The Gangster film: Final Game

Gangster film, called also Mob Film, is a subgenre of American crime films dealing with organized crime, often with the Mafia. Especially in early gangster films, there is a considerable overlap with film noir.
An example is the "The Petrified forest" directed by Archie Mayo.
Although the origins of this genre, date back to 1906 with The Black Hand and then grow in the years of silent cinema with Underworld (1927), the official date that marks the beginning of the success of Gangster films is the 1931 with Little Caesar by Mervyn Le Roy, with an amazing Edward G.Robinson. Another masterpiece is Scarface by Howard Hawks, considered the most violent of gangster films of the decade. The years 1931 and 1932, saw the production over "Little Caesar" and "Scarface", also another masterpiece directed by William Wellman, "The Public Enemy".
Edward G. Robinson with Little Caesar, James Cagney with The Public enemy and Paul Muni with Scarface, became the icons of the gangster genre, able to charm the audience eager to escape the economic problems he was experiencing at that time and that saw in these characters in a sense a hero able to rebel against society's rules. The gangster genre coincides precisely with the severe economic crisis that struck the U.S. during "The Great Depression".
We must point out, that films such as "The Roaring Twenties", are based on themes that refer to another period in history of the United States: " The Prohibition", where the manufacture, sale and trasportation of alcohol was prohibited.
In addition to Robinson, Cagney and Muni, also George Raft is became a symbol of this genre, thanks to the role of Guido Rinaldo in Scarface.
Some years later, overlooking the limelight, Humphrey Bogart, who became the co-star of Robinson and Cagney, in films such as "Bullets or Ballots" "Angels with Dirty Faces" and the same "The Roaring Twenties". But the most important role is Dukee Mantee in "The Petrified Forest" with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. In this film, for the first time, Bogart plays a leading role.
A resumption of the gangster genre, only in 1960s and 1970s with "Bonny and Clyde" with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and especially with the saga of the Corleone's family in The Godfather and The Godfather II, directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro are the protagonists of these masterpieces.
We get to the 1980s, Al Pacino is Tony Montana in Scarface remake, directed by Brian De Palma.
De Niro, is directed in 1984 by Sergio Leone in masterpiece "Once Upon a Time in America" and by Brian De Palma in "The Untouchables, in which he plays the role of Al Capone. Another director able to transmit effectively the gangster genre is Martin Scorsese with Goodfellas.

The hallmark of gangsters, was the absolute determination to impose on society, regardless of the consequences. But after the rise, the inevitable fall.

Films for this tribute:
Little Caesar
The Public Enemy
Scarface (1932)
Scarface (1983)
The Petrified Forest
Angels With Dirty Faces
The Roaring Twenties
White Heat
Bonnie and Clyde
The Godfather Part I
The Godfather Part II
Once Upon a Time in America
The Untouchables
Goodfellas

Music by Jerry Goldsmith from movie Rudy.