A story of the rise and fall of Chicago gangster Tony Camonte, Scarface is legendary. Jean-Luc Godard named it as the best American sound film. Oliver Stone updated it for the 1983 Brian De Palma-helmed remake. After the formal adoption of the Hays Code in 1934, there wouldn’t be another American film this violent until the release of Bonnie and Clyde nearly 40 years later. Scarface wasn’t the genesis of the gangster flick, but it is one of the best. Paul Muni, in the title role, plays a convincingly unhinged and frightening thug. Much to my surprise, the female characters (Tony’s sister Cesca and girlfriend Poppy, played by Ann Dvorak and Karen Morely respectively) are quite interesting in their own right. Shot in the shadows and chock full of symbolism (you’ll see an “x” somewhere onscreen every time Tony makes a kill), this is classic Hawks at his best.