WHITE HEAT (1949)

Now this is more like it!  I double-featured THE PUBLIC ENEMY with WHITE HEAT and while I found TPE to be dated and not as hard hitting as I had hope, WHITE HEAT was awesome!

After an exciting train robbery, gangster James Cagney is on the run with his gang which includes a few tough guys, his two-timing wife and even his overbearing mother!  Stuff happens and Cagney ends up in prison doing a bullshit two-year stint to cover up for his real crime.  The coppers are onto his game and put undercover agent Edmond O'Brien inside the prison to try and get the straight dope on Cagney.

There's much more to it than just that, of course, but you should just watch it for yourself.  Severe mother complex, murder left and right, prison fights, shoot outs, headaches, cheating wife, boiling hot steam to the face, robbery, classic vehicles, secret messages, car chases and one of the greatest freakout scenes in the history of classic Hollywood.

Even being as old as it is WHITE HEAT still packs quite a wallop.  Great movie.  Highly recommended.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)

James Cagney plays a young buck who makes it big as a muscleman for a powerful Prohibition-era gangster.  His brother doesn't approve and his mother is in denial, but Cagney doesn't give a fuck cause all he wants is power, money and broads.

THE PUBLIC ENEMY has not aged well.  When it first came out in 1931 it was quite a shocker and made a ton of dough for Warner Bros., but watching now it just comes across as extremely dated.  The biggest problem is the slow pacing and the way the story is told.  Something about it seems out of wack.  It probably has to do with THE PUBLIC ENEMY being a semi-early talkie and a lot of the actors were quite new to the business.  Jean Harlow, who I usually love, was especially horrible.  She's fantastic in stuff like LIBELED LADY and DINNER AT EIGHT, but here she's very stiff and her line delivery was laughable.

From a film history point of view THE PUBLIC ENEMY is very much worth studying, but from just a entertainment standpoint I think most modern audiences should stay away.  If you need me, I'll be in my room watching WHITE HEAT.