"Public Enemy" brought two things to the screen: the little tough guy, fast-talking, unscrupulous gangster characterization by James Cagney which was to follow him throughout his entire screen career, and the grapefruit scene
Though "Public Enemy" created the Cagney image, he had already appeared in two other gangsters films for Warners, as a murderer prepared to let someone else pay for his crime in "Sinner's Holiday," and as a double-crossing hoodlum in "Doorway to Hell."
"Public Enemy," however, was a bigger-budget production, directed by William Wellman, and it contained all the elements of success
It is the story of two brothers who become Chicago booze barons in the Twenties... One was Cagney, the other Edward Woods
It is sometimes claimed that the story of "Public Enemy" is based on that of "Little Hymie" Weiss, leader of the North Side Chicago gang after the murder of Dion O'Banion by the Capones in 1924
What is more likely is that the Cagney characterization is based on "Little Hymie"; the plot itself is pure fiction
When Cagney, in his striped pajama, sat opposite Mae Clarke at breakfast and decided he had had enough of this boring broad, he wasted no time
He picked up half a grapefruit and planted it full into Clarke's face
It was a piece of screen action which has lasted down the years as the ultimate in violence from the gangster to his moll
Of course, it isn't it just seems that way
Since then gir1s have been slapped, kicked, beaten up, run over, shot, stabbed and raped, all in the tradition of mobster violence
But at the time this scene was daring, and the more daring because it was totally unexpected
We remember Mae Clarke in "Public Enemy," yet forget that Jean Harlow was in it, too
There may have been good reason
The New York Times, reviewing the film in 1934, commented: "The acting throughout is interesting, with the exception of Jean Harlow, who essays the role of a gangster's mistress."
Cagney made violence and a life of crime magically seductive, and "Public Enemy" made him Warners' number 2 gangster, second only to Edward G. Robinson
