Public Enemies, starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, isn’t the first gangster flick Hollywood has made and it certainly won’t be the last. Detailing the 1933-34 efforts of the FBI to thwart Depression-era criminals John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd, the movie will take viewers into the massive manhunt and the rampant crime that marked this period of American history. Stories of these legendary criminal figures and others (Bonnie and Clyde is one good example) have long lit up the silver screen.

The very first Public Enemy list was created in 1930, the term coined by Frank J. Loesch. At the top of the list was notorious gangster Al Capone. This became the start of the Public Enemy Era, but it also became the start for a much more benign era in Hollywood: gangster movies.

Though gangster activity had been used in film before the 1931 release of The Public Enemy, no actor did it as convincingly as the somewhat short, fast-talking kid from New York’s lower east side: James Cagney. The film was his seventh and became one of his most successful, propelling Cagney to stardom that would last for decades in Hollywood’s golden age. Playing Tom Powers, Cagney personified the charismatic villain audiences wanted to love and hate at the same time. At five feet, five inches tall, he was by no means the talk, dark and handsome leading man who Hollywood normally cast…but after playing Tom Powers, he solidified himself as the reigning king of all gangster movies forevermore.

The success of the film, and the public reaction to Cagney, led to a new era in Hollywood. Suddenly, it was cool to be on the wrong side of the law. Films like Scarface, G Men, Little Caesar and Angels with Dirty Faces marked the movies of the 30s, which saw a huge rise in crime-related drama films. Hollywood and audiences would carry on this obsession in subsequent decades, the list of gangster movies growing in each successive ten year period.

The Public Enemy era that made criminals like Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger famous has long since passed, but still remains fascinating for moviegoers and movie-makers. Perhaps the Hollywood gangster revolution would have happened even without the powerful acting force known as Jimmy Cagney…but perhaps, it wouldn’t.