The original film, directed by Howard Hawks and produced by Howard Hughes, faced significant pushback from the Hays Office (the Hollywood censorship body of the time). Censors were concerned that the film’s depiction of Tony Camonte’s rise to power was too alluring.
Instead of the Italian-American Prohibition-era setting of the 1932 version, the remake focused on the Cuban Mariel boatlift and the 1980s Miami cocaine trade.
To appease these concerns, the producers added the subtitle " The Shame of a Nation " to explicitly frame the story as an indictment of the "gangster evil" in America.
A written text crawl was also added to the beginning of the film, demanding that the government take action against organized crime.
Beyond the title, the ending was also altered; rather than a defiant final stand, the original film had to include a scene where Camonte is captured and legally executed to show that "crime doesn't pay". The Transition to the 1983 Remake
While the Al Pacino-led 1983 remake is the most culturally dominant version today, it notably .
The "subtitle" most famously associated with the Scarface legacy is a title forced upon the original 1932 film by censors to ensure the movie was seen as a moral warning rather than a glorification of crime. The Origins: Scarface: The Shame of a Nation (1932)
Director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone opted for a singular, punchy title: Scarface .
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