"There's only one rule: 'Do it first, do it yourself, and keep doing it!'" Such is the advice from Paul Muni's Tony Camonte, aka Scarface, in Howard Hawkes's classic gangster film, Scarface. Camonte is talking about rubbing our your enemies, but I suppose it's not bad advice for most things (this is probably how I built my Global Modules network). Muni is such an interesting character, and an underrated actor. I think he only made twenty-two films, but was nominated for an Academy Award five times (winning for The Story of Louis Pasteur). When I think of greatest American directors I tend to forget Howard Hawkes, but if you line up his films over the decades you could make a very compelling argument for him. I loved the note at the beginning which makes it clear that organized crime is a great threat, and asking the audience what they were going to do about it (we should start every story about Donald Trump with the same message). The message is re-enforced by the travel sign reading The World Is Yours, which Camonte always reads as a message for him in his rise to power, but the it's the last image in the film, reminding the audience the world is theirs and they shouldn't accept the criminals. It was also great to see Boris Karloff not playing a monster. Highly recommended - one of the great crime films.
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