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Scarface (1932)
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Reviews Counted:21
Fresh:21
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Loosely based on the life of Al Capone, Howard Hawks's SCARFACE is one of the most shocking and powerful gangster films ever made, setting the standard for Hollywood screen violence for years to... Loosely based on the life of Al Capone, Howard Hawks's SCARFACE is one of the most shocking and powerful gangster films ever made, setting the standard for Hollywood screen violence for years to come. Tony "Scarface" Camonte (Paul Muni) is an enforcer for Johnny Lovo, an ambitious gangster who wants to combine all the liquor rackets in Prohibition-era Chicago into one crime empire. To achieve this goal Tony embarks on a reign of terror, threatening citizens and clawing his way to power until he is the number one mobster in town. Muni's fierce performance established the model for the Hollywood mobster, a violent yet charismatic figure. Censorship battles over the film delayed its release for two years, and resulted in additional moralizing scenes and an alternate ending. Visually dynamic and provocative, SCARFACE, produced by Howard Hughes, is one of the best films of the 1930s and the forerunner of the modern gangster film. [More]
Starring: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft, Karen Morley
Starring: Paul Muni, Ann Dvorak, George Raft, Karen Morley, Osgood Perkins, Vince Barnett, C. Henry Gordon, Boris Karloff
Director: Howard Hawks
Director: Howard Hawks
Producer: Howard Hughes
Screenwriter: W.R. Burnett, Ben Hecht, Seton I. Miller, John Lee Mahin, Fred Pasley
Story: Armitage Traill
Composer: Adolph Tandler, Gus Arnheim
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Reviews for Scarface
The original Scarface, loosely but boldly based on the notorious life and legend of Al Capone, didn't invent the modern American gangster film. It blew it up.
Despite censorship problems and interference from producer Howard Hughes, Howard Hawks' early crime-gangster is a masterpiece and a seminal work in the genre's evolution, with a truly scary performanec from Paul Muni.
Paul Muni goes way over the top as Tony Camonte, painting a picture of a gangster who knows nothing but excess, and who will stop at nothing to get his way.
The slaughter in Scarface, the Shame of a Nation, the Howard Hughes gangster production... is like that of a Shakespearean tragedy
A brilliantly wild narrative that had a lot of Capone and the Borgias in it.
Hawks displays balls of steel, using the filmic medium to challenge the free reign of mobsters in the 1930's.
a potent, uncompromising and de-romanticized portrait of the gangster life
Latest News for Scarface
July 21, 2005:
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