Public Enemy's Wife (1936)

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The pretty Margaret Lindsay is the estranged wife of convicted killer Cesar Romero who is bent on keeping an eye on his spouse by making sure that she goes to prison along with him. But thanks to federal agent Pat O'Brien, she avoids a prison sentence and when Romero escapes from prison, O'Brien sets up a phony wedding between himself and Lindsay to entrap Romero. Lindsay ends up being kidnapped by the nasty Romero and hides out in a country dive bar where Romero's gang holds up, leading to a shoot-out when O'Brien locates her. There are some great lines and a few decent character performances, but this seems rushed together too quickly to be fully believable. Lindsay is far too much of a lady to be truly believable as a gangster's moll, although Romero sneers nicely and makes quite a few determined threats to steal the film as the main villain. With that Warner Brothers directness that made them the main studio in the creation of the gangster film, there are many elements that will keep you interested, but when you compare it to "Little Caesar", the original "Public Enemy" and "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang" (and more recently "G-Men"), it seems too implausible in its story telling. Robert Armstrong and Dick Foran add some macho support to the film which, under the direction of Nick Grinde, ends up being only somewhat satisfactory as a bottom of the bill feature that wastes its talented female lead in a role that is truly beneath her.

Cesar Romero, (Gene Moroc) is a con serving time in prison and also has a wife named Margaret Lindsay, (Judith Maroc), who served time for her husband by not revealing any information to the police. Judith was released from prison after serving her time. However, her husband told her when he gets out he is going to kill her and does not want her to marry anyone. Pat O'Brien, (Lee Laird) and Robert Armstrong,(Gene Ferguson) are FBI Agents who are interested in getting information from Judith. However, Judith changes her name and appearance and she becomes a Public Enemy's Wife, she has met another man and plans to marry him. Great story with some laughs and truly a great 1936 Film Classic with all great actors.

Released the same year as MGM's LIBELED LADY, this light Warner's crime drama shares a lot of plot points, tries for a comic take on the subject, but fails, in no small part because Pat O'Brien does not display the diffident feyness that William Powell brought to his role, in part because Margaret Lindsay lacks a light touch but mostly, I fear, because the screenwriters and director Nick Grinde can't quite bring off the material -- certainly Pat O'Brien was capable of handling comedy material and there is a lot of strong comic supporting actors. It's odd to see Cesar Romero, who could have played his role as a gangster with great comic timing, play it straight. The two best comedians are Al Bridge and Harry Hayden, in two almost invisible roles -- both later members of Preston Sturges' stock company.But screwball was still finding its way at this point, and Nick Grinde was not the director to help it along. Too bad.

Here are the basics: Judith Maroc is being released from prison after serving a short term for having been her husband Gene's apprentice in a heist. She tells him she wants to divorce him and remarry; he vows to kill anyone who steps into his marital shoes.Maroc makes good on his promise, escaping from a train while being transported to testify at another mobster's trial. The G-men realize that Maroc will now be after his wife, so they use her as bait to capture the escaped felon.Now the film turns into a bedroom comedy for a reel or two. When Judith's rich fiancé finds out about her sordid past, he fakes an accident to avoid the wedding. Lee Laird, the head G-man, steps in to take his place at the ceremony and...nudge, nudge, the honeymoon, too. There are several "raised eyebrow" jokes about this situation until Maroc arrives on the scene, abducts his ex, and plans to escape to Cuba. Then we're back in gangster flick mode until the big shoot-'em-up ending at a seedy Florida seaside bar.It's pretty lightweight fare with lots of laughable spots. For instance, can we believe that a local paper would make a socialite's wedding and honeymoon the headline story? Or that the wedding takes place seemingly without anyone from either family in attendance? Or that a minister, finding out about the ruse, would insist that the phony couple was really married? Pat O'Brien plays the cop (what else?) and Cesar Romero, in a very early performance, is the greasy villain. He's worth watching here, still in his 20s, wiry, and angry, looking nothing like the suave leading man he would eventually become. I watched this a day after seeing LITTLE CAESAR for the first time and laughed at the idea of comparing these two films in the same category as "gangster pictures." This picture is OK viewing if you want some lightweight fare in between your Cagney and Robinson REAL gangster films.