The Public Enemy (1931)

83 min · Gangster Film, Melodrama, action film, crime drama film, crime film, crime thriller film, drama film, film noir, gangster film, mystery film, suspense film, thriller film

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2025-09 to 2026-08

Directors

William A. Wellman

Cast

James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edward Woods, Joan Blondell, Donald Cook, Leslie Fenton, Beryl Mercer, Robert Emmett O'Connor, Murray Kinnell

The story

As youngsters in 1900s Chicago, Irish-Americans Tom Powers and his lifelong friend Matt Doyle engage in petty theft, selling stolen items to "Putty Nose". Putty Nose persuades them to join his gang on a fur warehouse robbery, assuring them he will take care of them if anything goes wrong. When Tom is startled by a taxidermied bear, he shoots it, alerting the police, who kill gang member Larry Dalton.

Catalogue themes and tags

Gaunerpaar, Prohibition, Crime Fiction, Gangster Film, Crime Drama, Black-and-white, Drama, Pre-Code

Genres

Gangster Film, Melodrama, action film, crime drama film, crime film, crime thriller film, drama film, film noir, gangster film, mystery film, suspense film, thriller film

Find trailer on YouTube ↗ Plot source & revision Wikipedia Wikidata Open Media Database Permalink

Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.

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