CATCH A CLASSIC

The Public Enemy TCM, 10:45 p.m.

This 1931 classic, along with Little Caesar from the same year, helped set the template for what audiences going forward would expect from a gangster film and etched various gangster-movie archetypes into the public’s imagination. And, just as Little Caesar established Edward G. Robinson as a star and forever linked him with his title character, The Public Enemy did the same for James Cagney thanks to his explosive breakthrough performance here. Film lovers can credit director William A. Wellman for that. Cagney originally had a secondary role as shooting began, but Wellman noticed the actor’s charisma and domination of the scenes he was in and instead gave him the starring role of streetwise tough guy Tom Powers, who tries to rise in the ranks of organized crime. Set near the beginning of Prohibition — and produced while it was still in effect — the film is a virtual time capsule of that era, bristling with 1920s style, dialogue and desperation thanks to the Oscar-nominated screenplay by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon as well as Wellman’s masterful direction. Jean Harlow, Edward Woods and Joan Blondell costar in a film that is always taut, gritty and hard-hitting — even at breakfast, when grapefruit is infamously served. —