Scarface (Universal Cinema Classics)

In 1930 two things happened in Hollywood. Firstly, what was to become the MPAA drew up plans for new censorship of all movies either made or played in the United States. Secondly, Howard Hawks’ film Scarface was set to be released but encountered significant setback because of the all new production code. A short history of the production code shows that in 1922 several high profile scandals involving Hollywood actors jolted the federal government to call for some sort of code. Increasingly alarming was the fact that “talkies”, or sound pictures, would bring about even more violence and profanity to the screens (The Production Code of 1930). It took 8 years, but finally the code was settled upon in 1930. Until this time “censorship” had been enforced by local censorship boards and “do’s” and “don’ts” could vary from state to state and even city to city. By the time the code came out, 2 of 3 films which were to make up the “gangster trilogy” had been released, or cleared for release; they were The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. Hawk’s film varied so greatly from both of these that he went through a two year struggle with the censorship board. Later ,details will be presented to show the specificity of the changes that were to be made to Scarface In order for it to be shown to the public. Scarface was a unique contribution to Hollywood in the manner of directing/style, acting, and thematic elements when compared to other films of the time. This paper is to explore where the differences are made up and how it contributed to the Hollywood of its time.One of the first noticeable elements of Scarface is the way in which Hawks directed and shot his film. Hawks was already a semi-successful director by the time he came out with Scarface and because of this success he was able to shoot his film in the manner that he chose. The first scene of the film shows a club owner tidying up after a party and going to make a phone call. This is where Hawk’s influence starts to shine. Our yet to be titled main character, Tony, is seen only by his shadow approaching the club owner. In a long drawn out sequence, Tony’s shadow finally closes in on the owner and with 3 shots he is gunned down. The use of mise-en-scene is also heavily influential not only in this scene, but in others throughout the film, which will be discussed further later. This entire scene is dominated by backlighting and heavy shadows. Instead of the typical over the shoulder shot from Tony’s point of view to the club owners first person point of view shot, Hawks chooses to conceal Tony and let the opening scene set the mood for the film. Another example of Hawks’ unique approach to this film comes from the use, or lack there of, of the close up. During early 1930’s hollywood closeups were used to say something about a scene or character, much unlike today’s filming philosophy. It has been said about Hawk’s Scarface that:...Howard Hawks was quite eloquent about (the closeup). There aren’t many closeups in his films. A closeup really meant something back then. Yes, it is the most efficient way to shoot a scene sometimes, but it’s not always the best, in terms of emotion. If you hold your closeups back, and use them sparingly, then they really have some impact (O’Malley).The truest form of the closeup that is seen in the film is towards the very end when Tony carries out the order to execute his then boss Johnny. The camera moves in for an extreme close up of Tony. “Now comes the best closeup in Scarface: Tony staring sightlessly at his “Boss,” his T-Shaped (X) scare played up by superb lighting” (Hagemann, 36). The depth of detail in this shot alone symbolizes Tony’s struggle throughout the entire film. His character is plagued by people he must get rid of and those that he can’t trust. The third significant decision Hawks made when shooting Scarface was the lack of “shot, reverse-shot”. By this time in Hollywood, studios were cranking out films at an unbelievable rate and had established a certain set of guidelines which guided how quickly a movie could be produced. One of the standards that had been set was the “shot, reverse-shot” used during dialogue. Hawks chose to ignore convention and instead play with creative angles and wide shots to show characters in conversation which makes his directing stand above the rest of the films during this era.Another way that Hawks ensured Scarface would be set apart from the rest was in his choice of actors and storytelling. Unlike Little Caesar, which starred Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, and Edward G. Robinson, and The Public Enemy that starred James Cagney and Jean Harlow, two megastars of the time, Scarface was plagued with no-name and new actors. The choice of having new actors