The Horse's Head

The Plot: “Flowers and Trees” lives up to its title as an animated tale of anthropomorphized flowers and trees…well, mostly trees. As dawn breaks in an idyllic forest, a Boy Tree woos a Girl Tree with a harp made of vines. All this wooing angers a nearby Old Man Tree, who wants the Girl Tree for his own. Boy Tree easily wins a fight for Girl Tree’s honor, and Old Man Tree retaliates by starting a forest fire. But all ends happily in this Disney Silly Symphony; the first film (animated or otherwise) to utilize the new technological marvel of three-strip Technicolor.

Why It Matters: The NFR gives the short its technical achievement, singling out the film’s “vibrant Technicolor”.

But Does It Really?: “Flowers and Trees” is a pleasant, agreeable short, though ultimately its technical innovation is what pushes it into the “important film” column. As a lifelong Disney history buff, I have seen “Flowers and Trees” before and was aware of its significance in Disney history, but even that wasn’t enough for me to include it on my own NFR nomination ballot over the years. Still, it’s nice to see that other people advocated for its NFR inclusion, and it’s refreshing to know that there’s at least one Disney short from this era that can go on Disney+ without any disclaimers or backlash. A pass for “Flowers and Trees”; an important, though not monumental, moment in the history of color film and Disney animation.

Seriously, Oscars?: At the 5^th Academy Awards, “Flowers and Trees” was the first winner in a brand-new category: Best Short Subjects, Cartoons (now known as Best Animated Short). Oscar rules at the time gave the award to a short’s producer, not its director, so Walt Disney collected the first of his eventual 26 Oscars (which is still the record). Disney also received an Honorary Oscar that evening for the creation of Mickey Mouse.

The Plot: Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott) is the Chief of Medicine at a Manhattan teaching hospital who finds himself at a moral crossroads. His hospital is crumbling both literally and figuratively, with overall mismanagement issues, protests from the community, and several staff members mysteriously turning up dead. In addition to these external issues, Bock is privately dealing with the end of his marriage, his suicidal contemplations, his chronic alcoholism, and his impotency. The only bright spot comes from Barbara Drummond (Diana Rigg), the daughter of a comatose patient (Barnard Hughes), who gets Dr. Bock to open up during an intimate late-night conversation. Will Dr. Bock leave the hospital and move to Mexico with Barbara? And are these deaths the work of malpractice or murder? As they say in another movie, “That is one nutty hospital.”

Why It Matters: The NFR praises Arthur Hiller’s balance of “comedy and tragedy, the real and the surreal”, and heralds Chayefsky’s “vision of health care that looks frighteningly prescient.” It’s also worth noting that “The Hospital” entered the NFR one year after the unrelated but similarly titled “Hospital“. Confused yet?

But Does It Really?: I don’t understand this movie or why it’s on the NFR. “The Hospital” has some wonderful dialogue and a great cast, but it never gelled for me the way a film with this pedigree of creatives should. Additionally, “The Hospital” is nowhere near as memorable or impactful as the rest of either Paddy Chayefsky’s or Arthur Hiller’s filmographies, most notably Chayefsky’s other, significantly more iconic middle finger to ’70s decay: “Network“, which wouldn’t make the Registry until 2000. I suspect “The Hospital” is another one of those “you had to be there” movies of the early ’70s that I can never seem to fully comprehend, but even that argument falls through considering this film’s overall absence from pop culture or film discussions in the last 50 years (even “Two-Lane Blacktop” has its share of supporters). As it stands, I’m left scratching my head and wondering how “The Hospital” made the NFR this early in its run, or at all.

Everybody Gets One: Born in Edmonton, Alberta to Polish immigrants, Arthur Hiller started acting in his parents’ Yiddish theater company as a child and was inspired to become a film director after seeing Rossellini’s “Rome, Open City”. Hiller started directing episodic television for the CBC before making the move to America, where he directed episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, “Gunsmoke”, and of all things, the first episode of “The Addams Family”. Hiller’s film career started strong with such films as “The Americanization of Emily” and hit its peak with the 1970 megahit “Love Story”. Arthur Hiller was Paddy Chayefsky’s first choice to direct “The Hospital”, but United Artists insisted on newcomer Michael Ritchie, who was fired during pre-production due to “differences” with Chayefsky and was replaced by Hiller.

