Gangster flicks were all the rage in the early days of Hollywood because real gangsters were doing gangster-y things at such an alarming rate that it preoccupied the entire FBI for over a decade. A lot of those guys weren't too psyched about their thinly veiled fictional portrayals; Al Capone himself called the entire genre "terrible kids' stuff," with the exception of the film that bore his famous nickname.

According to The Guardian, Howard Hawks' 1932 classic Scarface: The Shame of a Nation drew attention from Capone early in its production, for much the same reason a film called Yeezy: The Shame of Rap would draw the attention of Kanye West. Capone wanted to make sure that his fictional doppelganger wasn't some cheap thug, so he sent a couple lackeys to Hollywood to have a little conversation with screenwriter Ben Hecht, according to Hecht's autobiography. When asked why the film was called Scarface if it wasn't explicitly about Capone, Hecht pulled this out of his rear end: "Al is one of the most famous and fascinating men of our time. If we call the movie Scarface, everybody will want to see it, figuring it's about Al. That's part of the racket we call showmanship."

Since Ben Hecht could apparently sell ice to a polar bear, the project moved forward with Capone's blessing. Not only was Capone satisfied with the final product and the character of Antonio "Totally Not Al Capone" Camonte, he ended up with his own cherished print of the film.