Little Caesar (1931)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Mervyn LeRoy

Writers:

W.R. Burnett (novel)
Robert N. Lee (continuity)

Release Date:

28 August 1931 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

The ambitious criminal Rico (Edward G. Robinson) moves from the country to the big city in the east...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Robbery | Gangster | Mafia | Ruthlessness

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Edward G. Robinson	...	Little Caesar / 'Rico'
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.	...	Joe Massara
Glenda Farrell	...	Olga Stassoff
William Collier Jr.	...	Tony Passa
Sidney Blackmer	...	Big Boy
Ralph Ince	...	Pete Montana
Thomas E. Jackson	...	Sergeant Flaherty (as Thomas Jackson)
Stanley Fields	...	Sam Vettori
Maurice Black	...	Little Arnie Lorch
George E. Stone	...	Otero
Armand Kaliz	...	De Voss
Nicholas Bela	...	Ritz Colonna (as Nick Bela)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Vitaphone (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:PG (video rating) | Sweden:15 (cut) (1976) | Australia:PG | Sweden:(Banned) | Germany:12

Company:

First National Pictures

Trivia:

In a separately filmed trailer, Vitaphone production reel #4529, Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. discuss the picture.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the diner scene, Rico jumps from reading the newspaper to eating his spaghetti between shots.

Quotes:

[repeated line]
Caesar Enrico Bandello: You can dish it out, but you got so you can't take it no more.

Movie Connections:

Featured in You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story (2008) (V)

Kindergarten Cinema, A Victim of Its Times

Nobody can deny the historical importance of Little Caesar, Mervyn LeRoy's miniature bioepic shot during the Great Depression that initiated the wonderful gangster genre. Nevertheless, the story in the present day is completely unsurprising and banally familiar, the bare bones of what has been given flesh, blood and life force in many years since.

Edward G. Robinson, though not nearly at the top of his form, still knocks and kicks his way through the insecure cast, including Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., just as his character Rico steps on heads and cuts throats to reach the top of the unlawful kingdom, gritty, aggressive, enormously narcissistic, miserly and tyrannical. It may not quite be the early tour de force for Robinson that many say it is because the film on the whole is ultimately forgettable, but he paints a clear-cut picture of his quotable and much imitated character. Little Caesar's construction is insubstantial and Rico has no depth coming from the writing or LeRoy, just what Robinson accentuates.

Little Caesar is unfortunately really a victim of its time. What satisfied audiences in 1931 changed so rapidly that even in the 1940s, this film would have been just as dull.