Seriously, Oscars?: “The Hospital” received two Oscar nominations, with Paddy Chayefsky winning his second Oscar for its screenplay. Although George C. Scott lost Best Actor to Gene Hackman in “The French Connection“, his nomination is notable for occurring the year after he refused a nomination and eventual win for his work in “Patton“. Clearly the acting branch of the Academy didn’t hold grudges.

Other notes

• After a very successful run as a writer throughout the ’50s (including his first Oscar for “Marty“), Paddy Chayefsky stumbled throughout most of the ’60s. With a string of flop plays on Broadway and unable to get his original screenplays produced in Hollywood, Chayefsky took jobs adapting other people’s work, including “The Americanization of Emily”, which underperformed at the box office, and several projects he was quickly fired from. Inspired by his wife Susan’s recent trip to a hospital (and its less-than-supportive staff), Paddy pitched a TV series set in a hospital to producer Howard Gottfried, which evolved into a film script that represented, as Chayefsky put it, “a microcosm for all the ills of contemporary society”. Chayefsky and Gottfried formed their own production company – Simcha Productions, named for the Hebrew variation of Paddy’s birthname Sidney – to ensure that Chayefsky would have creative control during production and that the final film would match his screenplay.
• The opening prologue about the fates of Mr. Guernsey and Dr. Schaefer in Room 806 sets the film up as a delightful black comedy, which I don’t think the rest of this movie fully delivers on. Part of my problem with this movie is, through no fault of its own, the abundance of quirky hospital media that has come out since this film’s release. I’m sure this film’s depiction of hospital life was more original and outrageous in 1971, but with “St. Elsewhere”, “ER”, “Scrubs”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, etc. none of it seems too out of place nowadays. And yes, that is Paddy Chayefsky as the prologue narrator, a temp recording that found its way into the finished film.
• George C. Scott is, as always, terrific in this, though of his five NFR performances this is the least flashy or memorable. Dr. Bock is such an internal character it doesn’t give Scott much to play with, although we do get one of his trademark rage monologues early on. Side note: Having never seen “The Hospital” before, I was under the impression this was the movie where George C. Scott growls “It is NOT in the file!” to a nurse. Turns out that’s “The Exorcist III”.

• As someone who has seen “Network” dozens of times over the years, I can’t help but notice the similarities. Both are films about a middle-aged man going through a self-described “menopausal” crisis, watching the institution he has devoted his life to deteriorate around him, and taking solace in an intelligent, beautiful, significantly younger woman. Clearly Chayefsky (who was 48 when this film was released) was working out some things in his own writing. Ultimately, I feel like “Network” did everything “The Hospital” is doing, but with a sharper focus in its writing and execution.
• I do love any movie with a murderers’ row of New York stage actors. Among those showing up here in supporting roles: Frances Sternhagen, Nancy Marchand, Katherine Helmond, Roberts Blossom, and, in her uncredited film debut, Stockard Channing. Oh, and apparently Christopher Guest makes his film debut too as one of the resident doctors. Definitely missed that.
• There’s an extended sequence of Mr. Blacktree, an Indigenous associate of Barbara’s, performing a medicine dance over Mr. Drummond’s hospital bed. This scene goes on long enough without anything else happening that I think the joke is the mere sight of a medicine dance, a joke that aged so poorly I didn’t even recognize it as one. This kind of humor always makes me think of that “Simpsons” scene of Homer watching an Indian film with Apu: “It’s funny; their clothes are different from my clothes.”
• In her American film debut, Diana Rigg spends most of the film’s first half standing in the background of other people’s scenes, but once we get the late-night monologues between Dr. Bock and Barbara, she gives a knockout performance. Rigg didn’t make a lot of movies, and as much as I question this film’s NFR standing, I’m glad she’s on the list at least once (though I’m also holding out for “The Great Muppet Caper“).

