Scarface
USA, 1932
Director: Howard Hawks
Script: Ben Hecht (based on a novel by Armitage Trail)
Cast: Paul Muni (Tony Camonte), Ann Dvorak (Cesca Camonte), Karen Morley (Poppy), Osgood Perkins (Johnny Lovo), C. Henry Gordon (Inspector Guarino), George Raft (Guino Rinaldo), Vince Barnett (Angelo), Boris Karloff (Tom Gaffney)
Music: Adolf Tandler
Plot
Big Louie Costillo, a major organized crime boss, is shot dead at his Chicago headquarters. It is feared that this will trigger a gang war in the city for control of the lucrative alcohol business, as “Prohibition” still applies. The police begin their investigations, and question gangster Tony Camonte, a young and ambitious criminal with a long criminal career who recently worked as a bodyguard for the late Costillo.
However, Inspector Guarino finds no evidence to incriminate Tony, and has no choice but to let him go. As soon as he leaves the police station, Tony immediately goes to meet John Lovo, Costillo’s biggest rival. As the police suspected, it was Tony who killed his boss on Lovo’s behalf. Lovo pays Tony the agreed money and becomes the biggest alcohol smuggler in the city. From now on, Tony will work for him as his right-hand man. At Lovo’s apartment, Tony notices the attractive Poppy, the boss’ girlfriend. He subtly begins to court her.
Lovo and Tony use extortion, threats and machine-gun fire to force underground bar owners to buy alcohol only from them. Those who refuse must perish in a hail of bullets. Two who survive are shot in the hospital.
Although Lovo is satisfied with his new position as leader of the “syndicate”, he wants to avoid problems with other gangs operating in the northern area in the service of the dreaded Tom Gaffney. That’s why the insatiable Tony is beginning to think that his boss is rather soft.
Tony is always accompanied by his men: Rinaldo, his great childhood friend, and the dumb but endearing Angelo, whom he appoints as his secretary. Now, the gangster has settled into a luxurious apartment with armored windows. Through these, when they are open, you can see the advertising poster of a travel agency, which reads: “The world is yours” – a motto that inspires the ambitious Tony Camonte.
From time to time, Tony visits his mother and his little sister, Cesca. The latter, 18 years old, goes out at night with boys, which the jealous and overprotective Tony disapproves of.
One day, Poppy visits Tony in his flat. Despite her apparent roughness, she too is attracted to him (especially now that his influence has increased), and the two begin dating behind Lovo’s back. On one occasion while they eat in a restaurant, they are the target of an attack but remain unharmed. This is a “warning” from Gaffney, the head of the rival organization. The confrontation between the gangs is escalating exponentially, claiming new victims every day. The climax of the war comes when Tony and his men, dressed in police uniforms, capture several of Gaffney’s henchmen and place them facing the wall in a garage for execution. This was what would become known as “The Valentine’s Day Massacre” (14.02.1929). From then on, the hegemony of Lovo and Tony’s organization would cover the whole city, expanding to the northern zone. Gaffney, in “search and capture” by the fierce Tony, is located in a bowling alley and liquidated.
But friction between the wayward Tony and his boss Lovo increases, especially because of Poppy. Cesca, on the other hand, ends up seducing Rinaldo, her brother’s best friend.
When Tony leaves his mother’s house one night, he is shot from a car. But he manages to get out unscathed. And he suspects who ordered his elimination…
Commentary
This is the original film that inspired Brian DePalma and Oliver Stone to make the brilliant remake “Scarface” in 1983 (51 years later), starring Al Pacino. Although both films are set in different contexts, the parallels are enormous (especially with regard to the relationships between the characters), and in fact there are some dialogues that are taken textually.
The Italian-American gangster “Tony Camonte”, who in the 1983 adaptation would be the Cuban “Tony Montana”, is based on the figure of Al Capone – who was nicknamed “Scarface” because of the scar he had on one of his cheeks. Tony Montana’s drug of choice in early 1980s Miami is cocaine, while his filmic counterpart and namesake Camonte, in prohibition-era Chicago, deals in illegal alcohol. Both are unscrupulous, fierce bandits with a boundless hunger for power. The metaphorical motto of “The world is yours” is present in both films – it is the slogan of a travel agency (in 1932) and an airline (in 1983) that the two Tonys take as the literal goal of their respective careers.
