Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis in Public Enemies (2009)
Vitals
Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, ambitious FBI agent
Columbiana County, Ohio, October 1934
Film: Public Enemies
Release Date: July 1, 2009
Director: Michael Mann
Costume Designer: Colleen Atwood
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
Ninety years ago today, a law enforcement team combined of local police and federal agents led by Melvin Purvis cornered and killed the Depression-era desperado Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd on a farm outside of Clarkson in western Ohio. Purvis had risen to national prominence for his role in the death of bank robber John Dillinger three months earlier in Chicago, an incident that propelled the Oklahoma-born outlaw Floyd to the top of J. Edgar Hoover’s list of “Public Enemies”.
Based on Bryan Burrough’s nonfiction volume of the same name, Michael Mann’s 2009 film Public Enemies centered primarily around Purvis’ hunt for Dillinger, following Mann’s formula from films like Manhunter, Heat, and Collateral that reflects the unique mirror between two professionals on opposing sides of the law—in this case represented by the charismatic criminal Dillinger (Johnny Depp) and more laconic lawman Purvis (Christian Bale).
As a result, lip service is paid to Floyd’s notoriety but the circumstances of his October 1934 death are actually positioned a year earlier so that Bale’s Purvis leads the hunt and fires the fatal shot into “Pretty Boy” Floyd (Channing Tatum) before he’s even recruited into the Dillinger manhunt. However, Floyd had been on the national radar for considerably longer than Dillinger, dating back to his first bank robberies in 1930 while Dillinger was still in the midst of a decade-long sentence in the Indiana state prison.
Floyd’s four-year crime spree resulted in the deaths of at least a half-dozen men—including at least five more if he was indeed involved in the infamous Kansas City Massacre in June 1933—though he maintained a folk hero’s reputation through his many escapes and relentless bank robberies, often sharing the profits of his heists with his family’s impoverished neighbors and kin in the Cookson Hills. Contemporary myths that Floyd would burn mortgage records of repossessed homes during these holdups, though this may be apocrpyhal. Regardless, the dozens of robberies committed by Floyd and his cronies hit Oklahoma so hard that bank insurance reportedly doubled between 1931 and 1932.
The FBI publicly accused Floyd of involvement in the Kansas City Massacre, which resulted in the deaths of four lawmen—including FBI agent Raymond Caffrey—and the collateral death of the prisoner they were transporting, bank robber Frank Nash. In the wake of this increased federal pressure, Floyd and his partner-in-crime Adam Richetti absconded with their girlfriends to hole up in Buffalo, New York. Dillinger’s death in July 1934 ultimately resulted in Hoover bestowing Floyd with the title of Public Enemy #1, with the heat intensifying despite having laid low for more then a year.
The group left Buffalo late on the night of Friday, October 19, 1934, but their short-lived trip ended hours later just beyond the Ohio state line where Floyd crashed their secondhand Ford into a phone pole while navigating the fog. After the Baird sisters were sent into East Liverpool to get the car fixed, the armed men in their flashy suits attract enough attention that local lawmen investigate, with Richetti arrested after a brief gunfight while Floyd goes on the run into the western Ohio woods.
Ten years ago, chance found me near East Liverpool for work on October 22, 2014—the 80th anniversary of “Pretty Boy” Floyd’s death. After the work event ended, I drove to the spot where Floyd’s death is marked with a sign by the road—evidently used for considerable target practice. I also dressed accordingly in a navy business suit, white open-neck shirt, and black oxfords, just as Floyd was recorded to be wearing when he was killed at the spot. (Though I did have a Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless handy, I did not contribute any of my own rounds to the sign’s heritage.)
That Sunday, October 21, Hoover sent his star agent Purvis to charter an airplane to Wellsville to lead the manhunt for Public Enemy #1. The following afternoon, Monday, October 22, two cars carrying four federal agents (including Purvis) and four local policemen arrived at the farmhouse of Ellen Conkle on Sprucevale Road outside of Clarkson, just as Floyd attempted to get a ride with Mrs. Conkle’s brother in his Ford Model A. Upon spotting the arriving police, Floyd jumped from the car with a .45-caliber 1911 pistol in each hand and heads across an open field toward the woods, 200 yards away. Unfortunately for him, the eight armed lawmen were already out of their cars with their guns up.
“That’s him, let him have it!” Purvis supposedly shouted, as the officers and agents let loose with their handguns, rifles, shotguns, and Thompson submachine guns. The mortally wounded Floyd admitted his identity but continues denying involvement in the Kansas City Massacre until he died at 4:25 p.m. Both Floyd and Purvis were 30 years old at the time, with Purvis two days shy of his 31st birthday while Floyd would have turned 31 four months later.
What’d He Wear?