• Speaking of Diana Rigg: I do love that they explain away her British accent by saying that Barbara went to Vassar. Good stuff.
• I spent a lot of this movie’s second half trying to put my finger on what exactly wasn’t working for me. I was ready to throw Arthur Hiller under the bus and say he couldn’t handle the material, but that notion went out the window once I started doing my research. I haven’t seen a lot of Arthur Hiller’s movies, but his filmography suggests he was one of those chameleon directors who could work in a variety of genres and service the story without putting any distracting “signature directorial style” on it. Plus, he had successfully collaborated with Chayefsky previously on “The Americanization of Emily”, and based on what I know about Chayefsky, getting along with him was no easy task, so being his top choice for director was a huge vote of confidence. As for this film’s NFR induction, I will play a bit of devil’s advocate and point out that Arthur Hiller was a member of the National Film Preservation Board in 1995, the year “The Hospital” made the list. Granted, Hiller is far from the only person to have one of their films inducted while serving on the board, but his presence certainly didn’t hurt.
• Critics at the time were divided over whether the film’s tonal gearshift in the second half works. While I didn’t completely hate it, it didn’t work for me either. For starters, Chayefsky would bring back the sudden spiritual epiphany storyline in “Network”, so it didn’t come as much out of left field for me as it would have for people in 1971. The main issue with this swing into farce is that the first half is filmed too realistically for the later, more satirical elements to work. “The Hospital” is in the grounded world of cinema verité shaky cam, not the polished, larger-than-life environment you need for a successful farce. Also adding to the confusion is Barnard Hughes playing two different characters: Diana Rigg’s father and one of the hospital’s surgeons. These characters have no connection to each other, and very little effort is made to distinguish the two. There’s not even a “wink-wink” acknowledgment of this dual casting within the film. Very weird.

The Plot: Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) were the lead singers for The Blues Brothers, a blues group that disbanded once Jake went to prison for armed robbery. When Jake is released three years later, he and Elwood learn that the orphanage they lived in growing up will close unless it can raise the $5000 it owes in property taxes. Jake has an epiphany to reunite the Blues Brothers and put on a one-night performance to raise the money. What follows is an epic trip through the greater Chicago area as Jake and Elwood go on their “mission from God”, while simultaneously being pursued by Jake’s parole officer (John Candy), a mysterious assassin (Carrie Fisher), a group of Illinois Nazis, a revengeful country/western group, and seemingly every police officer in Illinois. What follows is music, mayhem, and a whole lotta car crashes.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “loving and madcap”, and “[a]n homage of sorts to various classic movie genres”. The film’s “lovely paean to great soul and R&B music” is also highlighted. Plus, we get interviews with both Dan Aykroyd and John Landis.

But Does It Really?: It’s been almost 20 years since I’ve seen “The Blues Brothers”, and I hate to admit it, but it’s not as good as I remember it being. There’s nothing inherently wrong with “The Blues Brothers”; the movie never takes itself too seriously, and is stocked with massive musical talents and genuinely impressive stunt work. But lord almighty does this movie drag. There is no reason an action-packed musical comedy needs to be 133 minutes. Each scene is entertaining but almost always outstays its welcome, leading to an increasingly frustrating viewing experience. I will note, however, that my favorite movie of all time is also an overlong comedy with plenty of car chases and cameos, so maybe I shouldn’t be too critical of this movie or its pacing. The Blues Brothers (in both their TV and film iterations) are iconic enough in our pop culture that this film’s NFR induction isn’t too farfetched, but the film and its humor is still the acquired taste it was back in 1980. Maybe you just had to be there.

Shout Outs: Both Jake and Elwood have their names tattooed on their fingers a la “The Night of the Hunter“, and of course the film’s finale is a tribute to “Jailhouse Rock“.

Seriously, Oscars?: No Oscar love for “The Blues Brothers”, though it did win the Motion Picture Sound Editors’ Golden Reel Award for its sound editing. Say what you will about this movie, it has excellent sound effects.

