A Film Canon

This is a more historicised, psychologised portrait of the gangster than Little Caesar. Wellman sets the meteoric rise of Tom Powers (Jimmy Cagney) against a montage of Prohibition landscapes, as well as a more conspicuously ethnic mileu, and traces it to the irrational, violent influence of his father, shown beating him in a pivotal early scene. By characterising gangsterdom as the attempt to find, embody or compensate for some lost form of paternal authority, Wellman sharpens Powers' explosive volatility with an undercurrent of insecurity, making any gesture of betrayal or duplicity doubly affronting. It's no coincidence that the most shocking scene involves the murder of Powers' first employer and surrogate father, who dies in the midst of an hysterical invocation of the past. For these reasons, Wellman is particularly keen to stress Powers' domestic life which, dichotomised between his family home and luxurious apartment - or, more specifically, between his unconditional loyalty to his mother and absolute, misogynistic contempt for his lover - bolsters the moral polarities embodied by the gangster, necessitating a particularly strong counterpoint to the depictions of his rise. This comes in the form of a double ending, which ensures that Powers is virtually absent - and, perhaps more importantly in a film so predicated on his aggressive repartee, silent - for the conclusion of his own narrative, creating a profound disempowerment borne out in the pathetic circumstances of his death.