The Brothers Rico (1957)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Phil Karlson

Writers:

Georges Simenon (story)
Lewis Meltzer (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

September 1957 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Plot:

Eddie Rico has been the book-keeper of an important Mafia boss but now he is an honest merchant and lives with his family in Florida...

Plot Keywords:

Double Cross | Accountant | Syndicate | 1940s | Gunman

Cast

Richard Conte	...	Eddie Rico
Dianne Foster	...	Alice Rico
Kathryn Grant	...	Norah Malaks Rico
Larry Gates	...	Sid Kubik
James Darren	...	Johnny Rico
Argentina Brunetti	...	Mrs. Rico
Lamont Johnson	...	Peter Malaks
Harry Bellaver	...	Mike Lamotta
Paul Picerni	...	Gino Rico
Paul Dubov	...	Phil
Rudy Bond	...	Charlie Gonzales
Richard Bakalyan	...	Vic Tucci
William Phipps	...	Joe Wesson

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16 | Sweden:15

Company:

William Goetz Productions

Trivia:

In Sept. 1957, Columbia Pictures distributed this film on a double bill with Interpol (1957) starring Victor Mature. (Interpol (1957) was distributed under the title "Pickup Alley".)

Movie Connections:

Remade as The Family Rico (1972) (TV)

Mob going corporate is subject of crime flick from Karlson, Conte

It's a long way from the Little Caesars, Public Enemies and Scarfaces of the earliest sound movies to the Godfathers, Goodfellas and Scarfaces Miami-style of more recent decades. Along the way, there were intermediate stages, and director Phil Karlson (99 River Street, Kansas City Confidential) tries his hand at one -- oddly enough, working from material by venerable French pulp-writer Georges Simenon. Richard Conte runs a commercial laundry and, with his new wife, is trying to adopt a child; after a tarnished youth, he's gone straight. The younger males in his family, it so happens, have not, and a syndicate kingpin sends Conte off to smoke out his youngest brother, in hiding, supposedly to save his life; the young squirt is played by 50s recording heart-throb Bobby Darrin. But Conte is just being used as bait.... The Brothers Rico introduces us to an all-American, corporate, impersonal view of organized crime, ranging from New York's Mulberry Street to palm-fanned Florida to the mobbed-up sunbelt of Phoenix -- and to a world where the terms "family" has lost all of its many meanings. Only the bottom line now counts.