After battling with censorship offices, the film was released around a year later than The Public Enemy and Little Caesar. Scarface was released in theaters on April 9, 1932.[54] Hughes planned a grand premiere in New York, but New York censor boards rejected the showing of the film. State censorship boards in Ohio, Virginia, Maryland, and Kansas and citywide censorship boards in Detroit, Seattle, Portland, and Chicago banned the film as well.[79] Hughes threatened to sue censorship boards for preventing the release of his film much to the approval of the New York Herald Tribune.[80] Each state had a different board of censors which allowed Hughes to release the film in areas without strict censorship.[81] At the request of Will Hays, Jason Joy convinced the strict censor boards to allow the release of Scarface, because the Hays Office acknowledged and appreciated the changes Hughes made to the film. Joy visited state censor boards individually, stating that while the Hays Office was against the positive portrayal of crime, gang films were actually documents against gangster life. Joy was successful and eventually all state and municipal censorship boards allowed Scarface to be released, accepting only the cut and censored version of Scarface.[82]
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