in Scarface allowed Hawks to manipulate the story by having a cast that didn’t already have a defined “character” such as James Cagney would have. Another problem that Hawks ran into with the production code was how his actors acted in Scarface. In other films of the time the director made it clear that the villain wasn’t to be glorified and “...usually (took) great care to describe as psychopathic gangsters: EG and Robinson in Little Caesar (1930) Mervyn LeRoy and James Cagney who crushes half a grapefruit in the face of his companion in the enemy public (1931)” (Cine Club Decaen). Hawks, on the other hand, made Tony the hero of the film with no real enmity against him from other gangsters or the police for that matter. For the most part, Tony IS glorified as having the life in Scarface. He gets the girl, he has the car, the money, and the title of king. The other problem with Tony’s character is that he is infatuated with his younger sister. The first encounter that is seen between Tony and Cesca (Francesca) is at their mother’s small apartment where Tony catches her kissing another man. This scene is broken down into two parts, first jealousy, then protectiveness. Cesca responds unaptly to both of these. “Rather than acting like her brother, she is about to describe his unnatural protectiveness and sexual jealousy when she is interrupted: "You act more like...I don't know. Sometimes I think..." To give her "real fun" and to prohibit her from having "more fellas," he places a wad of bills in her hand” ([...]). Tony’s character here immediately responds the only way he knows how, by solving the problem with money. Later in the film, one sees the same solution when it comes to his girl, Poppy.Tony’s character and how he is portrayed, both in regards to his sister, and mainly because of the glorification of his character, the villain, among other smaller reasons, are the driving force behind the trouble Hawks and producer Hughes encountered with the production code. “For two years, Howard Hughes, the film's producer, battled with the industry's censors, who only allowed the film's release with the deletion of some scripted material” ([...]). The results of the code being enforced upon his film were apparent from the very start. The title was changed to Scarface: Shame of a Nation, and a moralizing introduction was added: “This picture is an indictment of gang rule in America and of the callous indifference of the government to this constantly increasing menace to our safety and our liberty. Every incident in this picture is the reproduction of an actual occurrence, and the purpose of this picture is to demand of the government: 'What are you going to do about it?' The government is your government. What are YOU going to do about it?” ([...]). These titles placed at the front end of the film were demoralizing to the script and showed first hand the power of the code. The ending of the film was also modified. The original ending saw Tony and Cesca come to a realization with each other that led to Tony trying to escape from the police. In the altered ending, this dialogue is cut so that Cesca seems to be a passive and "womanly" accomplice, rather than as an active accomplice” (xroads.virginia.edu). The altered ending coincided with dubbed over dialogue and scenes that were cut from the original. The alternate ending never received Hawk’s approval and in fact was shot by a different director, Richard Rosson. Hays was the leading man behind the production code and changes to Scarface. Hays and Hawks never reached an agreement on the film and “Director Hawks refused to alter Scarface in response to Hays' demands, but producer Howard Hughes eventually defers on certain points. Hughes changes the title to Scarface: The Shame of the Nation, and adds Hays' suggested prologue that describes the film as an "indictment of gang rule in America." In addition, an entire scene is inserted to address the Code's concerns, in which citizens confront the newspaper publisher, frustrated by all the publicity gangsters receive in the press” ([...]). The alternate ending removed Tony’s status as hero and instead ended with him begging for mercy from the police. The police decide not to meet Tony’s demands and instead mow him down and win approval through the cheering of a crowd that has gathered near the scene.Finally Scarface stands apart from other films of the time through the use of motifs in its mise-en-scene. The most famous use of this is suggested in the symbolic use of X’s throughout the film. Some scholars have pointed out that the X’s throughout the film symbolize death, while others agree with ownership by Tony. For sake of continuity and clarification, the stance taken here will be that of the X marking death and not ownership. Hawks was very enthusiastic about