{"id":66497,"date":"2026-05-26T15:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=66497"},"modified":"2026-05-26T15:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:16:15","slug":"polostan-scareface","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wlbott.com\/?p=66497","title":{"rendered":"Polostan \/ Scareface"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The WLBOTT Literary Society<\/strong> is currently reading Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light<\/strong>, by one of our favorite authors, Neal Stephenson. We are currently at 39%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A wild ride, most of the action so far has taken place in the early 1930s. Our main character is Dawn\/Aurora<\/strong>, a teenager who is up to a bit of mischief. She finds herself in a muddy encampment with 20,000 homeless WWI veterans, just down the road from our nation’s capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She meets a soldier (Billy Bach<\/strong>) while doing reconnaissance, and he invites her to see the movie that’s got the nation all abuzz – Scareface<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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YES TWO DOZEN read a cable in her pocket as she sat in the cinema next to Billy Bach watching Scarface. This was the most interesting film she had ever seen, for a few reasons. The North Side\/South Side division, Italians on the south, Irishmen on the north, was amusingly simplistic compared to Chicago\u2019s actual turf map. But she had to admit it worked in the movie. Scarface was in the habit of looking out his window at a big electric sign, shaped like a globe, emblazoned THE WORLD IS YOURS<\/strong>.<\/p>\nStephenson, N. (2024). Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light\u2014A Riveting Historical Epic of International Espionage, Intrigue, a [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com. Page 86.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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To her surprise\u2014and, she suspected, Billy\u2019s\u2014the movie depicted adult relationships between boys and girls in a way that she found uncomfortably direct. It was nothing she had not seen, or at least heard, in the kommunalka. But it was supposed to be different here. Bourgeois morality might be arbitrary superstition. But at least it was rules. If those were being waved off now, it raised the question of what would happen\u2014how she and Billy would look at each other\u2014when the movie ended and the lights came up. But these concerns were minor compared to the movie\u2019s central theme, which was the Thompson submachine gun<\/strong>. Not just as a piece of hardware but as the subject of some men\u2019s obsession, and a catalyst and a symbol for abrupt shifts of power. \u201cHey, lookit!\u201d Scarface exclaimed while lying on the floor of a restaurant being machine-gunned by furious Irishmen. \u201cThey got machine guns you can carry! If I had some of them I can run the whole works in a month!\u201d The film showed a decent respect for the amount of time and manual dexterity needed to load magazines, good illumination and clean, level surfaces being of the essence. Dawn had forgotten the exact sequence of steps needed to ready the weapon for firing and was glad of the cinematic tutorial […] The lights came up and Dawn forced herself to look at Billy, expecting great awkwardness around the boy\/girl material. But as they walked to the streetcar stop, it became clear that he had seen an altogether different movie. A movie about cars, and car chases, and running gun battles between cars that were chasing each other.<\/p>\nStephenson, N. (2024). Polostan: Volume One of Bomb Light\u2014A Riveting Historical Epic of International Espionage, Intrigue, a [Kindle Android version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com. Page 87.<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Tommy Gun Tutorial<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Stills from Scarface<\/strong>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Viewing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Since it was a quiet Sunday morning, with the bunnies feasting on the flowers of the Humulus lupulus vine and the gentle people of the WLBOTT<\/strong> community sleeping, I decided to watch the 1932 version of Scarface<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> How cool is the Austin Public Library?
A:<\/strong> Very cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scarface: The Nuts and Bolts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Scarface<\/strong> (also known as Scarface: The Shame of the Nation<\/strong>) is a 1932 American pre-Code<\/strong> gangster action film directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Hawks and Howard Hughes. The screenplay, by Ben Hecht, is based loosely on the novel first published in 1930 by Armitage Trail, which was inspired by Al Capone. The film stars Paul Muni as Italian immigrant gangster Antonio “Tony” Camonte who violently rises through the Chicago gangland, with a supporting cast that includes George Raft and Boris Karloff. Camonte’s rise to power dovetails with his relentless pursuit of his boss’s mistress while his sister pursues his best hitman. In an overt tie to the life of Capone, a version of the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre is depicted.
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Audience reception was positive, but censors banned the film in several cities and states, forcing Hughes to remove it from circulation and store it in his vault. The rights to the film were recovered after Hughes died in the 1970s. Alongside Little Caesar and The Public Enemy (both 1931), Scarface is regarded as one of the most significant and influential gangster films.
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Filming took 3 months, with the cast and crew working 7 days a week. For the most violent scene of the film in the restaurant, Hawks cleared the set to avoid harming extras and had the set fired on by machine guns. The actors acted out the scene in front of a screen with the shooting projected in the back, so as everyone crowded under the tables in the restaurant, the room appeared to be simultaneously under fire.