The Johnny Lovo of 1932 (Osgood Perkins) is the Frank López of 1983 (Robert Loggia), while Poppy (Karen Morley) is equivalent to the character of Elvira (Michelle Pfeiffer). In the original film we can see (in reference to that dangerous ménage à trois between Tony, his boss and his girlfriend) scenes and dialogues almost identical to those in the DePalma remake:
For example, Poppy/Elvira says, when Tony’s attempts to conquer her become obvious: “I thought John/Frank was your friend”, to which Camonte/Montana responds “Yes, I like John/Frank… But I like you more”. There’s also this other dialogue: “Why don’t you find yourself a girlfriend, Tony?” “That’s what I’m doing” – Although in the 1932 “Scarface” it’s Poppy (the girl) who asks, and in the 1983 “Scarface” it’s Frank (the jealous boss). Also, the sequence in which Tony refers to Poppy/Elvira’s hat while flirting with her can be seen in both the original and the remake.
The 1983´s Manny (Steven Bauer) is Rinaldo (George Raft) in Howard Hawks’ “Scarface”. Both are Tony’s best friend, both are womanizing gunmen, who will fall in love with Camonte/Montana’s little sister – who in the 1980s remake is Gina (Elizabeth Mastrantonio) and in the original is called Cesca (Ann Dvorak) – not without dire consequences…
But there are also some differences between the two films. The funny and a bit retarded “secretary” Angelo (Vince Barnett), who in the 1932 film brought a comic note, does not appear in DePalma’s version. And a figure analogous to the powerful and sinister Alejandro Sosa of 1983 (Paul Shenar) does not exist in the original film. The Hawksian Scarface takes place entirely in Chicago, while the remake starring Pacino is based primarily in Miami, but also takes place in settings such as Bolivia and New York. Tony Montana succumbs, after a fierce shooting, under the bullets of the hitmen that Sosa sends to his mansion. Camonte, on the other hand, is shot by the police when he resists arrest. With his film, Hawks certainly intended to spread the didactic message that “in the end crime is defeated by the law,” that the authorities must triumph over criminals. In the 1983 film, Tony is not defeated by the law, but by other criminals more powerful than him (and who are probably in cahoots with certain circles of established power).
Tony Camonte has the particular characteristic of whistling a tune every time he is about to commit a murder – Montana does nothing of the sort. Montana ends up getting hooked on the alkaloid he markets, while Camonte is never seen drunk.
It is interesting to mention the purpose of social awareness that motivated the realization of this first “Scarface”: Already in the prologue of the beginning it criticizes the indifference and passivity of the authorities in the face of violence exercised by criminals in the streets. The Italian “polizzieschi” of the 1970s had a very similar background, where sometimes they even went one step further: they showed the connivance between organized crime and the high spheres of politics and finance.
The 1932 film also criticizes the romantic exaltation and idealistic mystification with which certain media portrayed the gangsters; making them seem charismatic and fascinating characters in the eyes of public opinion. Paradoxically, many years later, this tendency would reach its peak with the most mediatic of the Mafia bosses: the famous John Gotti (1940-2002), head of the Gambino family in New York at the end of the 1980s. Gotti was the subject of a highly recommended television film in 1996 (“Gotti” by Robert Harmon).
Tony Camonte is played by Paul Muni (Meshilem Meier Weisenfreund, of Ukrainian Jewish origin), a regular in gangster roles in the 1930s. George Raft (Rinaldo) is also a leading actor of this period, who, having grown up in the “Hells Kitchen”, one of the toughest and most dangerous neighborhoods in New York, was preferably the incarnation of the gangsters and criminals with whom he was so familiar. But the most famous actor who appears in the early “Scarface” is Boris Karloff (famous for his role as Frankenstein‘s monster). Karloff has a supporting role here as Tom Gaffney, the competitor of Lovo and Camonte.
In my opinion, the remake surpasses the original (something that has rarely happened in the history of cinema). Brian DePalma’s “Scarface” is twice as long (3 hours, compared to 90 minutes in the 1932 film) – which gives him more time to develop and deepen the plot and characters. In addition, in the eighties film we have the excellent soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder.
Still, Hawks’ “Scarface” is also a great film. A masterpiece that no fan of the seventh art should miss.
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