotes/ThePreCodeEra pre-Code]] Creator/WarnerBros gangster film directed by Creator/WilliamAWellman. The film that made Creator/JamesCagney a star, it also typecast him as a tough guy and gangster, and he'd keep on playing roles like that throughout TheGreatDepression.
8
9	The "Public Enemy" of the film's title is Tom Powers (Cagney), a young Irish-American growing up in the projects of UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}. He starts out with petty crime as a juvenile, but Prohibition offers him a chance to graduate to bootlegging and murder. Crime doesn't pay, though, and Tom, the public enemy, is destined for a bad end, "the end of every hoodlum."
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11	Creator/JeanHarlow appears as Gwen, Tom's moll. Creator/JoanBlondell plays an earlier girlfriend that gets thrown over in favor of Gwen. Creator/MaeClarke plays yet another girlfriend, who has a memorable encounter with a grapefruit.
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13	----
14	!!This film provides examples of:
15	* AdaptationTitleChange: ''The Public Enemy'' was based on the novel ''Beer And Blood.''
16	* AintTooProudToBeg: [[spoiler: Putty Nose begs and pleads to Tom and Mike when they are about to kill him. It doesn't work.]]
17	* AmbiguouslyGay: There is a scene right after Tom comes into a lot of money where he is getting measured for a new suit. The tailor has a bit ''too'' much fun taking the measurements...
18	* AntiHero: Tom Powers.
19	* BallisticDiscount: Possible TropeMaker for film. The gun shop owner is so dumb he even loads the gun for Tom, while the gun is in Tom's hand.
20	* BattleInTheRain: Subverted--a torrential rain is falling in Chicago as Tom goes into the rival gang's headquarters to shoot it out, but all of the shooting takes place off-screen.
21	* BloodFromTheMouth: Seen from [[spoiler:Matt]] after he is gunned down in a hail of bullets.
22	* BookEnds: Opens with a message that this film's purpose isn't to glorify gangsters, and closes with the message that 'The Public Enemy' is a problem in society that must be stopped.
23	* BreakingTheFourthWall: One of the last shots of the movie is of Mike looking directly into the camera [[spoiler:while crouched by Tom's corpse, seemingly realizing that his mom is moments away from learning her son is dead.]]
24	* CacophonyCoverup: When Tom, Matt, and the others are hiding in a safe house, they briefly get tense when they hear a rat-a-tat-tat sound outside the window -- only to see that there's a coal truck emptying coal in the street. But it turns out a rival gang has set up both the coal truck and several machine gun turrets in a nearby building. They actually wait until the next day when Tom and Matt leave the building and have the coal truck dump more coal, which puts the two off guard when the guns fire at them for real.
25	* CorporalPunishment: It's suggested that one of the reasons why Tom became a vicious bootlegger was because his father regularly spanked him when he was a kid.
26	-->'''Young Tom''': How do you want 'em – up or down this time?
27	* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Tom Powers and Matt Doyle - they get all the girls, the snappy suits, and the cars.
28	* DeadHandShot: One of the thieves that Putty Nose sends out on a job with Tom and Matt is shot down in the street.
29	* DisproportionateRetribution: Tom and Matt shooting a horse after a friend of theirs dies riding it. This was based on a real incident.
30	* DomesticAbuse: The infamous grapefruit-in-the-face scene.
31	-->'''Tom:''' Ain't you got a drink in the house?
32	-->'''Kitty:''' Not before breakfast, dear.
33	-->'''Tom:''' I didn't ask you for any lip. I asked you if you had a drink.
34	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: InUniverse--in fact, explicitly stated in the opening title card.
35	--> "It is the ambition of the authors of 'The Public Enemy' to honestly depict an environment that exists today in a certain strata of American life, rather than glorify the hoodlum or criminal."
36	** And again in the closing title card.
37	--> "The end of Tom Powers is the end of every hoodlum."
38	* DownerEnding: Tom's in the hospital due to his injuries from avenging a fallen comrade, and when it looks like he's about to redeem himself, he gets kidnapped by the surviving mob members. But then his family gets a call from a stranger, presumably one of Tom's pals, that Tom's coming home immediately! As the mother and sister tidy up Tom's room, his brother Mike opens the door and [[spoiler:watches Tom's dead body collapse before him]].
39	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Tom adores his Ma, and she seems to willingly overlook his crimes.
40	* TheFagin: Putty Nose, the fence and petty crook who steers young Tom and Matt into crime. Another mobster even calls him that.
