Previously Played
- THE PUBLIC ENEMY
2:50, 5:50, 8:50 - THE STAR WITNESS
1:30, 4:30, 7:30
2 FILMS FOR 1 ADMISSION
Tickets available at box office only
THE PUBLIC ENEMY
(1931) “I’m not so tough.” Oh yeah? In his electrifying star-making performance, James Cagney moves from Chicago slum street punk to full-fledged gangster, with molls Jean Harlow, Joan Blondell and grapefruit recipient Mae Clarke in tow. Wellman set out to make “the toughest goddamn gangster picture of them all” — and succeeded. Print courtesy Library of Congress.
2:50, 5:50, 8:50
THE STAR WITNESS
(1931) Tough D.A. Walter Huston goes after some hired killers, only to find his witnesses, an innocent family caught in the crossfire, clamming up in fear of gangland reprisals — but crusty grampa Chic Sale (actually only 45) has a plan.
1:30, 4:30, 7:30
PLEASE NOTE: Due to an unforeseen closing of the Library of Congress film laboratory, we are unable to show a new 35mm print of The Star Witness as promised. In its place, we are running a 16mm print courtesy of Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research.
Recently rediscovered poster for THE PUBLIC ENEMY.
Click here to read Adrian Curry's MUBI feature
on this and other lost posters.
REVIEWS
THE PUBLIC ENEMY
"Cagney's portrayal of a bootlegging runt is truly electrifying (he'd already made three films, but this one made him a star), and Jean Harlow makes the tartiest tart imaginable."
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
"Seminal. Cagney's energy and Wellman's gutsy direction carry the day, indelibly etching the star on the memory as a definitive gangster hero."
– Geoff Andrew, Time Out (London)
"From the first moment he's on screen, Cagney radiates such a brash Fenian cockiness you can imagine kids at the time flocking out of the theater and cocking their caps just like him."
– Slant Magazine
“A crime genre milestone, with James Cagney in one of the cinema's virtuoso performances.”
– John Andrew Gallagher & Frank Thompson
THE STAR WITNESS
“Gets off to a crackling start and maintains a smart pace thereafter. The action is taut and vicious… Chic Sale incorporates a lot of his stage act into the plot – quite neatly and logically as it happens – and some of it, especially the closing scene, is quite touching.”
– William K. Everson
“One of Wellman’s finest films.”
– John Andrew Gallagher & Frank Thompson