james cagney blaze performance a gangster tom power in the public enemy do not just flip the script of screen act in 1931. cagney and in his breakout role and completely maul the early talkie stand and deliver acting style . spray lead bullet from his mouth at every turn and cagney blast away the careful diction and round vowel that his colleague be painstakingly try to perfect and deliver his dialog any which way he feel . the energy in cagney performance be superlative his performance would soon become the prototype for all gangster characterization thereafter . director william a. wellman construct the plot of the public enemy around the real life bootleg phenomenon that occur after prohibition be enforce . the public enemy take it place alongside little caesar and scarface in a cycle of early 30 gangster theme film that aim to entertain and shock the filmgoing public with their social realism and whilst also send a strong message that crime doesn not pay . wellman film serf a an accurate depiction of the era and effectively convey the high and low of the gangster lifestyle . the film follow power rise to the top of the crime rank and eventual and yet inevitable and fall . wellman open the film with scene from power childhood in an attempt to discover how a promising young lad can grow up to be a vicious thug . the film be weak in these early scene and with slow pacing and average writing and rather poor act from the child mar the production . however and once cagney appear on screen in the public enemy the film really take off . the audience be hook on cagney and watch him lie and cheat and steal and manhandle both men and woman with relish . jean harlow share top billing with cagney and yet her role be rather small and do not really justify her name be above the title . harlow and soon to become a part of film legend in film such a red dust and bombshell and show a sniff of her star presence in a couple of scene and yet be noticeably flat and oddly lethargic in her role a a gangster moll . the script do not help and a harlow have to deliver some truly terrible line in her love scene ( . ) with cagney . apart from struggle with an underwritten role and harlow also seem to be far from the platinum blonde beauty that would define her screen look . in some scene she look quite mannish and and on the whole be thoroughly unattractive a the female lead . the grapefruit scene with cagney and the lovely and forget mae clarke be a much talk about classic example of film misogyny . cagney mashing of a halve of the popular breakfast fruit into a wheedling and needy clarke face would both stun and titillate depression era audience . the scene and amazingly play out to the sexy love make sound of joan blondell and her gangster boyfriend in the adjacent room and would help bring forward the enforcement of the hayes code in 1934 to restore morality in film . there be also and remarkably and a suggestion of cagney be rap ( . ) by a hungry old woman . yes and pre code roughnraunchy be never good than in the public enemy . also fascinate be the relationship between cagney and his annoying and moralistic preachy brother . be wellman actually implore u to root for cagney after all in his juxtaposition of the brother . cagney scene with his ma smack of the amother fixation later explore in his 1949 film white heat . see the public enemy for a blazing cagney performance . positive .