A versatile actor who played a diverse range of roles, James Cagney is probably best remembered as public enemy Tom Powers. Tonight's chronicle of his rise from slum kid to adolescent hood and finally to big-time bootlegger is a classic of the genre. Although the film's prologue deplored society's glorification of the gangster, Tom Powers' cocky arrogance and callous violence fascinated audiences. His ruthless pursuit of success--not unlike Anderson's in Employees' Entrance, but unrestrained by law and order--was after all another version (albeit corrupt) of the American success story. Socially irredeemable, Powers earned his title as public enemy--just as viciously shooting a man as a horse, brutally smashing a grapefruit in a woman's face, strong-arming beer hall owners, and even disappointing his mother. Although described in the New York Times as “just another gangster film,” Public Enemy was unusual in its detailing of immigrant family life and urban environment and its depiction of Powers' life of crime as a reaction to Depression society with few opportunities for (legal) success.