Little Caesar (film)
| Little Caesar | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Produced by | Uncredited: Hal B. Wallis Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by | Francis Edward Faragoh Robert N. Lee (continuity) Uncredited: Robert Lord Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Based on | Little Caesar by W.R. Burnett |
| Starring | Edward G. Robinson Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. |
| Music by | Erno Rapee |
| Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
| Editing by | Ray Curtiss |
| Studio | First National |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | January 9, 1931 |
| Running time | 79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Little Caesar is a 1931 Warner Bros. Pre-Code crime film. It tells the story of a hoodlum who ascends the ranks of organized crime until he reaches its upper echelons. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, the film stars Edward G. Robinson and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.. The story was adapted by Francis Edward Faragoh, Robert N. Lee, Robert Lord and Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited) from the novel by William R. Burnett. Little Caesar was Robinson's breakout movie; it catapulted him to stardom.
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[edit] Plot
Small-time criminals Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello (Edward G. Robinson) and his friend Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) move to Chicago to seek their fortunes. Rico joins the gang of Sam Vettori (Stanley Fields), while Joe wants to be a dancer. Olga (Glenda Farrell) becomes his dance partner and girlfriend.
Joe tries to drift away from the gang and its activities, but Rico makes him participate in the robbery of the nightclub where he works. Despite orders from underworld overlord "Big Boy" (Sidney Blackmer) to all his men to avoid bloodshed, Rico guns down crusading crime commissioner Alvin McClure during the robbery, with Joe as an aghast witness.
Rico accuses Sam of becoming soft and seizes control of his organization. Rival boss "Little Arnie" Storch (Maurice Black) tries to have Rico killed, but Rico is only grazed. He and his gunmen pay Little Arnie a visit, after which Arnie hastily departs for Detroit. The Big Boy eventually gives Rico control of all of Chicago's Northside.
Rico becomes concerned that Joe knows too much about him. He warns Joe that he must forget about Olga, and join him in a life of crime. Rico threatens to kill both Joe and Olga unless he accedes, but Joe refuses to give in. Olga calls Police Sergeant Flaherty and tells him Joe is ready to talk, just before Rico and his henchman Otero (George E. Stone) come calling. Rico finds, to his surprise, that he is unable to take his friend's life. When Otero tries to do the job himself, Rico wrestles the gun away from him, though not before Joe is wounded. Hearing the shot, Flaherty and another cop give chase and kill Otero. With the information provided by Joe, Flaherty proceeds to crush Rico's organization.
Desperate and alone, Rico retreats to the gutter from which he sprang. While hiding in a flophouse, he becomes enraged when he learns that Flaherty has called him a coward in the newspaper. He foolishly telephones the cop to announce he is coming for him. The call is traced, and he is gunned down behind a billboard by Flaherty. Ironically, the billboard shows an advertisement featuring dancers Joe and Olga.
[edit] Cast
- Edward G. Robinson as Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello / "Little Caesar"
- Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Joe Massara
- Glenda Farrell as Olga Stassoff
- William Collier Jr. as Tony Passa
- Sidney Blackmer as "Big Boy"
- Ralph Ince as Pete Montana
- Thomas E. Jackson as Sergeant Flaherty
- Stanley Fields as Sam Vettori
- Maurice Black as "Little Arnie" Lorch
- George E. Stone as Otero
- Armand Kaliz as De Voss
- Nicholas Bela as Ritz Colonna
[edit] Award and honors
- 4th Academy Awards: Adapted Screenplay ‒ Nominated
- National Film Registry: Selected by the Library of Congress in 2000
- American Film Institute:
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: Nominated in both 1998 and 2007
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills: Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: Rico listed as the #38 best villain
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: Rico's final words, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?", listed as the #73 best quote
- AFI's 10 Top 10: Listed #9 in the gangster film genre[1]
[edit] Homosexual subtext
A common interpretation of the film's title character is that he is a repressed or closeted homosexual,[2][3][4] with the evidence thereof cited as including Otero's fawning admiration of Rico, Rico's great affinity for Joe, and Rico's complete lack of interest in romantic relationships with women, as well as his utter contempt for Joe's interest in women.[3] When the film was released, Burnett apparently drew this same conclusion about the screen version of the character. Having written Rico as explicitly heterosexual in his novel, Burnett wrote a letter of complaint to the film's producers about the conversion of the character to homosexual in the movie adaptation.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10". American Film Institute. 2008-06-17. http://www.afi.com/10top10/gangster.html. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
- ^ Doherty, Thomas Patrick. Pre-code Hollywood: Sex, Immorality, and Insurrection in American Cinema 1930-1934. New York, New York: Columbia University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-231-11094-4
- ^ a b c LaSalle, Mick. Dangerous Men: Pre-code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002. ISBN 0-312-28311-3
- ^ Peary, Gerald. "Little Caesar Takes over the Screen" (introduction to Little Caesar of the Wisconsin/Warner Brothers Screenplays series). Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981. ISBN 0-299-08450-7
[edit] External links
- Little Caesar at the Internet Movie Database
- Little Caesar at the TCM Movie Database
- Little Caesar at AllRovi
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- 1931 films
- American films
- English-language films
- 1930s crime films
- Black-and-white films
- Crime drama films
- Films based on mystery novels
- Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy
- Films made before the MPAA Production Code
- Films set in Chicago, Illinois
- Mafia films
- United States National Film Registry films
- First National Pictures films
- Gangster films