• Despite having never written a screenplay before, Dan Aykroyd was hired to write “The Blues Brothers”, and turned in a 324-page first draft, three times the length of your average screenplay. Director John Landis, hired thanks to his work with Belushi on “Animal House“, spent two weeks streamlining the script to something filmable. Production began in fall 1979 without a budget! When a budget of 17 million dollars was finalized, Landis reportedly joked “We’ve spent that much already.” With the extensive stunt work, as well as production delays caused by Belushi’s increasing drug habits, the final film cost anywhere from 24 to 30 million dollars, easily the most expensive comedy at the time.
• Admittedly, my issues with this movie’s pacing are most likely my own bias towards the quicker-paced comedies of the last 40 years. I’m sure audiences in 1980 found this movie’s pace more palatable (especially in a theater, where the lulls were covered with audience laughter). I’m sure it also helped that everyone was probably stoned at the time.
• That’s actor/director Frank Oz as the corrections officer when Jake is released, in what I believe is his only on-camera NFR appearance.
• Part of the reason this film works better than the later “SNL” movies is that the Blues Brothers weren’t in sketches, they were just a music act. We don’t have a general idea of what a “Blues Brothers” sketch is like, so we have no preconception of what the arc in a Blues Brothers movie should be.
• I’m enjoying Kathleen Freeman’s cameo as Sister Mary Stigmata, but then again, I enjoy any movie where the Catholic church is played for laughs. Side note: The $5000 needed to save the orphanage would be about $19,000 today.

• This film made me wonder what John Belushi’s film career would have been like had he lived longer. Best case scenario: He would have gone the Bill Murray route; a series of hits throughout the ’80s, several misses in the ’90s, then a reinvention as a more dramatic supporting character actor. Worst case: the alt-universe 2000s sitcom “According to John”.
• Our first big musical number is the energetic “The Old Landmark” featuring James Brown and his congregation of professional dancers, including backup vocals by the Queen of Funk herself, Chaka Khan. As best I can tell, the “God music” when Jake has his epiphany is the only original underscore in the entire film. This must have been Elmer Bernstein’s easiest paycheck.

• Another case of a movie quote becoming iconic because it’s repeated: “We’re on a mission from God” is said four different times in the movie and was featured prominently in promotional materials.
• The highlight of the movie for me is the chase between the Blues brothers and the police through a busy shopping mall. It’s a wonderfully ridiculous scene, packed with the kind of total destruction of property that we’ll most likely never see in a movie again. The sequence was filmed at Dixie Square Mall in Harvey, Illinois, which had closed in 1978 and sat empty until “The Blues Brothers” came along. Dixie Square Mall was abandoned again after this scene was filmed, with its last remnants finally being demolished in 2012.

• Speaking of stunts: this film wrecked an estimated 103 cars during production, a record at the time that has been repeatedly broken, including by this film’s sequel.
• Carrie Fisher must have taken pointers from some Stormtroopers because the Mystery Woman is a terrible shot.

• The Blues Brothers band members seen in the film are the real-life band members, with one major exception. Paul Shaffer was unable to appear in the film due to scheduling conflicts with “SNL” (both Aykroyd and Belushi had left the show earlier that year) and was replaced by Murphy Dunne.
• As with every other scene in this movie, the Chez Paul sequence goes on too long. But in its defense, it gives us a brief appearance by a young Paul Reubens as a waiter, as well as the line that made me laugh the hardest: “No, sir, Mayor Daley no longer dines here. He’s dead, sir.”

• Oh right, this movie has Nazis. With the cartoonish buffoonery of Henry Gibson as their leader, and Jake’s declaration “I hate Illinois Nazis”, I’m beginning to understand how this movie made the NFR in 2020.

• Here’s how frustrating this pacing is, we have a scene where John Lee Hooker sings “Boom Boom”, followed immediately by Aretha Franklin belting out “Think”, and all I can say is, “Okay, move on!”