41	* FightUnscene: Tom tracks down the gangsters who killed Matt to their headquarters, marches in and kills them, getting wounded in the process. All the while, the camera stays outside the building.
42	* FoodSlap: Famously done with a grapefruit.
43	* TheFilmOfTheBook: The film was adapted from the then-published novel ''Beer and Blood'' by Chicago newspapermen turned screenwriters Kubec Glasmon and John Bright. After the film's release it was published under the film's title.
44	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: When Putty Nose walks down the street he sees a black cat crossing his path before [[spoiler:Tom and Matt kill him]].
45	* FreudianExcuse: It's suggested that Tom grew up to be such a violent {{Jerkass}} because he got spanked a lot when he was a kid.
46	* GanglandDriveBy: Matt is killed this way.
47	* TheIrishMob: They seem to be the only mob that exists in Chicago; all the turf wars in the film are between different Irish-American gangs, every gangster has an Irish name, and no references are made to [[TheMafia the Italian-American mafia]] or the [[KosherNostra Jewish-American mob]] (save for an immigrant businessman who agrees to set up a bootlegging operation with Nathan's gang, who is implied to be a Jewish German).
48	* IronicEcho: When Tom and Matt are kids, they and some other kids listen to Putty Nose singing and playing on the piano, and interrupt him before he finishes. When Tom and Matt are adults, [[spoiler:they kill a pleading Putty Nose at the same part of the song]].
49	* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:Putty Nose's song is cut off at the same point as earlier in the film, when Tom and Matt were kids.]]
50	* KubrickStare: Tom as he walks into the rival mob's hangout, right before the shooting starts.
51	* MarketBasedTitle: It was released as ''Enemies of the Public'' in the UK.
52	* AMinorKidroduction: The first scene is Tom and Matt as schoolboy hoodlums.
53	* MisterSandmanSequence: Each time the movie moves to another year.
54	* MobBossSuitFitting: The TropeMaker, although the tailor's taking measurements, rather than Powers and his accompanying mook, discuss a certain recent liquor warehouse heist.
55	* NoHonorAmongThieves: When teenaged Tom and Matt botch a robbery, their boss Putty Nose ditches them. [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves But when they see Putty Nose again during Matt's wedding and follow him back home...]]
56	* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: The climactic shootout, in which the camera stays outside the building and we hear a multitude of gunshots, followed by a badly wounded Tom stumbling outside.
57	* OfficerOHara: A stereotypical Irish cop is friend to the Powers family.
58	* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There are two guys named Patrick, but most of the time they're called Paddy Ryan and Pat Burke, so there's no reason to get confused.
59	* ParentalFavoritism: Ma Powers favors her 'Tommy boy' over elder son Mike.
60	* PieInTheFace: The film's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4R5wZs8cxI iconic scene]] has Tom smashing a half grapefruit into his girlfriend's face.
61	* PrettyInMink: Gwen Allen wears some lovely minks.
62	* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler:A rare male example: while Tom is lying low at Paddy Ryan's house, he gets shitfaced one night, and Paddy's girlfriend (who is sober) takes advantage of him off-screen. The next morning, when Tom finally remembers what had happened, he angrily slaps Paddy's girlfriend and storms out of the house. This gets Matt killed, as he follows Tom outside in an attempt to bring him back in, which exposes himself to a rival gang.]]
63	* RedOniBlueOni: Tom is the quick-to-anger gangster (red), while his older brother Mike is the calm, respectable type (blue).
64	* RiseAndFallGangsterArc: One of the earliest examples of the trope, along with ''Film/LittleCaesar''.
65	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Tom's reaction to [[spoiler:Matt]]'s death is to steal a pair of pistols from a merchant and charge into the rival mob's hangout.
66	* SiblingRivalry: A great deal of the film's conflict is between Tom and Mike.
67	* SickbedSlaying: This is implied to happen when Tom winds up in the hospital and some rival gangsters decide to pay him a visit. He is delivered home dead.
68	* SlasherSmile: As he sees [[spoiler:Matt]] gunned down in the street, Tom ''smiles''. He has another psycho grin on his face as he walks into the rival mob's headquarters, seeking revenge.
69	* SoundOnlyDeath: The camera cuts to Matt sitting at the side of the room when Tom shoots [[spoiler:Putty Nose]].
70	* TragicHero: Arguably Tom. [[spoiler:He dies just as he promises to go straight]].
71	* VideoCredits: Before the film starts to introduce the main characters.
72	* VillainProtagonist: Tom, again.
73	* WouldHitAGirl: More like shove a grapefruit into a girl's face.

Context Film / ThePublicEnemy1931