Scarface (1932) Paul Muni, George Raft (Pre-Code)

SCARFACE (1932)





Director(s): Howard Hawks

Richard Rosson (co-director)



Writer(s): Armitage Trail (novel "Scarface")Ben Hecht (screenplay)Fred Pasley (adaptation) uncreditedSeton I. Miller (continuity) and John Lee Mahin (continuity) and W.R. Burnett (continuity)Seton I. Miller (dialogue) and John Lee Mahin (dialogue) and W.R. Burnett (dialogue)Howard Hawks uncredited

Producer(s): Howard Hawks producer (uncredited)

Howard Hughes producer (uncredited)



Cast:

Paul Muni - Antonio 'Tony' Camonte

Ann Dvorak - Francesca 'Cesca' Camonte

Karen Morley - Poppy

Osgood Perkins - John 'Johnny' Lovo

C. Henry Gordon - Insp. Ben Guarino

George Raft - Guino Rinaldo

Vince Barnett - Angelo

Boris Karloff - Gaffney

Purnell Pratt - Mr. Garston, publisher

Tully Marshall - Managing editor

Inez Palange - Mrs. Camonte

Edwin Maxwell - Chief of detectives

Henry Armetta - Pietro, barber (uncredited)

Gus Arnheim - Orchestra leader (uncredited)

Eugenie Besserer - Citizens Committee member (uncredited)

Maurice Black - Jim, headwaiter (uncredited)

William Burress - Judge (alternate ending) (uncredited)

Gino Corrado - Waiter at Columbia Cafe (uncredited)

Virginia Dabney - Mabel (uncredited)

William B. Davidson - Citizens Committee member (uncredited)

Eddie Fetherston - Reporter (uncredited)

Paul Fix - Hood with Gaffney (uncredited)

Francis Ford - Prison guard (alternate ending) (uncredited)

Gus Arnheim and His Orchestra - Paradise Club orchestra (uncredited)

Howard Hawks - Man on bed (uncredited)

Brandon Hurst - Citizens Committee member (uncredited)

John Kelly - Costillo's hood (uncredited)

Hank Mann - Stag party janitor (uncredited)

Dennis O'Keefe - Dance extra (uncredited)

Jack Perry - Costillo's hood (uncredited)

Warner Richmond - Cesca's dance partner (uncredited)

Bert Starkey - Epstein, lawyer (uncredited)

Charles Sullivan - Costillo's hood (uncredited)

Harry Tenbrook - Costillo's hood (uncredited)

Helen C. Thompson - Sadie Thompson (uncredited)

Harry J. Vejar - Big Louis Costillo (uncredited)



Year: 1932

Runtime: 93 minutes

Film Language(s): English,Italian

Film Country(s): USA

Main Genre: Crime

Other Genre(s): Crime, Drama, Film-Noir

Filmed in: Black and White

Sound: Mono

Plot:

Big Louis Costillo, last of the old-style gang leaders is slain, and his former bodyguard Tony Camonte is taken into custody. Since Costillo's body has never been found, the police have to release him, though they strongly suspect Johnny Lovo paid Tony to remove Big Louis. Tony begins taking over the rackets in town with violent enforcement, and he becomes a threat to Johnny and the other bosses unless they work for Tony. Meanwhile, Tony's sister wants to be more independent, but finds it difficult to escape from her brother's overprotective grasp. The dissatisfaction of the other bosses and the relentless pursuit of the police push Tony towards a major confrontation.







Movie



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Alternate ending



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IMDB USER COMMENTS



Preferred far more than the remake; Hawks, Hecht, and Muni are first-rate here, 22 January 2005





Author: from United States



In an attempt to try and snap some sense into the public and the government about the crime wave (mostly in due to Al Capone, who was a major inspiration for Tony Camonte), Howard Hughes and Howard Hawks brought to the screen one of the landmark early gangster pictures. It's a film that does take its subject seriously (while on one hand one argues that the film is an indictment of crime and peoples responses, one could also argue that it's a subtle indictment of the prohibition), however it's also an exciting, and sometimes wickedly funny, take on a genre that would flourish in the thirties and forties. What comes most surprising (and I mean that as a big compliment) is how it hasn't lost much of its vitality in seventy years. The implied violence in the film is, in fact, shocking in places, and while it lacks the blood content and major shocks of the De Palma remake, it doesn't compromise to showing the (slightly Hollywood-ized) truth of the matter- crime doesn't pay, but sometimes it's all people know.



Tony Camonte is played by Paul Muni, in a performance that wonderfully ranges from angry to sarcastic, funny to romantic, and just down-right crazy; it's no wonder that Pacino was inspired by his performance to take on Tony Montana in the remake (though one could argue that Muni's bravura presence and delivery in this film out-ranks Pacino's in the later). He is surrounded by supporting players that also give very good work as well, with the story being told in various threads that work perfectly. There's one semi-comic story around one of Camonte's assistants who is rather illiterate and slow (though it's also a subtle commentary on the lack of prospects for immigrants at the time). Another (which was given much prominence in the remake) involves the power-struggle between Tony and his younger sister. And then there's the good-old mixture of solid, fascinating bits with the cops and other criminals, not to mention a boss that has to control Tony's manic ideals of taking over the city (and, perhaps, the world).



