Joaquim da Silva Fontes, Significação e Estabilidade do Género no ...

The third originating gangster movie is Howard Hawks’s Scarface (1932).
Although the film was completed in 1930, it was held up a couple of years as it was
modified due to several submissions to censorship. It was felt to be too violent but most of
all to glorify the gangster lifestyle and thus some of the scenes had to be re-edited (the
ending was also changed) and similar to the other productions mentioned above, it was
requested that the film have an introductory note and a subtitle called “The Shame of the
Nation”. However, the Board of Censors never seemed to accept that this violent film was
meant to be a warning from its director about organised crime and the need to lower levels
of crime.
Figure 16. Scarface
The film takes place during the Prohibition era and it depicts what was used as the
best strategy in getting various speakeasies to order large amounts of booze. Scarface is
very much a product of its time: Tony Camonte (Paul Muni) is a brutal and arrogant
gangster with a scar on his face (modelled after the real Al Capone) who very rapidly finds
himself taking over the rackets in town (fig. 16), after having killed his former employer,
mob boss Big Louis Costillo. The film gains a new dimension in representing the brutality
of organised crime with Camonte and his partner, Guino Rinaldo (George Raft) reaching
the top of the bootlegging chain, as other crime bosses get murdered by crooks and cops
alike.
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