The Public Enemy (1931)
This is an early crime movie classic that's worth the watch because of James Cagney's quite brilliant performance as a small time crook who grows into becoming a crime kingpin. But the performance is not all what's good in this movie, it has plenty of other things to offer also. Actually that's also this movie's problem it adresses many quite interesting issues but most of them are left as more of a side note. The main focus is on Cagney's character Tom Powers and his partner Matt Doyle, played brilliantly by Edward Woods. We follow them from the petty thieve young kids to the beer smuggling crime lords. The family issues are heavily present with an violent upbringing by the father, competition and disagreement between brothers and the will of trying to please the mother. So there's plenty of going on and it surely doesn't get boring at any point. Some scenes in the movie were quite strong at the time of the release but for the modern audience it's nothing new. As a time piece however it's quite great. The style is quite straight forward but with a bit of a finesse in it. Loved the characters, even the smaller supporting roles were done very well. So it's a great classic but the problem is that the focus of the movie keeps drifting a bit.
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