• I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the “Twist and Shout” scene in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” is low-key ripping off this movie’s “Shake a Tail Feather” number with Ray Charles. Watch them both again and tell me I’m wrong.

• The Bob’s Country Bunker scene is a very funny premise but, say it with me, it goes on too long. My main question with that scene: Why are they singing that song from “Fievel Goes West”?

• It’s not a John Landis movie until the phrase “See You Next Wednesday” shows up, in this case it’s the name of a movie on a roadside billboard.
• ’30s jazz singer/Cotton Club mainstay Cab Calloway didn’t make a lot of movies, but they somehow all end up on the NFR. When asked to perform his signature song “Minnie the Moocher” for “The Blues Brothers”, Calloway wanted to perform his updated disco version, but Landis insisted on the original orchestration, and Calloway acquiesced. It’s fun watching a legend like Calloway still be able to swing almost 50 years later.

• The climactic chase through downtown Chicago should be the highlight of the movie, but at this point I was so exhausted from this viewing that no amount of amazing car stunts could win me back. That being said, my wife and I visited Chicago for the first time a few years ago, and this movie’s depiction of Chicago drivers isn’t too far off.

• Yes, that is Steven Spielberg in a rare acting role as the Cook County office clerk. Spielberg had just directed both Aykroyd and Belushi in “1941”, and by the time “The Blues Brothers” was released Spielberg had moved on from that misfire to his next project: some adventure movie called “Raiders of the Lost Ark“…
• My god even the credits are long! Though I’m sure there’s a fun story as to why Shirley Levine (John Landis’ mom) is credited as “Woman on Cutting Room Floor”. And as always: When in Hollywood Visit Universal Studios (Ask for Babs).

• Although “The Blues Brothers” is considered the first of the “SNL” sub-genre of movie comedies, we wouldn’t get another one based on an “SNL” character until 1992’s “Wayne’s World”. That film’s unexpected hit opened the floodgates to every ’90s “SNL” character getting their own movie, with increasingly diminishing returns.

Listen to This: Among the blues legends in this film with music on the National Recording Registry are James Brown, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, Willie Hall, and Steve Cropper.

As we say farewell to another summer, we as a nation start preparing for a very important year-end decision in Washington D.C.: Which 25 movies will make the National Film Registry this December. Below are my 50 nominees for 2024; films marked with * are being nominated by me for the first time this year.

The Five-Timers Club: Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Witness for the Prosecution (1957), The Miracle Worker (1962), The Great Escape (1963), It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Original Cast Album: Company (1970), 9 to 5 (1980), Big (1988), The Sixth Sense (1999)

I guess they want Christmas movies now: White Christmas (1954), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992)*, Elf (2003)*

Animation!: One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961), The Jungle Book (1967), Finding Nemo (2003)

Shorts!: Time Piece (1965)*, Meet Marlon Brando (1966)*

Animated Short!: The Skeleton Dance (1929)*

Classic Hollywood: Of Human Bondage (1934)*, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Hellzapoppin! (1941)*, The Pride of the Yankees (1942)*, Stage Door Canteen (1943)*, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)*, Father of the Bride (1950)*, Royal Wedding (1951), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

Female Directors: The Heartbreak Kid (1972), Yentl (1983)*, Clueless (1995) [plus “Big” from the 5-Timers section]

Directors Not Yet on the NFR: The Warriors (1979)*, Beetlejuice (1988), The Truman Show (1998), Being John Malkovich (1999)*, Office Space (1999)*, Best in Show (2000), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Mean Girls (2004)*, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)*, Juno (2007)*

The Nicolas Cage in ’87 Film Festival: Moonstruck (1987)*, Raising Arizona (1987)*

Grab Bag: The Dirty Dozen (1967)*, F for Fake (1973), Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), The Elephant Man (1980)*, Sophie’s Choice (1982), The Birdcage (1996)

The new kids from 2014: Boyhood (2014)*, Selma (2014)*

P.S. I’m not the only one with a public NFR nomination list; Representative Joaquin Castro recently unveiled his 25 nominations. It’s mostly a rehash of previous years’ lists (not unlike mine), but he does have “Pan’s Labyrinth” on there, which I feel has a good shot.

