Telesphore Lelievre-de-St-Boniface III (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} 32elvismovies) wrote,@ 2007-12-30 23:33:00 |
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The Public Enemy - Ken Films 8mm
A few weeks ago I gave the new bulb in my 8mm projector a test-run when I ran a condensed version of William Wellman's The Public Enemy, starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow. This film, alongside Little Caesar and Scarface, are the quintessential early gangster films, ripe with subtleties that would set the standard for later films of the genre. It was one of the first films to really capitalize on the new medium of sound: The scripts were laced with flashy, fast-talking dialogue, and you could hear the screeching tires and the ricocheting of the bullets.
Despite the sound, this is a very physical film. You have car chases, machine guns and knockout punches - perfect material for a silent film. Ken Films missed the point entirely and had the ten minutes of celluloid focusing on slow scenes of chatter. Over at Castle Films, the editors always seemed to be familiar with the source material and didn't try to stray too much, but it was typical of Ken Films to reinvent a film. Case in point with the omission of one the greatest lines in the script, mangled beyond recognition in the inter-titles. The original line, delivered by Cagney to Mae Clarke as he assaults her with a grapefruit right in the kisser: "There you go with that 'wishing' stuff again. I wish you was a wishing well, so that I could tie a bucket to you and sink you." To make things worse, when I saw that the family subplot with the mother was cut out, I knew I'd be disappointed with the finale. It would mean missing out on the greatest, most haunting moment in the film; when Tom Powers is 'delivered' to his mother.
I always felt bad for Jean Harlow in this film. She wasn't at the top of her game yet - like you'd later see in Dinner at Eight or Wife vs. Secretary. The "My poor, poor boy" sequence, featured in this digest, has always looked awkward, from the staging to her wooden reading of the script, but ya still gotta love her.
I have a whole other pile of Castle reels to get through - mostly 8mm Newsparades from the 1940s. Melissa and I sat through the 1945 reel, which was understandably full of sombre WWII footage. Let's hope the 1948-and-onwards reels are a little more optimistic
Despite the sound, this is a very physical film. You have car chases, machine guns and knockout punches - perfect material for a silent film. Ken Films missed the point entirely and had the ten minutes of celluloid focusing on slow scenes of chatter. Over at Castle Films, the editors always seemed to be familiar with the source material and didn't try to stray too much, but it was typical of Ken Films to reinvent a film. Case in point with the omission of one the greatest lines in the script, mangled beyond recognition in the inter-titles. The original line, delivered by Cagney to Mae Clarke as he assaults her with a grapefruit right in the kisser: "There you go with that 'wishing' stuff again. I wish you was a wishing well, so that I could tie a bucket to you and sink you." To make things worse, when I saw that the family subplot with the mother was cut out, I knew I'd be disappointed with the finale. It would mean missing out on the greatest, most haunting moment in the film; when Tom Powers is 'delivered' to his mother.
I always felt bad for Jean Harlow in this film. She wasn't at the top of her game yet - like you'd later see in Dinner at Eight or Wife vs. Secretary. The "My poor, poor boy" sequence, featured in this digest, has always looked awkward, from the staging to her wooden reading of the script, but ya still gotta love her.
I have a whole other pile of Castle reels to get through - mostly 8mm Newsparades from the 1940s. Melissa and I sat through the 1945 reel, which was understandably full of sombre WWII footage. Let's hope the 1948-and-onwards reels are a little more optimistic
