Scarface (1932 Howard Hawks)

A terrific film, written by Ben Hecht, made in New York. Hawks: "I found Paul Muni in the Jewish Theatre.. Osgood Perkins I saw in a play.. George Raft I saw at a prizefight, Ann Dvorak was a chorus girl down at MGM, Karen Morley went around with some fellow I know, Boris Karloff said "I don't care how small it is - I'm going to have a part" '. Uh huh. That's how you cast a film, apparently. Well, it is if you're the Silver Fox. It's his favourite film, precisely because they had to do it all without help, find the cast, build a studio...

Also really liked Vince Barnett (pictured below) as the thick assistant, who eventually manages to take down the identity of a caller, before dying.

Of a key scene between incestuous Muni and sister Dvorak, Hawks was unhappy that you could see the two actors - Lee Garmes went away and returned with "a pair of curtains that had a pronounced pattern that the light barely came through. He turned out all the front light and just shot it with back light." Garmes used "half the light of an ordinary cameraman.. We had more light in the houselights than we did on set." It is beautifully shot.

It was based on the Borgias! Muni kills his best pal - Raft - not realising he's married his sister the day before. It's very zippy, and influential (there's various bits which could easily have influenced The Godfather).

The 'X' motif throughout - 'X marks the spot'.