Little Caesar (1931)

 

 LITTLE CAESAR (1931)

By Ralph Santini - ***½

“YEAH THIS IS RICO SPEAKING. R, I, C, O, RICO, LITTLE CAESAR THAT’ WHO!” yelled Rico (Edward G. Robinson) reacting to what he read in the papers as quoted by Sergeant Flaherty (Thomas Jackson) that he was “Yellow” in the 1930 produced film “Little Caesar” which according to many historians was the first of Warner Bros.-First National’s ongoing ‘social conscience’ gangster dramas of the 1930s. It also helped define the true gangster film by allegorizing the beginning of prohibition era since the film was actually produced 11 years after the still ongoing incident and during the Great Depression.

After nearly more than 75 years after production I side with those who praised this film as still being a monumental masterpiece. Because I think the film contains brilliant exercise in extensive paranoia about self-ambition during America’s fragile economy. During production of this film however, based on a novel by W.R. Burnett, financial consciences forced WB-FN to shoot it on a shoestring budget; nevertheless it succeeded in making valuable dignity that led studio boss Jack Warner realize that quantity and quality are not the same. Therefore I agree with many others that the Mervyn LeRoy directed gem is a lot more than what it seems to be.

This film, inspired not only by Burnett’s novel but also by real-life gangster Al Capone’s chronicles, invented the ‘Italian Mobster’ stereotype where the character has his own rise and fall and although Edward G. Robinson was not potentially typecast in the role, it’s somewhat still what people might prefer identifying Mr. Robinson with. Anyway, Robinson who was already 37 at the time and not carrying matinee-idol looks, became a full-fledged movie star nonetheless.

Caesar Enrico Bandello is small time crook that goes on sticking up gas stations in the company of a reluctant partner Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. only 20 years old at the time). Joe eventually goes to Chicago to go back to his dancing career where he meets Olga (Glenda Farrell) while Rico goes on in the organized crime business and loving it. The truth is that Rico is really more psychotic than any other mob boss and that leads him to many successful criminal incidents that however eventually leads to his decline by the syndicate-raiding police. During the cops’ last crusade with Rico he hides behind an advertisement that features Joe and Olga for a dinner event where the falling gangster is shot and later mutters whiningly “Mother of mercy! Is this the end of Rico?” not wanting to end his crime career that way after enjoying it.

Audiences reacted to Rico being executed by the force as a closing towards the tensions of the great depression. And because of the limitations with the film’s struggling development which was not dumbed down, however, by the Hays Code before being enforced, “Little Caesar” had a derogatory portrayal of crime syndicates to the extreme. With all of its allegorical nature, it’s considered by many as a conclusion for Wall Street’s collapse caused by everything that happens in this movie, and rightfully so. That’s what makes this film one of the finest films of the early sound era because unlike most inferior talking preceding films this one is more pessimistically realistic with everything Rico does in the film from slaughtering innocent people to crushing the society that he wants to take over ruthlessly until his deserving fall in the end of the movie.