Though it is well-documented that “Pretty Boy” Floyd was wearing a navy suit, white shirt, and black oxfords at the time of his death on October 22, 1934, I haven’t seen any historical documentation of what Melvin Purvis wore during the manhunt. The real Purvis was fastidious about his appearance, reportedly changing shirts up to three times over the course of a single day to maintain his professional appearance. While this aligns with how costume designer Colleen Atwood dressed Christian Bale’s Purvis in a parade of era-informed suits and ties through the rest of Public Enemies, the character is introduced wearing more rugged outdoors apparel when stalking Floyd “through an apple orchard,” as he later reports.
Purvis’ black napped cotton shirt takes styling queues from military and police uniforms with its structured point collar, shoulder epaulets, and twin chest pockets that suggest an authoritative symmetry. The cloth appears to be moleskin, a woven heavy cotton shorn to present a soft yet durable suede-like texture, making it a favored fabric for outdoor pursuits. Purvis’ shirt is reinforced with low-contrast edge-stitching around the collar, epaulets, front placket, cuffs, and the horizontal yoke extending across the upper back. The barrel cuffs are closed with two black buttons, matching the single button closing over each gauntlet. The two chest pockets are covered with rectangular flaps which also close with a single button. Across the placket, pockets, cuffs, and epaulets, all of the buttons are black plastic.
Purvis’ brown wool flat-front breeches were a popular type of hunting trousers through the 1930s, designed to be comfortably roomy through the thighs and then tapered below the knee to be tucked into calf-high boots. The trousers have straight, on-seam side pockets and set-in back pockets covered with narrow scalloped single-button flaps.
Though Purvis could be criticized for the redundency of his belt and braces, each piece serves a different purpose here. The narrow russet-brown leather suspenders serve the function of keeping his trousers up, with long, string-like ties in the back connecting to buttons along the inside of his waistband. Pulled through the loops around his trouser waistband, the russet-brown leather belt with its center-laced design and large squared single-prong buckle is more intended to support his weaponry. Twelve loops for his 8mm rifle cartridges are positioned at the belt’s front-right, just ahead of the matching open-top holster for his Colt Detective Special revolver.
Purvis’ brown leather calf-high hunting boot have black laces that pull through several sets of eyelets before they loop through gunmetal-finished speed hooks up the shafts. He wears taupe-brown ribbed wool knee-high socks that he folds down over the tops of his boots.
Whether inspired by an affectation worn by the real Melvin Purvis or conceptualized by costume designer Colleen Atwood, Bale wears a large gold signet ring on his left ring finger.
The Gun
In keeping with his outdoorsy attire, Bale’s Purvis is appropriately armed for the hunt with “an 8mm Mauser sports rifle with a slim fore-stock and wrist and a turned-down bolt handle,” as described in the screenplay, which editorializes that “it’s the best rifle made in 1933.”
Though it shares its 7.92x57mm cartridge and nomenclature with German military rifles, the Mauser 98 Sporter was built intentionally for hunting purposes with their open sights and ribbed barrels. Purvis appears to wield the standard “German-style” Model B as suggested by its ribbed 23.5-inch barrel, flat “butter knife” bolt handle, and the double set trigger—a complex mechanism that recalls the hammer on a traditional double-action handgun.
“Pulling the rear trigger sets the front one for a very light pull to avoid disturbing the shooter’s aim,” writes Ludwig Olson for American Rifleman. “The rifle can also be fired by pulling the front trigger without setting it, but the pull is much heavier.”
Though Purvis’ fellow posse members like special agent Herman Roth and East Liverpool policeman Chester Smith carried Winchester rifles, Purvis reportedly only carried his standard-issue Colt Detective Special on this day, firing all six rounds of .38 Special at Floyd during these final moments. Public Enemies indeed includes the weapon holstered on the right side of Bale’s belt, though he only uses the rifle during this scene.
How to Get the Look
Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis in Public Enemies (2009)
Though the suspenders and bloused trouser bottoms may look dated, the rest of Melvin Purvis’ hunting attire in Public Enemies could translate well to a rugged fall outfit today—a heavy black two-pocket shirt tucked into brown flannel trousers with a sturdy leather belt coordinated to trusty boots.
- Black moleskin cotton shirt with point collar, front placket, two chest pockets (with rectangular single-button flaps), and two-button cuffs
- Brown wool flat-front hunting breeches with belt loops, on-seam side pockets, set-in back pockets (with scalloped single-button flaps), and bloused bottoms
- Russet-brown leather center-laced belt with squared single-prong buckle
- Russet-brown leather belt holster for snub-nosed/2″-barreled revolver
- 12 rifle cartridge loops
- Russet-brown leather narrow suspenders (braces)
- Brown leather calf-high lace-up hunting boots
- Gold signet ring
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie as well as Otis Taylor’s recording “Ten Million Slaves” that scored the scene and was also used in Public Enemies‘ promotional trailers:
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