I once heard Quentin Tarantino in an interview say that Howard Hawks is the 'single greatest storyteller in the history of cinema'. Although that could be a heavily debatable statement, with this film Hawks proves that he definitely can do so very well, and of the few I've seen of his so far, this is my favorite. On the technical side of things, some of the technique is very straight-forward, but then there is also proof that Hawks was a step-ahead of the crowd that would bloom out in the film-noir period a decade later. Shadows used with a fine flair; great over-head and dead-on shots of cars riding and shooting; a couple of really keen close-ups. Add to that a script from Hecht that doesn't go too deep into character for too long, and you got your basic powerhouse gangster picture. And, believe me, it's a must-see if you're into the genre, or if you'd like to have a comparison test with the highly revered remake.









Trivia for

Scarface (1932)

censors of the time thought that the film depicted that a life of crime was too easy and that Tony had still gotten away with his crimes. A second ending was shot, showing Tony being taken away by the police. He is then tried, found guilty and hanged. Paul Muni is not seen throughout this ending. Tony's sister's death scene was also re-edited, as it was felt that his affections toward her were not so brotherly. None of these changes satisfied the censors, so director Howard Hawks decided to abandon the changes and released it without censor approval. The movie's subtitle, "(The) Shame of a Nation", was added to deflect criticism on the same grounds.





Prominent use of the figure "X". Its first appearance is under the opening credits and from then on, whenever a character dies, the figure "X" is prominent in the scene. Some examples: during the shooting in the bowling alley, a pencil fills in a strike box on a scorecard. When a recreation of the St. Valentine's Massacre is shown, the scene begins in the rafters of the garage, where the roof support beams are seven "X" shaped pieces. When Tony kills his best friend at the door of his apartment, the number on the door is "X". This was done for a reason: newspapers at the time printed photos of crime scenes. The "X" would be used to mark the spot of where the body was found.





The sign outside Camonte's apartment says "The World Is Yours". That was also prominently used in this film's 1983 remake.





This is one of the first films to feature the Thompson submachine gun, known to history as the "tommy gun." The characters never call it anything other than "machine gun," except when Poppy calls it a "bean shooter" and Tommy refers to the gun as a "typewriter" when he first sees one. Another name for a "tommy gun" was "Chicago typewriter."





Ranked #6 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Gangster". The remake Scarface (1983), starring Al Pacino, is ranked #10 in June 2008.





Screenwriter Ben Hecht was a former Chicago journalist familiar with the city's Prohibition-era gangsters, including Al Capone. During the filming Hecht returned to his Los Angeles hotel room one night to find two Capone torpedoes waiting for him. The gangsters demanded to know if the movie was about Capone. Hecht assured them it wasn't, saying that the character Tony Camonte was based on gangsters like "Big" Jim Colosimo and Charles Dion O'Bannion. "Then why is the movie called Scarface?" one of the hoods demanded. "Everyone will think it's about Capone!" "That's the reason," said Hecht. "If you call the movie 'Scarface', people will think it's about Capone and come to see it. It's part of the racket we call show business." The Capone hoods, who appreciated the value of a scam, left the hotel placated.





Al Capone was rumored to have liked the film so much that he had his own copy of it.





Many of the events in the film are based upon the life of Al Capone and the Chicago gang wars of the 1920s. In order, the most prominent are: 1. Tony's killing of his boss, "Big Louie" Costillo, in the lobby of his club is based on Capone's involvement in the murder of his first boss, "Big" Jim Colosimo. 2. Guino (George Raft) comes into Tony's apartment wearing a flower in his coat lapel and we learn he killed rival boss, O'Hara. In real life, Capone's men killed Charles Dion O'Bannion in his flower shop. 3. The scene where Gaffney (Boris Karloff) leads a caravan of cars in a drive-by shooting at Tony in a restaurant was based on an incident in 1927 when Capone's rival, Hymie Weiss, did the same thing to him. 4. When Johnny Lovo tries to get Tony killed in a car chase. That comes from the demise of Capone's allies, the Genna Brothers. 5. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929.





The "serious" play in which Tony is so interested is an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's "Sadie Thompson".





George Raft didn't have to go far for inspiration on how to play a gangster in this film. He grew up in a New York City slum alongside gangsters Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Joe Adonis and Lucky Luciano. In an ironic twist, after the release of "Scarface", many of Raft's gangster pals would come to him for advice on how to dress, walk, talk, etc.





The film's release was delayed almost a year due to producer Howard Hughes' protracted battles with the Hays Office and regional censor boards.





In the book this film is based on ('Scarface' by Armitage Trail), Antonio 'Tony' Camonte is born Antonio 'Tony' Guarino with his brother Ben Guarino. After several crimes the police are looking for him so he goes off to war, gets his scar, and when he returns he finds out he had been reported dead and no one r