- The life and times of Scarface's Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) follow the standard gangster trajectory. He starts off working for South Side boss Johnny Lovo (Osgood Perkins), where he quickly makes a name for himself by offing a competitor. Of course, Tony spends his nights staring at a sign that reads "The World is Yours," so we suspect he'll soon be his own boss. With the help of his coin-flipping right-hand man Rinaldo (George Raft) and his idiot secretary Angelo (Vince Barnett), Tony starts and ends multiple gang wars until only Lovo and North Side boss Gaffney (Boris Karloff) are left standing. Since Tony's motto is "do it first, do it yourself, and keep on doin' it," we gather that Lovo and Gaffney aren't long for the world. Indeed, Gaffney is soon shot while bowling (!), while Lovo gets killed in retaliation for his attempt on Tony's life. Finally, Scarface is running the show.
- Despite his rapid rise through the ranks of organized crime, all is not well in Tony's life. Sure, he finally landed Poppy (Karen Morley), the girl of his dreams, but he constantly worries about the social habits of his young sister, Ceska (Ann Dvorak). The situation finally comes to a head when Tony discovers Rinaldo at Ceska's apartment. Never one to miss an opportunity to start shooting, Tony kills Rinaldo before he or Ceska can explain that they have just gotten married. Oddly enough, it is this murder charge that finally sticks, and the cops soon have Tony blocked inside of his fortified apartment. There, he and his surprisingly devoted sister make their final stands, guns blazing away.
- Much of the reputation of Howard Hawks' Scarface comes from the various offscreen controversies it caused. In addition to being based on the life of Al Capone, the film was kept from release for over six months by censors for its violent pre-Code content. Eventually, producer Howard Hughes would go on to release the film exclusively in states without censorship boards, which probably only further added to the film's notoriety. So now that I've finally seen Scarface, does it live up to the hype? Well, partly. The direction and cinematography are considerably better than I expected, with X memorably marking the spot of every Scarface murder. Additionally, the shootouts are quite impressive, and it is tough to imagine a more appropriate gangster film montage than the one in which a machine gun tears off pages from a calendar. That said, I was actually a bit disappointed with most of the acting, including Paul Muni's cartoonish portrayal of the title character. While Little Caesar (starring Edward G. Robinson) or The Public Enemy (James Cagney) are probably worse films than Scarface, both featured incredibly memorable lead roles. By comparison, Tony Camonte just seems like another dope with a machine gun, but maybe that's the point of the film.
- Scarface inspired the coke-fueled remake of the same name.
- The film was written by Ben Hecht, who may or may not have consulted with actual gangsters.