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J. E. Smyth described Scarface as “one of the most highly censored films in Hollywood history”. Howard Hawks believed the Hays Office had personal vendettas against the movie, while Hughes believed the censorship was due to “ulterior and political motives” of corrupt politicians.<\/p>\nWikipedia<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The “X” Symbol<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We noticed that the letter “X” appears in various ways throughout the movie: a hospital room number, a beam of light, architectural structures. It has a very Hitchcockian feel to it. It’s always associated with someone about to bite the bullet. But why “X”? Elder <\/strong>G has three theories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. The Literal and Fatal “X Marks the Spot”<\/strong>
    The most direct, visceral meaning of the “X” is that it acts as a harbinger of death. Howard Hawks and his team structured the film so that every single time a character is about to be murdered, an “X” appears somewhere in the frame. It is a visual cue to the audience that a life is about to be snuffed out.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. The De-Valuation of Human Life<\/strong>
    From a deeper, more philosophical standpoint, the “X” represents cancellation and commodification. In the world of Tony Camonte\u2014and the hyper-capitalist gangster underworld he inhabits\u2014human beings are not individuals; they are just variables in an equation, or items to be crossed off a ledger. When a rival gangster is eliminated, they are simply “X-ed out” to make room for more profit. It underscores the cold, unfeeling, systematic nature of the violence. A man isn’t just killed; he is erased from the territory map.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. The Irony of the Religious Cross<\/strong>
    There is also a sharp, subversive irony to the shape. An “X” is essentially a crucifix turned on its side. In a traditional immigrant community (like Tony’s Italian-American family), the cross is a symbol of protection, faith, and divine law. By tilting that cross into an “X,” Hawks skews it into a symbol of lawlessness, doom, and moral corruption. Divine judgment is replaced by the judgment of the Tommy gun.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
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    The Delicate Subject<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    We watched Scarface<\/strong>, and were a little confused by Dawn’s<\/strong> (protagonist in Polostan) reaction to the male\/female interactions: “To her surprise\u2014and, she suspected, Billy\u2019s\u2014the movie depicted adult relationships between boys and girls in a way that she found uncomfortably direct.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    According to Gemini:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Before the hammer came down (Hays Code), movies were shockingly frank about sex, infidelity, and raw violence. Dawn, having grown up partly in a Soviet kommunalka (a crowded communal apartment where privacy didn’t exist), is used to the unvarnished reality of human relationships. But she expected America to be bound by “bourgeois morality.” Her anxiety when the lights come up is about the breakdown of social structures\u2014if America isn’t actually adhering to its own puritanical rules, then the social landscape is far more unpredictable and dangerous than she thought.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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    WLBOTT Ministry of Virtue and Vice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Although the movie is currently rated PG<\/strong>, our Ministry of Virtue and Vice<\/strong> perked up its ears when we told them we were blotting about the 1932 Scarface<\/strong>. They went thru the film frame by frame, and produced lists of violations, concerns, and objections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    WLBOTT Ministry of Virtue and Vice: The B Team<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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    The M-V&V made the following mandatory modifications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    According to the Ministry of Virtue and Vice<\/strong>, Ann Dvorak<\/strong> (who played Tony’s<\/strong> sister Cesca<\/strong>) was “quite the tomato”<\/em> – lively, vivacious and beautiful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    On the other hand, Poppy<\/strong> (played by Karen Morley<\/strong>), is calculating, opportunistic, cynical, and highly expensive. In the mobster parleance of the period, she might be described as “Classy Dame” \/ “High-Hat” \/ A “Cold Fish” \/ “High Society” \/ “The Ritz” \/ A “Chiller”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    The M V&V<\/strong> also required changes to certain plot elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Beer?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    In Scarface<\/strong>, the main conflict concerns the control of the illegal beer distribution to the speakeasies. Beer? High volume, low profit, right? But we got Elder G<\/strong> to run the numbers for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    To understand how the syndicates of the Prohibition era\u2014like Al Capone\u2019s Chicago Outfit, which Scarface<\/em> was directly satirizing\u2014pulled off mass production, you have to look at it less like a traditional criminal racket and more like a triumph of rogue industrial engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    They weren’t just brewing a few batches in a basement; they were running a vertically integrated corporate enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mass-Producing the Contraband<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Producing thousands of barrels of beer a week required massive infrastructure. The syndicates handled this through two primary methods:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. The Co-Opted Industrial Brewery<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

    This was the most efficient method. When Prohibition went into effect, many legitimate, massive breweries were forced to pivot to making “near-beer” (beer with less than 0.5% alcohol) or industrial malt syrup to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Gangsters simply stepped in with cash, muscle, or political leverage to take them over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n