The Plot: Tom Powers and Matt Doyle (James Cagney and Edward Woods) are two street hoodlums in 1920 Chicago who have been committing petty crimes for local lowlifes since they were children. Once Prohibition goes into effect, the two are hired by bootlegger Paddy Ryan (Robert O’Connor) to be enforcers for his business, as well as that of mobster “Nails” Nathan (Leslie Fenton). As business thrives, Tom and Matt both become wealthy, though Tom’s older brother Mike (Donald Cook) disapproves of Tom’s line of work and urges him to go straight. As the mob turf wars of the 1920s escalate, so too does Tom’s lust for money, women, and power. Oh, and Jean Harlow’s in this too for a couple of scenes. Also, there’s a grapefruit that figures prominently at one point.

Why It Matters: The NFR calls the film “[r]aw and brutal”, singling out Cagney’s “incendiary star-making portrayal”, as well as the “fierce machismo” William Wellman adds with his direction. The write-up also correctly acknowledges that Jean Harlow’s performance “gives viewers little indication of the superstar she’d become”.

But Does It Really?: I guess so. “The Public Enemy” is one of those movies that’s not so undisputed a classic that its NFR induction seems inevitable, but it is popular enough that its absence from this list would seem conspicuous. As a standalone film The Public Enemy” neither over or underachieves but has enough exciting elements to hold your interest. This is all aided by the film’s historical significance as the introduction to James Cagney’s screen persona, as well as the concept of a grapefruit as a weapon. “The Public Enemy” holds its own alongside the other gangster movies of the time and has remained iconic enough to warrant a spot in the NFR.

Seriously, Oscars?: At the 4^th annual Academy Awards, “The Public Enemy” received one nomination: Best Original Story (the long gone third screenplay category) for John Bright and Kubec Glasmon. They lost to the WWI drama “The Dawn Patrol”.

• The story goes that Edward Woods and James Cagney were originally cast in each other’s parts, with Woods starring as Tom and Cagney in support as Matt. Shortly after production began, Wellman had them switch roles, and the rest is history. While this has been disputed, it would explain why the child actors playing their younger counterparts (presumably filmed before the switch) match this original casting; young Matt in particular looks a lot more like a young James Cagney than a young Edward Woods. By the way, the actor playing young Matt is Frankie Darro, who would go on to star in William Wellman’s “Wild Boys of the Road“.
• Cagney is great in this, though for the life of me I have no idea what he’s saying. But it doesn’t matter because it’s fun watching him clearly relishing this breakout part. And even at the beginning of his career he was finding ways to sneak in a little hoofing into his pictures. Side note: This is not the movie where Cagney calls someone “You dirty rat.” He says that line in…oh wait, he never actually said it.

• As Matt’s girlfriend and later wife Mamie, Joan Blondell is her usual charming screen presence, even in a thankless part like this. Mae Clarke fairs a little better as Tom’s girlfriend Kitty. Speaking of…
• Like many a classic movie moment, the scene where Tom smashes a grapefruit into Kitty’s face has many people claiming it was their idea. William Wellman said that he came up with it while he was arguing with his wife during a grapefruit breakfast, producer Darryl F. Zanuck also claims credit for the moment, but both James Cagney and Mae Clarke attest that Cagney did it as a gag to amuse the crew, never thinking it would make the final cut. Regardless, the scene is the film’s most memorable moment, partly because up to this point there’s been a restraint in on-screen violence. And while we’re talking about this scene, can we acknowledge Cagney’s line right before the smash: “I wish you was a wishin’ well, so that I can tie a bucket to ya and sink ya.” That’s not how wishing wells work.