using the X in his film. Hawks saw the X as a way to connect unseen murders for the viewing public. “”In the papers, in those days, they’d print pictures of where murders occurred and they always wrote “X marks the spot where the corpse was.” So we used Xs all through the film. When anyone connected with the picture thought up some way of using an X, I’d give him a bonus.”” (O’Malley). This sort of game that Hawks played with inserting X’s into the film is apparent in the lighting, props, and set pieces. The first time the viewer sees the use of an X is in the title cards for the film. Soon after that the viewer sees another X as Tony’s shadow moves closer and closer to the club owner, leading to his death. The X stands as a foreshadowing of death, whenever one sees an X on screen, outside of the title cards, it can be assured that a murder will happen soon after. Perhaps the most famous example of the use of X’s in Scarface comes from the “Valentine’s day massacre” scene. A trellis is hanging above an alleyway in which the murders are about to take place. Here, again Hawks uses shadows and backlighting to illuminate the scene. The gun-downed characters are never seen but their silhouettes are. The camera starts high in the trellis, pans down to the shadows, and after being riddled with gun-fire ascends again to the trellis ending on seven X’s, symbolic for the seven murders just committed. The gang members just murdered by Tony were a part of the last real threat left against him, Gaffney. In the next scene, the viewer sees Gaffney hiding with a white X right over his head. The next significant use of an X comes with the actual murder of Gaffney. The scene that is presented is much more complex than just simply dealing with X’s, however. Gaffney and his crew are found at a bowling alley when Tony enters.The scene of Gaffney's death is artfully photographed as a whistling Tony strolls into the bowling alley and cases the joint. A scorekeeper marks an X - strike - on Gaffney's scoresheet - hinting at his impending death. During his next turn, Gaffney approaches the line and squats down to hurl his bowling ball. As he releases the ball, loud and rapid gun-fire rakes his body and mows him down. The camera follows the ball he's thrown - it's another strike. The metaphor of the pins falling symbolizes Gaffney's own death. The ball knocks down all the pins except one - symbolically, the remaining pin spins and whirls, stubbornly teeter-totters for a second longer, and then finally topples over. ([...]). Here one can see the X placed on the scoresheet from Gaffney’s strike, but perhaps more importantly are the pins shown at the end of the scene. In Scarface, there are three main players: Tony, Lovo (his boss), and Gaffney. Until this point, Tony has been the number two man to Lovo, and Gaffney has been his third place contender in the city. The slow falling of the third pin is Gaffney as he falls from the gunfire that is heard in the background. The last piece of the puzzle between Tony and being the king of the city is Lovo. Interestingly enough, the murder of Lovo is done without the use of an X and is done quite quickly (See the section about style for more). Overall the use of X’s throughout the film can be categorized differently all-together when compared to other films of this era. This time period of filmmaking didn’t see such a heavy use of symbolism until Hawk’s Scarface came out.Scarface as both a film and a piece of art is an interesting study for the studio production system of the day in Hollywood. It is clear that Hawks went about the filming of Scarface in a completely unconventional style, especially in relation to casting and the storytelling of a mobster as the hero. The restrictions of the production code on this masterpiece were a real shame. In some places, the release was delayed and even banned in Germany. The film essentially disappeared for over fifty years and wasn’t re-released until after Howard Hughes’ death in 1979 (xroads.virginia.edu). Because of the scarring of this film by the censorship board, it never received any nominations or awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. When one looks at the style of Scarface and sees how uniquely it was composed and shot, it could only be hoped that in some way that would stand as reparations for the disdain that it received during its initial theatre run. Again, it is important to remember that this film may have been the centerpiece of gangster films in the 1930’s, had the censorship board not have been so disdainful of it. “That honor (instead) fell to two earlier Warner Bros. films that defined the genre (the three films formed a trilogy, of sorts)” ([...]). Here’s to Scarface going against the code and rewriting the rules of scriptwriting and motion picture making.

