I had no idea the 1932 version was that "important" in cinema terms.some cool facts from Rotten Tomatoes :

-SCARFACE was based on the life of notorious mobster Al Capone, with details added about other real-life mobsters and historical events such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. It became one of Capone's favorite films, and he bought his own print of it

-SCARFACE was the most violent film made up to that time, featuring 28 deaths on-camera, 19 car crashes, and the first use of a machine gun in the movies

-After filming was over Hawks traveled to Chicago where he met Capone and a number of other mobsters.

I found out other cool stuff on the net about this film,might post them later.

Debra,

I don't remember if I have welocomed you to the boards or not, but in case I did not.... WELCOME! I look forward to your posts!


Don Cardi

Welcome to the boards Debra

Thank you both

The 1932 movie was based on a novel of the same title written by "Armitage Trail." This was a pen name for a Hollywood writer who didn't want to piss off the Scarface mob in his depiction of a lead character, Tony Camonte, who was clearly a fictional stand-in for the very real, and still powerful Al Capone, who was known as Scarface Al. The basic elements of the Al Pacino movie are in the original novel and the 1932 movie: the rise up the ranks, the killing of the boss, the "thing" for his sister, and the killing of his best friend over his sister. I read the novel back in 1961. It's now out of print. Back then, a "classic gangster movie" would be Jimmy Cagney's Public Enemy, Edward G. Robinson's Little Caesar, or Paul Muni's Scarface (which was still out of public circulation by that time. It was considered too violent for T.V. How times have changed!).