James Cagney's blazing performance as gangster Tom Powers in THE PUBLIC ENEMY did not just 'flip the script' of screen acting in 1931. Cagney, in his breakout role, completely mauls the early talkies stand-and-deliver acting style. Spraying lead bullets from his mouth at every turn, Cagney blasts away the careful diction and rounded vowels that his colleagues were painstakingly trying to perfect and delivers his dialog any which way he feels. The energy in Cagney's performance is superlative-his performance would soon become the prototype for all gangster characterizations thereafter.<br /><br />Director William A. Wellman constructs the plot of THE PUBLIC ENEMY around the real-life bootlegging phenomenon that occurred after Prohibition was enforced. THE PUBLIC ENEMY takes it's place alongside LITTLE CAESAR and SCARFACE in a cycle of early 30's gangster-themed films that aimed to entertain and shock the filmgoing public with their social realism, whilst also sending a strong message that crime doesn't pay. Wellman's film serves as an accurate depiction of the era, effectively conveying the highs and lows of the gangster lifestyle.<br /><br />The film follows Powers' rise to the top of the crime ranks and eventual, yet inevitable, fall. Wellman opens the film with scenes from Powers' childhood in an attempt to discover how a promising young lad can grow up to be a vicious thug. The film is weakest in these early scenes, with slow pacing, average writing and rather poor acting from the children marring the production. However, once Cagney appears on screen in THE PUBLIC ENEMY the film really takes off. The audience is hooked on Cagney, watching him lie, cheat, steal and manhandle both men and women with relish.<br /><br />Jean Harlow shares top billing with Cagney, yet her role is rather small and does not really justify her name being above the title. Harlow, soon to become a part of film legend in films such as RED DUST and BOMBSHELL, shows a sniff of her star presence in a couple of scenes, yet is noticeably flat and oddly lethargic in her role as a gangster's moll. The script does not help, as Harlow has to deliver some truly terrible lines in her "love scenes" (!) with Cagney. Apart from struggling with an underwritten role, Harlow also seems to be far from the Platinum Blonde beauty that would define her screen "look". In some scenes she looks quite mannish, and on the whole is thoroughly unattractive as the female lead.<br /><br />The grapefruit scene with Cagney and the lovely, forgotten Mae Clarke is a much talked-about classic example of film misogyny. Cagney's mashing of a halve of the popular breakfast fruit into a wheedling, needy Clarke's face would both stun and titillate Depression-era audiences. The scene, amazingly played out to the sexy love-making sounds of Joan Blondell and her gangster boyfriend in the adjacent room, would help bring forward the enforcement of the Hayes Code in 1934 to restore morality in films. There is also, remarkably, a suggestion of Cagney being raped (!) by a hungry older woman. Yes, Pre-Code "rough'n'raunchy was never better than in THE PUBLIC ENEMY! <br /><br />Also fascinating is the relationship between Cagney and his annoying, moralistic preachy brother. Is Wellman actually imploring us to root for Cagney after all in his juxtaposition of the brothers? Cagney's scenes with his Ma smack of the 'mother-fixation' later explored in his 1949 film WHITE HEAT.<br /><br />See THE PUBLIC ENEMY for a blazing Cagney performance! 9/10.