The Public Enemy
(1931)
★ 7.2 IMDb · 401 votes
Year: 1931
Runtime: 84 мин
Country: United States of America
Director: William A. Wellman
Cast: Джеймс Кэгни, Джин Харлоу, Эдвард Вудс, Джоан Блонделл, Дональд Кук, Лесли Фентон, Берил Мерсер, Роберт О’Коннор, Murray Kinnell, Clark Burroughs
Plot
Two young Chicago hoodlums, Tom Powers and Matt Doyle, rise up from their poverty-stricken slum life to become petty thieves, bootleggers and cold-blooded killers. But with street notoriety and newfound wealth, the duo feels the heat from the cops and rival gangsters both. Despite his ruthless criminal reputation, Tom tries to remain connected to his family, however, gang warfare and the need for revenge eventually pull him away.
Tom Powers and Matt Doyle are best friends and fellow gangsters, their lives frowned upon by Tom's straitlaced brother, Mike, and Matt's straitlaced sister, Molly. From their teen-aged years into young adulthood, Tom and Matt have an increasingly lucrative life, bootlegging during the Prohibition era. But Tom in particular becomes more and more brazen in what he is willing to do, and becomes more obstinate and violent against those who either disagree with him or cross him. When one of their colleagues dies in a freak accident, a rival bootlegging faction senses weakness among Tom and Matt's gang, which is led by Paddy Ryan. A gang war ensues, resulting in Paddy suggesting that Tom and Matt lay low. But because of Tom's basic nature, he decides instead to take matters into his own hands.