Americans have had a long fascination with gangsters. The long history of the portrayal of gangsters in film pivots on this 1932 film "Scarface", which has become the stuff of both legend and analysis. Howard Hughes produced the film and Howard Hawks directed. Ben Hecht worked on the screenplay.The film is based on the Chicago gangland in the wake of Prohibition and parrticulalry on episodes in the career of Al Capone (1899 -- 1947) for control of the entire Chicago mob. Paul Muni give an astounding tough performance of Tony Camonte, or "Scarface". Other performers whose careers were made by this film include George Raft as the coin-flipping associate of Tony, Rinaldo, and Ann Dvorak, who plays Tony's sister, Cesca.For a film of the early 1930s, "Scarface" was shockingly violent and had difficulty with the censors. It is still brutal. Scarface had no scruples about doing his own killing not to speak of the killings of his gang members and its rivals. There are scenes of killings in clubs, on the streets, in flower shops, bowling alleys, and hospitals. There is a lengthy car chase. And there is the depiction of the St. Valentines Day Massacre when seven members of a rival gang were lined up against a wall and shot. Tony kills his former partners and bosses until at last nobody is left. There were two alternate endings for the film. In the first, Tony is shown dying while trying to escape the police. In the second, he is ignominously hanged. Only the first ending is shown in the print I saw on Amazon."Scarface" is included in the National Registry maintained by the Library of Congress and has become the source of a long line of gangster films, including a 1983 remake starring Al Pacino, up to the present day. But it is valuable as a classic for what it does standing alone, as well as for founding a genre. A large literature has grown up around this film covering every aspect of the work from its production, script, actors, relationship with the censors, its meaning in reflecting on the American Dream, and its significance as a work of film and American art.I have been watching a great deal of film noir the past several years and more recently I have also been watching crime film. I hadn't seen "Scarface" before. I took the opportunity to watch it three times during the brief time it was available on the rental and I also read and watched some of the extensive commentary on the movie that was readily at hand. It was time well spent.Robin Friedman

What a great actor Paul Muni was and Scarface set the pace!

Wenn man von einem Film mit dem Titel „Scarface“ liest oder hört, denkt man unweigerlich an AL PACINO und an „Tony Montana“, den er im gleichnamigen Film spielt.Die wenigsten wissen wahrscheinlich, dass es sich dabei lediglich um ein Remake des gleichnamigen Films aus dem Jahr 1932 handelt.HOWARD HAWKS führte damals Regie, PAUL MUNI spielte „Tony Camonte“, das Narbengesicht. Im Original ist „Tony“ ein italienischer Einwanderer, er spielt in Chicago und es geht auch nicht um Drogen, sondern um Alkohol.BEN HECHT, der das Drehbuch dazu schrieb, wurde von der Lebensgeschichte AL CAPONE`S inspiriert, er erzählt darin vom steilen Aufstieg und brutalen Absturz eines skrupellosen Gangsters.Im Chicago der 20er-Jahre, zu Zieten der Prohibition, dient sich der skrupellose Gangster TONY CARMONTE (Paul Muni) als Auftragskiller und Leibwächter des mächtigen Mafiaboss LOUIS COSTILLO (Harry J. Vejar) ganz nach oben. Skrupellos wie er ist, verrät er ihn aber an dessen Konkurrenten JOHNNY LOVO (Osgood Perkins) und tötet ihn. Damit löst er einen Bandenkrieg aus, der Chicago in ein Schlachthaus verwandelt.Was LOVO nicht ahnt ist, dass TONY längst plant auch ihn aus dem Weg zu räumen um seine Organisation und seine Lebensgefährtin, die hübsche POPPY (Karen Morley), zu übernehmen. Um sich in LOVO`S Organisation unentbehrlich zu machen, übernimmt er für ihn die Drecksarbeit, von Erpressung bis hin zu Mord, ist er sich für nichts zu schade. Doch TONY handelt immer mehr auf eigene Faust und erweitert das Territorium eigenmächtig, was ihm nicht nur Ärger mit LOVO einbringt, sondern auch mit O`HARA, einem anderen Mafiaboss, der es gar nicht schätzt, wenn