M is a huge outlier on this list, but I felt it was essential to include for several reasons. These Hollywood gangster films are like delicious candy that allows the audience to gorge for 90 minutes, and then the Production Code says candy is bad for you. They want something to give them a look at the other side. Rather, it forces the viewer to consider dimensions of justice: who is responsible for it? The list includes White Heat, Scarface (1932), Little Caesar, M, and The Public Enemy.

Forget Brian De Palma‘s bloated and cartoony 1983 remake. Cody must still be “punished”, but White Heat never feels like a lesson. Tony Montana may have a chainsaw and a little friend, but the way Tony (Paul Muni) casually guns down a guy in a hospital bed is just as disturbing. While other gangster films will use their protagonist as a direct warning to the audience, The Public Enemy is a little more subtle, and uses Tom’s lifelong friend Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) as the morally conflicted gangster. We may not want to be gangsters, but we can’t help but find them absolutely captivating. Naturally, Tom has to have a fall, and his line “I ain’t so tough!” may as well be “Crime doesn’t pay!”. What makes justice different than revenge? He sees a great and glorious destiny, and relishes the amount of blood he’ll shed on the way to the top. It’s a henchman’s tale, but it’s also one of the underdogs. First, it provides a nice contrast to what Hollywood was doing with its gangsters as opposed to what was happening in Germany where they didn’t have the Production Code. He may play one of cinema’s least convincing teenagers (he was 32 when The Public Enemy came out), but his performance in this film always has the hint of a beating heart you can barely hear beneath his cold exterior. It’s a pulpy pleasure, and Rico makes Tom Powers look like a paragon of compassion by comparison. I also have to take note of James Cagney’s performance since he’s the actor who bookends this list. If anything, Scarface isn’t a warning to Americans but a criticism of the American dream where a Great Gatsby-esque sign flashes outside Tony’s window. When you’re using a machine gun to shoot the pages off a calendar in order to show the passage of time, there’s not a serious aversion to violence. Unlike Tom, Tony, or Rico, White Heat gives us a gangster who answers to no one. Cagney is not a timeless actor, but an actor perfectly of his time. Hit the jump to check out the list.

If the world is unfair, then why play by the rules? If morality is dictated by pragmatism, then what’s practical about killing murderers? Cody’s enemies may be at his mercy, but he’s at the mercy of his mother’s indulgence, epilepsy, and desire to be loved. The cops in White Heat take an active role, and cleverly, smarter cops imply smarter criminals. His accomplishment is made even more remarkable when you consider the film’s brilliant use of sound even though sound in motion pictures was a relatively new technology. It’s like All About Eve, but with Tommy Guns.

Tomorrow, Gangster Squad hits theaters (click here for my review).

The crime flick takes place in 1949 Los Angeles during mobster Mickey Cohen’s rise to power in the City of Angels. Instead, White Heat is allowed to live on its own terms as a taut, exciting tale of heists, chases, escapes, and betrayals. Matt, on the other hand, is the character who has a choice, and The Public Enemy tells the “Matts” in the audience to be wary of characters like Tom. It’s difficult to moralize about violent city streets after the violence of a World War. The sign reads, “The World Is Yours”.

The film revolves around Tom Powers (James Cagney), a bad seed who grows up mean, and is always looking for the easy buck. They want escapism. We see that corporal punishment has no effect on Tom, which tells us that there’s no saving him. Hawks doesn’t necessarily mock this point of view, but the action scenes speak louder than words. It’s fascinating to watch the cops and criminals attempting to achieve a similar goal rather than being directly at odds.

White Heat returns us to Cagney in arguably the greatest performance of his career. Guy Ritchie's hilarious black comedy/gangster movie about a boss attempting to fix a fight. White Heat is highly reminiscent of Scarface in both the character’s psychopathic devotion to a family member (in this case, the mother) and his endless ambition (“Top of the world!”, Cody famously shouts at the end of the film), but it’s unapologetic in its motives, pacing, and desire to thrill the audience. The film is a masterpiece of lip service. 13 Great Witch Movies for a Spellbinding Halloween, Tom Holland Reveals First ‘Uncharted’ Image of Himself in Full Costume as Nathan Drake, ‘News of the World’: Tom Hanks Goes Full Western in New Trailer for Paul Greengrass’…, ‘Synchronic’ Review: A Fiendishly Clever Time Travel Story about Loss and Chaos, ‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm’ Review: Borat and Daughter Team Up to Smash the Patriarchy. Cody Jarrett (Cagney) is undoubtedly a despicable creature, but he has a similarity to Hans Beckert where we feel an ounce of compassion for someone who can’t help what he has become. There’s no rise-fall narrative at work, and by 1949, the Production Code lacked the teeth it once had.

Cops in the 1930s Hollywood films could only shake their fists at mobsters and wait for the fall to come. Five classic pre-1950 gangster films you should check out. © 2020 Collider Cryptomedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. COLLIDER participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means COLLIDER gets paid commissions on purchases made through our links to retailer sites. Gangsters may always fall, but it’s a thrilling, infamous ride. The conflict of M revolves around the attempts to catch Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre), a child murderer that has driven a German city into chaos. 28. For audiences living in The Great Depression, they don’t want preaching. Hawks makes a fantastic, rapid-fire action flick centered on a magnetic, charismatic psychopath who somehow becomes even crazier when he gets his hands on a gun. America has had a fascination with the gangster throughout cinema history. Finally, M has nothing to do with teaching the audience a lesson. While The Public Enemy is moralistic, White Heat carries an air of tragedy.
That’s one of the tricks of these gangster movies. Little Caesar opens with Matthew 26:52’s “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”  Little Caesar a.k.a “Rico” (Edward G. Robinson) is eager to draw his sword from the get-go, but the movie is no great tragedy.

When they catch him, they make the odd decision to bring him to a perverse trial of mob justice. They’ve been seen as folk heroes and the scourge of society. Howard Hawks‘ 1932 original is far more fun and in some ways nastier when you consider the time period. The movie plays from Tom’s childhood to his death like an evil version of It’s a Wonderful Life. Men like Rico and Tony from Scarface might be on the wrong side of the law, but they have the same American Dream: fame and fortune. Second, it makes gangsters more powerful than the cops rather than a tragic group who will surely get their comeuppance. The gang bosses decide that they should hunt down the killer, and they use a network of beggars to find Beckert. There’s no speech to the audience about what must be done about the criminals. Like other gangsters on this list, the protagonist has to rise to power, which inevitably leads to slaying his higher-ups. Like most of the movies on this list, The Public Enemy is billed as a cautionary tale. Starring Brad Pitt and Benico Del Toro (who're both funny as hell) and Jason Statham. To stay in line with Gangster Squad, all of these films were made before 1950, so they lived in the era of the glamorous underworld and all the seedy, ruthless behavior it entailed. There are two kinds of warnings in these Production Code-era gangster movies: political or biblical. His vocal affectation and exaggerated performance scream vaudeville (his profession before becoming an actor), but there’s no doubting his charisma.