Alternate Best Actor 1931: James Cagney in The Public Enemy

James Cagney did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Tom Powers in The Public Enemy. 

The Public Enemy is a largely compelling gangster film if a bit episodic, about the rise of a street thug. 

Although James Cagney had been in other films prior to this one, The Public Enemy marked his breakout as a performer and established him as a star until his retirement. Cagney was one of the most talented performers of his era and much like another performer I'm going to write about soon, he shows a certain side of what can show real talent as a performer. Although often talent is most revealed by showing how one can play a number of different roles, which Cagney was also capable of, there is another talent in successfully finding variation in theoretically similar roles. Cagney was known as a gangster performer, but what is so remarkable is how well he differentiated his gangster turns. You have the sympathetic man falling into the wrong line of work in The Roaring Twenties, you have the hard-bitten but also heartbreaking depiction in Angels With Dirty Faces, and of course, you have the vile psychopathic, yet somehow still sympathetic, turn as Cody Jarrett in White Heat. All very different in their own ways, yet the consistent factor is they are all compelling in the hands of Cagney. Tom Powers of course is the original and I think a defining feature is the youth of Cagney's work here. Cagney looks young and was young. And with that, as much as Cagney was always an energetic performer, even in Ragtime, his manner here is different. It is less refined in a way, but in a way that wholly crafts its own charisma, that is all it is own even if a bit different from the more specific one Cagney ended up cultivating. There's a greater sort of pointed intensity that is just innately within his manner and just a potency about him that very much sets Tom apart. We meet Tom as a young man, and Cagney feels absolutely young. Almost a boy more than a man, particularly in the earliest scenes, and this sets up a most fascinating start for his portrayal of the character. 

An early scene that realizes Cagney's approach is when Tom's straight-laced brother confronts him about his early illicit activities, which Tom scoffs at. Cagney's delivery though has an innate viciousness, before Tom is punched down for his threats. The moment afterward is what I love so much with Cagney's just the way he looks with his hair up his eye blaring with hate, he looks more like an angry dog in some ways, and his kick of the door his brother exited it from is with this animalistic instinct in his manner. Tom interestingly is somehow even the most actively rotten gangster, as you even argue Cody was mentally ill, to begin with, and was raised by someone worse than himself, as Tom chooses this life more so than any of the other famous Cagney gangsters. His advancement is very different as Cagney only makes Tom more rotten as we go along. Summarized early on perhaps, and iconically so, as Tom treats his girlfriend with a grapefruit to the face for questioning. What makes the scene so brilliant is Cagney's performance of it. It is comical in a strange way, it is juvenile in the way Cagney bites down his tongue like a schoolyard kid doing a prank, yet still twisted in the intensity and sadism in his eyes. It's a one-of-a-kind moment of psychopathy because in all reality, as Cagney makes it entirely Tom as this man playing with his amorality as a kid would, having fun with it, in a decidedly evil way, even while still in a decidedly childish way. Cagney shows a man who loves it, even as he's filled with so much hate at the same time. There is something in his face here that often offers a demonic glint to it, as Tom is someone who's lost his way, rather it is a man who has found his way, unfortunately. 

The notion of childishness is pervasive within Cagney's overall approach which when you get to the heart of his Tom Powers, he's essentially a child playing the crook. Cagney's approach makes sense for the character, particularly when Tom goes and kills a horse that "killed" a benefactor in an accident. That moment of revenge has a petty manner, there isn't overt hate but rather a petulant urge that defines the moment. His later interactions with other women further this idea behind the real nature of Tom. Cagney portrays such shyness in the moments he shares with the more assertive gun moll Gwen (Jean Harlow). Cagney basically looks down in these scenes showing a little boy really trying to bring up the courage to ask the attractive girl, rather than any kind of gangster establishing any sort of dominance. This point is made all the more clear when another associate's girlfriend goes so far as to essentially date rape Tom. Cagney throughout the sequence presents essentially a meek nothingness within Tom when someone else takes control of him, particularly a woman. Cagney exudes nervousness and accentuates a boy without confidence towards the opposite sex, without any innate ability. He's not the gangster in charge of it, he's just a boy playing a game, a game that gets rather complicated when dealing with a woman, as he fails to understand women in any particular way. 

The gangster life itself reveals itself as a gang as Tom finds himself ill-suited to actually establishing himself as a man of power, as his friend is quickly killed in an attack leading Tom to attempt to deal with things himself. This leads to the second most iconic scene of the film as Tom decides to take on the other gang alone in the rain, walking to them through a city street. Cagney's performance is a major facet of what makes the moment memorable. Cagney's physical work is incredible because basically the way he even sort of puffs out his chest, the way he stares with a menacing glare, even his marching tough walk, it is all an act. The act of being more than he is and Tom isn't being a gangster, Cagney's playing Tom as Tom playing the part of the gangster. The reality of this becomes abundantly clear when Tom is somewhat successful but seriously wounded from the gunfight. Cagney's physical work is as impressive as he wanders around wounded and even his delivery about their shooting skills is again like a kid who's just been beaten at a game. In the final moment of this approach, we see his family visit Tom in the hospital, all showing concern for their son despite his previous actions. Although Cagney's physicality here is limited, being confined to the hospital bed, his delivery is fantastic in creating just this subdued even shy manner as he asks for forgiveness. Not as a man with a sense of needing redemption, but rather again the apology of a child asking for forgiveness. Although I think one could argue that Cagney shows some signs of working out his presence fully as a performer here, and while I think such a criticism would be legitimate, for me even that I think adds to the overall portrayal of his Tom Powers as a boy playing at the gangster. Cagney creates such a powerful presence on screen that is defined by physicality, however, there is so much more within his work in crafting a portrait of a different kind of lost youth essentially. It isn't the same dominating force he would later become as his more confident gangster in White Heat and "Angels", yet Cagney is wholly successful, and it is not surprising he established himself with this turn, in creating a captivating one of kind presence onscreen.