man in seinem Gebiet wildert …..Der Film wurde im Jahr 1930 gedreht, ist also ziemlich genau 90 (!) Jahre alt, konnte aber erst 1932 veröffentlicht werden. Grund dafür war, dass der film von den Zensurbehörden keine Freigabe erhielt, weil er, deren Meinung nach, viel zu brutal war und die Gangster verherrlichen würde.Also wurde der Film nachgearbeitet, es wurden neue Szenen gedreht und alte entfernt, auch musste er den Untertitel „Schande der Nation“ tragen, damit niemand auf die Idee kommen konnte, man würde das „Gangstertum“ verherrlichen.HOWARD HAWKS, der ja als Exzentriker bekannt war, wollte sich das aber nicht gefallen lassen und so kam es, dass der Film in einigen Bundesstaaten, in denen die Zensurbehörden eher ein Auge zudrückten, die Originalfassung veröffentlichen ließ. Es gab dann tatsächlich auch noch eine dritte Version, die mancher Ortes sogar hintereinander abgespielt wurden.Ob es sich hier um die erste oder zweite Version handelt, kann ich gar nicht mal sagen, Fakt ist aber, dass es definitiv nicht die dritte ist, weil da TONY vor Gericht gestellt und von einer Jury abgeurteilt wird.Ich liebe solche Geschichten, deshalb informiere ich mich auch oft über die Hintergründe von Filmen, die Entstehungsgeschichte und all so Zeug. Manchmal wertschätzt man einen Film deswegen gleich viel mehr, weil man erkennt welche Mühen sich die Menschen gemacht haben und welche Steine sie aus dem Weg räumen mussten.„Scarface“ zählt heute zu den Klassikern des amerikanischen Gangsterfilms, auch wenn er der breiten Masse nicht mehr bekannt ist. „Scarface“ ist heute AL PACINO, weil dieser Film eben auch moderner ist und zugegebenermaßen auch richtig, richtig gut ist.Trotzdem finde ich auch das Original sehr charmant, für einen neunzig Jahre alten Film ist der wirklich richtig klasse. Logischerweise muss man auf solche alten Klassiker stehen, die schauspielerischen Leistungen, das Bild und der Ton sind natürlich nicht mit heutigen Maßstäben zu vergleichen. Ich persönlich bin ein Fan solcher „alten Schinken“, so zähle ich beispielsweise den ersten „King-Kong-Film“ zu meinen absoluten Lieblingen.PAUL MUNI, der seinerzeit zu den besten Darstellern zählte, leider aber wegen einer Herzschwäche nur wenige Filme machen konnte, gefällt mir als „Narbengesicht“ richtig gut. Auch ANN DVORAK, die dessen Schwester „Cesca Camonte“ spielt, und KAREN MORLEY, als „Poppy“, fand ich noch sehr gut.Dazu dann noch BORIS KARLOFF (Gaffney), C. HENRY GORDON (Inspektor Guarino) und OSGOOD PERKINS (Johnny Lovo). Außer BORIS KARLOFF dürften die heute alle nicht mehr sonderlich bekannt sein, aber ich finde die antiquierte Art wie sie spielen, äußerst unterhaltend und charmant.Mein Fazit: „Scarface“ ist einer der wenigen Filme, bei denen sowohl Original als auch Remake zu den Klassikern zählen. Beide Filme haben Geschichte geschrieben, leider ist das Original aus dem Jahr 1932 kaum noch bekannt.Wer auf solche Klassiker steht, sich einen 90 Jahre alten Film „zumuten“ möchte, der wird hier sicher einen kurzweiligen und äußerst unterhaltsamen Film vorfinden. Mir gefällt er … Daumen hoch!

Prior to purchasing this, I've heard of its existence and through the years, many have referred to this movie as pivotal and influential to the mobster/mafia movie genre. Now having watched it, it is quite riveting with a passionate performance by Paul Muni. Noticed that most of the documentaries I've watched about the prohibition era and Al Capone used clips from this movie. The thing that pushed me to finally purchase this movie by Howard Hughes was after learning a little more about it from the movie Aviator. No regrets...

"Quando gli italiani vogliono raggiungere qualche obiettivo e si mettono d'accordo niente e nessuno riesce a fermarli E' una frase famosa di un personaggio famoso in America: si riferiva a quelli della Little Italy. Purtroppo è una frase che ha tanto di vero, anche in riferimento alla parte malata della nostra società. Di allora e di adesso. Film da collezionare senza esitazioni.

Grande film 🎥 stile gangsters anni 20 da vedere. Attori eccellenti.

I love this film. I dislike remakes so didn't want to watch the 1983 version. The dvd performs fantastically