Scarface

Arpinaama / Scarface - Chicagos siste gangster. US (c) 1932 The Caddo Company. Presented by Howard Hughes. D: Howard Hawks. SC: Ben Hecht (screen story); Seton I. Miller, John Lee Mahin, W. R. Burnett (continuity and dialogue) - based on the novel Scarface (1930) by Armitage Trail. DP: Lee Garmes, L.W. O'Connell. AD: Harry Oliver. M Directors: Adolph Tandler, Gus Arnheim. "Chi mi frena in tal momento" from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor: Scarface's whistled theme song before murder. "Some Of These Days" and "A Mighty Rough Road" pres. by Ann Dvorak. S: William Snyder. ED: Edward Curtiss. Cast: Paul Muni (Tony [Antonio Camonte]), Ann Dvorak (Cesca [Camonte]), Karen Morley (Poppy), Osgood Perkins ([Johnny] Lovo), C. Henry Gordon (Guarino), George Raft ([Guino] Rinaldo), Vince Barnett (Angelo), Boris Karloff (Gaffney), Tully Marshall (Managing editor), [Gus Arnheim and his Cocoanut Grove orchestra].
Versions: 90, 95 or 99 min. The shortest is definitive - without the police introduction, the moralistic newsroom scene and the ending with trial and hanging - thank you for this information, Todd McCarthy, your mail 13 June 2008.
The Universal 2003 dvd release includes the police introduction and the moralistic newsroom scene but has the street shooting ending, 90 min at 25 fps plus as an extra the alternative ending (henchman instead of Scarface shot on the street, trial and execution of Scarface by hanging, 10 min)
BFINA print of the Universal 1980 reconstruction with the police introduction and the original ending (maybe not with the moralistic newsroom scene, but my mind may have wandered), duration 93 min
Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Dec 2008.
This was the best print I have ever seen of this film. The print was without splices and scratches and apparently in good condition. However, there was a slightly dark veil over the image, as if the print had been painstakingly struck from a challenging master.
THE WORLD IS YOURS - COOK'S TOURS. Revisited: the gangster classic clearly inspired by Sternberg, as can be seen from the Lee Garmes footage in the beginning.

The Front Page (1931)

Lewis Milestone: The Front Page (US 1931). Pat O'Brien as Hildy Johnson.

072986 / G / US / 1931 / Milestone, Lewis / drama / comedy

Etusivu uusiksi / Det stora reportaget. PC: The Caddo Company. P: Howard Hughes. D: Lewis Milestone. SC: Bartlett Cormack – based on the play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. CAST: Adolphe Menjou (Walter Burns), Pat O’Brien (Hildy Johnson), Mary Brian (Peggy Grant), Mae Clarke (Molly Malloy), Edward Everett Horton (Roy Bensinger), Slim Summerville (Irving Pincus). B&w Early Sound 1,2. 101’ /25 fps/ PAL = 105’ /24 fps/. This film was never released in Finnish cinemas nor on video. Yleisradio TV2 transmitted it in 1996 and again 11 January 1998. Transmission’s 16 mm start material had awful definition and poor sound, and the early sound aperture was uglily cropped. Viewed in Helsinki on VHS, Monday 12 January 1998. *** Because of the miserable TV print it was impossible to enjoy the film. But it is evident that this is a superbly acted version of the tough, almost horrifying, Hecht / MacArthur play. This Pre-Code version is probably the toughest of the four films based on the play, and in many ways more daring than the 1940 remake His Girl Friday. It was not such a big step for Hawks to turn Hildy into a woman. Not that Pat O’Brien is at all feminine, but in this version, too, it is obvious that the true love story is between Walter Burns and Hildy Johnson.