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Scarface (1932)
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The greatest gangster movie of the 1930s — and that means the greatest ever. It was produced by Howard Hughes who told director Howard Hawks to make it “as realistic, as exciting, as grisly as possible”. Hawks happily obliged, though Hollywood's moral watchdog, the Hays Office, interfered throughout the shooting and later insisted the ending was softened and a subtitle was added —Shame of the Nation. The story is a thinly disguised biography of Al Capone, with Paul Muni as Tony Camonte, a monster who lusts after his own sister, Ann Dvorak, yet whose business acumen embodies the American Dream. Hawks saw it as the Borgias in Chicago and it's filled with moments that define the gangster genre — terrific shoot-outs, psychotic characters and George Raft spinning a coin. Seventy years after it was made, Scarface remains a bracingly violent and subversive tragicomedy that says crime pays and that mowing people down is fun. It was famously remade by Brian De Palma in 1983. AT
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Running time
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89min
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Country of origin
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US
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Genre
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Crime Drama
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Alternate title
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Scarface, Shame of a Nation
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Original language
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English
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Screenplay
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Ben Hecht, Seton I Miller, John Lee Mahin, W R Burnett, Fred Pasley, from the novel by Armitage Trail
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Film certification logos reproduced by kind permission of BBFC |
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