Scarface (also known as Scarface: The Shame of the Nation and The Shame of a Nation) is a 1932 American pre-Code gangster film directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Hawks and Howard Hughes. The screenplay, by Ben Hecht, is based loosely on the novel first published in 1930 by Armitage Trail, which was inspired by Al Capone. The film stars Paul Muni as Italian immigrant gangster Antonio "Tony" Camonte who violently rises through the Chicago gangland, with a supporting cast that includes George Raft and Boris Karloff. Camonte's rise to power dovetails with his relentless pursuit of his boss's mistress while his own sister pursues his best hitman. In an overt tie to the life of Capone, a version of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre is depicted.
After purchasing the rights to Trail's novel, Hughes quickly selected Hawks to direct and Hecht to write the film's screenplay. Beginning in January 1931, Hecht wrote the script over an eleven-day period. Scarface was produced before the introduction of the Production Code in 1934, which enforced regulations on film content. However, the Hays Code, a more lenient precursor, called for major alterations, including a prologue condemning gangsters, an alternate ending to more clearly reprehend Camonte, and the alternative title The Shame of a Nation. The censors believed the film glorified violence and crime. These changes delayed the film by a year, though some showings retained the original ending. Modern showings of the film have the original ending, though some DVD releases also include the alternate ending as a feature; these versions maintain the changes Hughes and Hawks were required to make for approval by the Hays Office. No completely unaltered version was known to exist until the limited-edition set of Scarface (1983) was released on October 15, 2019.
Audience reception was positive, but censors banned the film in several cities and states, forcing Hughes to remove it from circulation and store it in his vault. The rights to the film were recovered after Hughes's death in the 1970s. Alongside Little Caesar and The Public Enemy (both 1931), Scarface is regarded as one of the most significant and influential gangster films.
Scarface was added to the National Film Registry in 1994 by the Library of Congress. In 2008, the American Film Institute listed Scarface as the sixth-best gangster film. It was remade as the 1983 film of the same title starring Al Pacino.
Plot[]
In 1920s Chicago, an Italian immigrant and ambitious low-level thug Tony "Scarface" Camonte works as a bodyguard for crime lord "Big" Louis Costillo. Siding with Costillo's disgruntled lieutenant Johnny Lovo, Tony guns down his boss. Lovo takes over Costillo's territory in the South Side and has Tony and his associates, the dim-witted Angelo and the handsome playboy Guino "Little Boy" Rinaldo, supervise a lucrative bootlegging operation selling illegal beer to all of the bars there and forcing out rivals.
Tony urges Lovo to start moving in on the North Side, where the bootlegging is controlled by the Irish gangster O'Hara; Lovo refuses, ordering Tony to leave the North Side alone. Tony ignores these orders and starts taking out O'Hara's men while expanding his rackets to the North. Before long, Lovo is only the nominal boss while Tony becomes increasingly notorious and powerful, attracting the attention of both other gangsters and the police.
Meanwhile, Tony pursues Johnny's girlfriend, Poppy. At first, she is dismissive of him but pays him more attention as his status rises, and he starts flaunting his wealth. She visits his "gaudy" apartment where he shows her his window-view of an electric billboard advertising Cook's Tours, which features the slogan which inspires him: "The World Is Yours".
Tony finally gets rid of O'Hara. O'Hara's successor, Tom Gaffney, declares war on the South Side and attempts to kill Tony with tommy guns—which an excited Tony quickly arms his own men with. The war results in Tony’s victory while Gaffney is forced to go into hiding. A group of prominent citizens, including the police chief, vow to bring Tony down for all the carnage and bloodshed he has inflicted on the city.
During a night out at the theatre, Tony learns that Gaffney and the remainder of his crew are at a nearby bowling alley. Leaving Angelo behind to watch the rest of the show and report back to him the outcome, Tony personally kills Gaffney. Lovo's anger at Tony finally boils over when Tony openly flirts and dances with Poppy in front of him at a nightclub. Tony sees his beloved sister Francesca "Cesca" dancing with a stranger at the club; obsessively protective over her, he becomes enraged and hits her. Later that night, some hired gunmen try to assassinate Tony, but he kills them.
Suspecting Lovo's involvement, Tony goes to his office after bribing the local barber to call him and pretend to be part of the hit crew. When Lovo hangs up after claiming that he must have gotten the wrong number, Tony forces him to confess to the hit and then has Guino kill him. Tony, now the undisputed kingpin of the city's underworld, takes Poppy on an expensive vacation to Florida to escape the police and media attention, while Cesca secretly visits Guino at Tony's office and seduces him. The two began an affair.
Returning home, Tony learns from his mother, who has often warned him of his bad behavior, that Cesca has moved in with another man and rushes over to find her with Guino. He kills his friend in a jealous rage, and Cesca runs away in tears after revealing that they had just gotten married and were planning to surprise him. The police issue a warrant for Tony's arrest; he barricades himself in his home while Angelo is killed trying to protect him in a shootout with the police.
Cesca slips inside, planning to kill her brother, but can't bring herself to do it. Tony and Cesca arm themselves, and Tony shoots at the police from the window with a Thompson submachine gun, laughing maniacally as he guns them down. Moments later, however, Cesca is killed by a stray bullet. Calling Cesca's name as the apartment fills with tear gas, Tony stumbles down the stairs just as the police break down his door. Tony pleads for his life but instead of putting on the offered handcuffs, tries to escape, resulting in him being shot. As Tony falls dead on the street, the electric billboard blazes "The World Is Yours" above him.
Cast[]
- Paul Muni as Antonio "Tony" Camonte
- Ann Dvorak as Francesca "Cesca" Camonte
- George Raft as Guino "Little Boy" Rinaldo
- Karen Morley as Poppy
- Boris Karloff as Tom Gaffney
- Osgood Perkins as John "Johnny" Lovo
- C. Henry Gordon as Police Inspector Ben Guarino
- Vince Barnett as Angelo
- Purnell Pratt as Publisher Garston
- Tully Marshall as Managing Editor
- Inez Palange as Mrs. Camonte, Tony's Mother
- Edwin Maxwell as Chief of Detectives
- Harry J. Vejar as "Big" Louis Costillo (uncredited)
- Howard Hawks as Man on Bed (uncredited)