Scarface(1932) falls victim to its filmmakers mixed motivations. On one hand the film's stated goal was to reveal the scourge of organized crime to the American audience and encourage further government action against gangsters. The other goal was to produce an exciting and entertaining film that would be commercially successful. In this reviewer's opinion the film totally fails in both respects.
First, the film fails in its goal to bring the harsh realities of organized crime to the audience as there is nothing about the film that feels real or genuine. Aside from a strong performance by George Raft as Little Boy, there isn't a single believable character in the film, only caricatures. Paul Muni's Tony seemed to drift in and out of a bizarre Italian accent throughout the film. Clearly the character was meant to be a psychopath, perhaps his inability to decide if he had an accent or not was a symptom of his psychosis? The sniveling and weaselly mob boss Lovo had absolutely no credibility making it impossible to believe that any mobster would respect or fear him enough to work under him for any period of time. Ann Dvorak's Cesca character has emotions and motives that seem to have little basis in the real world, we could see the trouble was going to cause coming from a mile away. Vince Barnett's Angelo was also unbelievable but at least the character was at times genuinely funny. But, again, the lack of subtlety hurts the comedy as the audience is hammered over the head with Angelo's antics. The very strong, unnatural looking lighting style of the films also adds to the unnatural feeling of the film and the cartoon violence of indiscriminate gun fire and one-punch knockouts cement the fact that no one could mistake this film for real life.
The film also failed in being a pure entertainment piece as the judgmental tone and the sense of Tony's impending comeuppance weighed heavily throughout the film. The through-line of the story was so clear and the ending was so telegraphed that I found it impossible to get lost in the enjoyment of the action and the occasional comedy.
If Scarface had attempted to just be a cautionary tale about the dangers of organized crime or just a cartoonishly violent and over-the-top depiction of mobster life it may well have worked. But because it attempted to be both, it totally failed.
First, the film fails in its goal to bring the harsh realities of organized crime to the audience as there is nothing about the film that feels real or genuine. Aside from a strong performance by George Raft as Little Boy, there isn't a single believable character in the film, only caricatures. Paul Muni's Tony seemed to drift in and out of a bizarre Italian accent throughout the film. Clearly the character was meant to be a psychopath, perhaps his inability to decide if he had an accent or not was a symptom of his psychosis? The sniveling and weaselly mob boss Lovo had absolutely no credibility making it impossible to believe that any mobster would respect or fear him enough to work under him for any period of time. Ann Dvorak's Cesca character has emotions and motives that seem to have little basis in the real world, we could see the trouble was going to cause coming from a mile away. Vince Barnett's Angelo was also unbelievable but at least the character was at times genuinely funny. But, again, the lack of subtlety hurts the comedy as the audience is hammered over the head with Angelo's antics. The very strong, unnatural looking lighting style of the films also adds to the unnatural feeling of the film and the cartoon violence of indiscriminate gun fire and one-punch knockouts cement the fact that no one could mistake this film for real life.
The film also failed in being a pure entertainment piece as the judgmental tone and the sense of Tony's impending comeuppance weighed heavily throughout the film. The through-line of the story was so clear and the ending was so telegraphed that I found it impossible to get lost in the enjoyment of the action and the occasional comedy.
If Scarface had attempted to just be a cautionary tale about the dangers of organized crime or just a cartoonishly violent and over-the-top depiction of mobster life it may well have worked. But because it attempted to be both, it totally failed.