Scarface (1932)

[randy_byers]

Scarface was actually mostly shot in 1930, just three years after Underworld, but censors held the film back for two years until they added newly-shot moralizing material in a futile attempt to undercut the mythic glamorization of the criminal life.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Very impressive to see all these shots together. I'm especially pleased that opening the door marked "X" reveals yet another "X".

-- Denys

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

And by sheer happenstance I picked out ten screen caps.

[crowleycrow.livejournal.com]

What I remember most is the weirdness of Boris Karloff as an underworld boss speaking in his elaborate stage English accent ("Bring those choppers over here") and getting gunned down at the bowling alley. And the delicacy of movies in those days -- one shooting seen through a translucent glass office door.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

That's Karloff (standing) in the seventh screen cap. One of the oddities of this film is that it was shot right before he became a star in Frankenstein (1931), but came out afterward. Scarface is a mixture of delicacy and brutality. Unlike today, you don't see graphic depictions of bullets ripping through flesh, but there's an emphasis on the harsh, industrial sound of the tommygun. Murder as an industry.