There’s a few points of note but, on the whole, Matty ain’t too keen on Mark L. Lester’s true crime biopic.

Based on the exploits of ‘30s bank robbers Ma Barker and the Barker-Kapis gang, that Theresa Russell plays Ma should be enough of a clue for armchair historians and those concerned with accuracy:

PUBLIC ENEMIES is Loose with a capital L.

Ruled a hot commodity by exec producers Trimark thanks to her ballsy turn in their video hit Whore (1991), the gorgeous Russell is visually the polar opposite of the frumpy, real-life crime matriarch. Her performance — all scheming, ferocious and Jocastal — is similarly fanciful. The extent of Barker’s actual involvement in her kin’s headline-grabbing escapades has been disputed for years. Public Enemies, though, is more focused on myth than facts, and the film feels like a sanitised version of Roger Corman’s Bloody Mama (1970) more than anything. 

Public Enemies’ Bloody Mama allusions are almost certainly a conscious choice on the part of scripter C. Courtney Joyner and helmer Mark L. Lester. They’re both movie literate, but Joyner is a living breathing encyclopaedia when it comes to B-pictures. Alas, where the pair’s quirks, signatures and cinephilia harmonised in their previous union, the marvellous Class of 1999 (1990), they fail to gel here.

There’s good on show, at least conceptually. Given he’d penned the mighty Puppet Master III: Toulon’s Revenge (1991) for Charles Band’s Full Moon Entertainment, Joyner knows how to write period for a budget, and his and Lester’s well-chosen, Depression-era props and costumes are augmented by stock footage cribbed from the Paramount library (The Untouchables (1987) and Harlem Nights (1989)). Meanwhile, Lester actively choosing to make such an epically scaled road movie/gangster flick as his second American World Pictures joint nicely emphasises the aspirations the producer/director harboured for his fledgling company.

The film falters because it doesn’t hang. 

The docu-drama posturing sits awkwardly with the straighter action set pieces (which, admittedly, are brilliantly gratuitous in their squib use), and the episodic structure leaves the narrative feeling detached and uninvolving. And despite Russell and Frank Stallone — as Alvin Karpis — going above the call of duty, Public Enemies is dealt a near-fatal blow in the rest of its casting. Dan Cortese — as G-Man Melvin Purvis — is beige paint with Brylcreemed hair, and the dishy himbos hired to essay Ma’s rough n’ ready boys — a young James Marsden among them — would look effete in a David DeCoteau twink-a-thon. A grown-up Alyssa Milano — who, as a child, worked with Lester on Commando (1986) — crops up, and Eric Roberts — who’d go on to topline Lester’s Hitman’s Run (1999) and Groupie (2010) — appears. Neither add much beyond inducing a “heh, it’s so-and-so” type comment. Vile Hollywood paedophile Brian Peck also features (as J. Edgar Hoover, no less).   

As with Lester’s Trimark-backed predecessors Extreme Justice (1993) and Night of the Running Man (1995) (the latter being the first American World epic), Public Enemies premiered on HBO. It screened on 19th April 1996 as ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ and hit cassette, pluralised and sans number, via Trimark’s home video wing, Vidmark, the following November. 

The film retained its ‘Public Enemy No. 1’ tag for its British VHS release, landing on U.K. shelves via BMG in June ‘97.

USA ● 1996 ● Biopic, Drama ● 90mins

Theresa Russell, Eric Roberts, Frank Stallone, Dan Cortese ● Dir. Mark L. Lester ● Wri. C. Courtney Joyner