Grade: B
Synopsis: A violent gangster (Paul Muni) claws his way to the top of the underworld.
Scarface is a well put together gangster film highlighted by a great performance by Paul Muni as the titular character.
After a shaky start featuring a lengthy indictment on the world of organized crime, the film kicks into gear, with Muni’s Tony Camonte starting out as a low-level mafia hood. Quickly, and bloodily, he rises to head his own crew, with George Raft (in one of his first films) as his right-hand man. Boris Karloff also turns up as the head of one of the rival gangs that clash with Camonte for control of the city.
Though Camonte is a hungry wolf with a powder keg temper, his methodical and dispassionate rise to the top isn’t so dissimilar from a climb up the corporate ladder. He kills simply because it’s the most efficient way of achieving his goal and the audience can, on some level, understand it, and even, perhaps secretly, root for him. That’s why the film works so well: the violence it condemns also serves to entice and entertain, sort of a forbidden fruit.
And violent it is. With a body count higher than a Friday the 13th film, Scarface ran so afoul of the censors, that director Howard Hawks ultimately released the film without censor approval, which, of course, only added to its mystique.
Granted, the film’s not perfect. Ann Dvorak goes a little overboard as Camonte’s sister. Clearly the desire was to highlight her temperamental resemblance to Camonte, but Dvorak seems over-the-top compared to Muni’s measured mania. It’s a fine line, but she crosses it.
That said, fans of the 1983 remake should find this version entertaining, as will fans of gangster films in general.