• Finally, Jean Harlow! As Gwen, the woman Tom will leave Kitty for, Harlow doesn’t show up until about halfway through the movie, and like Joan Blondell before her, she doesn’t get much to do. Thankfully, Harlow’s breakout work at MGM was just around the corner. It’s worth noting that Wellman’s first choice for Gwen was Louise Brooks, the famous silent movie star synonymous with the flapper image. Having recently returned from Europe (making, among other films, “Pandora’s Box”), and reluctant to work in Hollywood again, Brooks turned the part down, a decision that is now considered one of the factors that led to her decline in stardom.
• Once Tom and Matt take out their one-time associate Puddy Nose, the movie picks up steam and becomes everything we associate with gangster pictures. This scene is followed immediately with “Nails” Nathan being killed off-screen in a horse-riding accident, which leads to Tom buying the horse that killed Nathan and having it shot! I can just imagine Mario Puzo seeing this scene and making a mental note to take his own revenge-based horse murder even further.
• Shoutout to Deveraux Jennings, the film’s cinematographer. The bulk of Jennings’ career was in the silent era (he was Buster Keaton’s cameraman), and his work in “Public Enemy” shows that he refuses to let these newfangled cumbersome sound cameras get in the way of his compositions. We get some wonderfully staged close-ups, as well as a memorable shot of Paddy’s car driving directly over the camera.
• There’s a very racy scene when Paddy Ryan’s girlfriend Jane (Mia Marvin), seduces and takes advantage of a very drunk Tom while he’s laying low at her apartment. It’s quite daring for a ’30s movie, maybe too daring because it was one of three scenes cut from the film’s 1941 Code-era re-release. Another cut scene involves an effeminate tailor taking Tom’s measurements, which I thought was pretty funny. I’m glad that these scenes have been reinstated into the film proper, albeit in significantly poorer picture quality.
• [Spoilers] The scene where Matt is gunned down in the street is the reason we need to end our reliance on coal. Also, I’m told that “The Public Enemy” (as well as other films of the era) used actual ammunition on screen. Based on my research, blank cartridges were invented in the early 1930s but wouldn’t have been readily available for a film production, and squibs wouldn’t be invented for another decade. I’m left wondering if this story is true. And if so, I have a lot of follow-up questions.
• [Spoilers] The ending was semi-spoiled for me years ago, or so I thought. I was under the impression that the scene where Tom gets shot in the rain and laments “I ain’t so tough” as he falls to the ground was the final scene in the movie (along the lines of “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?“). Not only is that not the last scene, but we learn Tom actually survived getting shot! The actual final scene is an inevitable conclusion for a movie of this era, but still contains a striking, unforgettable final image.

• An animatronic of James Cagney from “The Public Enemy” was part of the Great Movie Ride at Disney-MGM Studios for many years. And with that, let me just check my notes here…yes, I have covered every NFR movie that was a set piece on that ride. The only one missing is the NFR-ineligible “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, but other than that I’ve got the whole set. This is second only to my 700^th movie as my greatest accomplishment on this blog.

Before we go, allow me a brief tangent. In the summer of 2009, there was a movie called “Public Enemies” directed by Michael Mann and starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger. Obviously, the only connection between this film and “The Public Enemy” is the title (taken from the 2004 book it’s based on) and the overall gangster aesthetic, but it gives me an excuse to talk about one of my all-time favorite movie-going experiences. I don’t remember a lot about the movie itself, but what I do remember is seeing it with my grandpa, who grew up in Chicago in the 1930s. The joy of that day wasn’t watching the movie but rather watching my grandpa watching the movie. The son of a judge, my grandpa knew about Chicago’s crime scene and, as any child rebelling against their parents would, idolized all the notorious gangsters of the era. When Depp’s Dillinger would outsmart and evade the police in the movie, I would look over at my grandpa and see that eight-year-old kid grinning from ear to ear as his hero escapes capture. Afterwards, my grandpa told me stories about growing up during the film’s setting, and about sitting on his front stoop hearing the news that Dillinger had been killed. That day at the movies was one of the last times I saw my grandpa, who died less than two years later. Although “Public Enemies” itself didn’t make much of an impression on me, it gave me the wonderful opportunity to see my grandpa relive his childhood, and for that I am eternally grateful.