The Public Enemy is a 1931 American crime film starring James Cagney and directed by William A. Wellman. The movie relates the story of a young man's rise in the criminal underworld in prohibition-era urban America. The supporting players include a young 20 yr. old Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell, Beryl Mercer, Donald Cook, and Mae Clarke. The film, which was based on the novel Beer and Blood by John Bright, launched Cagney to stardom. A theater in Times Square ran The Public Enemy 24 hours a day during its initial release. It was the first worldwide box office hit for Cagney (age 31) and forever cast him in the public eye as a "tough guy," an image he was unable to shed despite numerous roles chosen especially to counter that image, including his Oscar-winning role in Yankee Doodle Dandy. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 1998, The Public Enemy was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". I was impressed by this movie's frankness regarding the life of a gangster during the prohibition era.