Scarface (1932)

Directed by: Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson | 90 minutes | drama, crime | Actors: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins, C. Henry Gordon, George Raft, Vince Barnett, Boris Karloff, Purnell Pratt, Tully Marshall, Inez Palange, Edwin Maxwell

For many, Brian de Palma’s ‘Scarface’ with the unrivaled Al Pacino is the one and only ‘Scarface’. His portrayal of Tony Montana (a South American name, as the story has moved to 1980s Miami) is legendary and made him a true icon for some young people. This is because Tony, with his fighting spirit and ability not to be lectured by anyone, is the perfect role model for rebellious teenagers. Incidentally, for the sake of convenience, those teenagers overlook how things will turn out with the overambitious Tony, but this aside. It will come as a surprise to them and to many others that Howard Hughes already preceded Brian de Palma fifty-one years earlier with an excellent film adaptation of Maurice Coon’s (aka Armitage Trail) lifelike and colorful gangster novel.

Al Pacino’s rendition of Tony is absolutely genius, but Paul Muni’s is also worth it. The role deservedly earned him a lot of recognition in film land, although an Oscar, like his colleague Pacino, was not in it. Unjustly, because certainly for his time he portrays a gangster such as he had never seen before in Hollywood: raw, realistic and ruthless, without grimace. The disturbing content and brutal violence – moderate by current standards and much less explicit than in the later version – will have hit hard in the 1930s; the makers therefore had major problems with the film rating!

The (main) director, Howard Hughes, bon vivant and pioneer of screwball comedy shows himself to be a committed filmmaker when the story film begins with the message: this film is an indictment of the mafia and the government’s indifference to this threat to the security of our country. He must have portrayed the underworld authentically, because after the first showings he was threatened by the mafia.

If you move a bit in time you can imagine the impact this film had. The story is serious and apparently very realistic and therefore for the good American a disturbing picture of the major American cities and the influence that criminals exerted on daily life and how they placed themselves above the law. Old news for us now, but it must have been like when the Beatles’ first songs came on the radio, only a little more negative for them. Whether this primal version of Brian de Palma’s masterpiece is better than the latter is doubtful by today’s standards, but it’s amazing how the film has survived. Due to the daring theme and approach, impeccable direction by Howard Hughes and a strong lead role for Paul Muni, the film is also a must-see for a modern audience and especially for fans of the gangster genre.