Scarface (1932)

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Movie
German title Scarface
Original title Scarface
Scarface 1932 Logo.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1932
length 93 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Howard Hawks
script Ben Hecht
production Howard Hawks
Howard Hughes
camera Lee Garmes
L. William O'Connell
cut Edward Curtiss
Lewis Milestone
occupation

Scarface (published under the title Scarface, The Shame of the Nation, Scarface ) is an American gangster film directed by Howard Hawks from 1932. The film with Paul Muni in the lead role was produced by Hawks and Howard Hughes , the screenplay is derived from by Ben Hecht , who worked as a screenwriter and journalist in Chicago before his career. The director Brian De Palma shot a remake in 1983 with Al Pacino in the lead role. In 1994 the classic gangster film was included in the National Film Registry .

action

The gangster Tony "Scarface" Camonte working in the Chicago of the 1920s years as a bodyguard and hit man for the mob boss Louis Costillo whose organization for supremacy in the distribution of drugs and alcohol during Prohibition fighting. When Tony betrays his boss to competitor Johnny Lovo and shoots him, he triggers a bloody gang war. At home, Scarface has to endure the contempt of his mother, who rejects the money he brings home because it is "bad money". His sister Cesca, with whom he has an almost passionate relationship, however, adores him and hopes for a better life through his coming wealth as a gang boss.

Together with his partner Guino Rinaldo, Scarface is already planning to take over Lovo's organization soon. He has already gained respect there by murdering his former boss. He also falls in love with Lovo's mistress, the spoiled Poppy. To gain further recognition in Lovo's gang, Scarface does the dirty work for him - he blackmailed innkeepers so that they could get alcohol from Lovo and killed Lovo's opponents. In doing so, he repeatedly penetrates the territory of Lovo's greatest opponent, the gang boss O'Hara, on his own. This annoys Lovo, who doesn't want to risk a war with O'Hara's organization. Scarface ignores this and lets O'Hara kill his partner Guino.

With that, he pulls Lovo into war with the rest of O'Hara's organization, which, under the leadership of Scarface, is ultimately destroyed. In order to end the increasing influence of Scarface in his organization, Lovo can then carry out an assassination attempt on him. When this fails, Scarface confronts his boss and lets Guino kill him. Now Scarface has reached the height of his power. At the same time, the ever harsher violence of gang wars means that the city's authorities are slowly turning to the problem that they previously wanted to keep silent.

When Scarface travels, Guino falls in love with Cesca, whom he had previously avoided despite her interest in him, as his friend had previously brutally dispatched his sister's suitors. The couple meets secretly, but is watched by other henchmen Scarfaces. When Scarface found out about this relationship after his return, he shot Guino in his rage without giving him a chance to explain. Only after his death does he find out that Guino and Cesca had married the day before.

Plagued by guilt, Scarface is now being chased by the police. He and his sister flee to a residential building that is now being besieged and shot at by the police. When his sister is fatally hit, he does not leave the house and fights until he is shot by the police. In an alternate ending, he is only arrested and later hanged after a trial.

backgrounds

Producer Howard Hughes used the United Artists distribution system to distribute the films he produced . Scarface was completed in 1930, but was initially not approved by the censorship authorities due to the raw depiction of violence and the glorification of gangsterism.

As the guardian of Hays Code , the Hays Office demanded that the film be subtitled Shame Of A Nation in order to rule out any glorification of gangsterism. In addition, the producers had to revise the portrayal of corrupt politicians making common cause with gangsters. Also, the role of Tony's mother, who was originally proud of her son, was changed to disapprove of her son's behavior. Hughes had the new scenes filmed (directed by Richard Rosson ). In this defused version, the film was finally released in 1932.

Director Hawks was dissatisfied with this version, however, and released the film in its original version at his own risk in some states where the censorship requirements were less strictly enforced. Hays Office, on the other hand, did not fully agree with the second version either. So a third version came about, in which Tony is arrested at the end. He will be tried and the death sentence pronounced. This was intended to highlight the effectiveness of the American judiciary.

After that, the second version and the third version ran simultaneously in some places, while the first version was no longer allowed to be shown at all. Internationally, further censorship regulations came into force, so that numerous other versions were created. In the Federal Republic of Germany, the film went under the name Scarface , in East Germany under the title Scarface .

Reviews

  • Lexicon of international films : In a free adaptation of the authentic life story of Al Capone , the film tells of the rise and fall of an unscrupulous gangster in America in the twenties. A classic of the American gangster film, directed by Howard Hawks fast-paced and with grim humor.
  • Heyne Film Lexicon : A highlight of the genre.
  • Prisma Online: A fast-paced and thoroughly humorous classic - if not the most important - of the American gangster film.
  • Reclam 's Guide (1982): His hero is a power-hungry, trigger-happy gangster; but at the end of the film the film also indicates complicity in society: an illuminated advertisement twitches over Camonte's corpse with the text: "The world is yours."

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG02/gangsters/scarface.html
  2. ↑ F.-B. Habel: Cut up films. Censorship in the cinema , p. 88