Little Caesar

Little Caesar (1931)


Runtime: 79 minutes


Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy


Starring: Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Glenda Farrell, Sidney Blackmer


From: Warner Brothers


This is officially the oldest film I've ever reviewed for this site, although not the oldest one I've seen (I've seen some silent movies in the past). I had seen this before via a TCM airing but that was before I started this site and I don't remember too much about it. So why not watch it tonight and add more variety to this blog and my Letterboxd page?


The plot of this movie that really started the gangster genre of the 1930's in Hollywood (and not only started Robinson's career but his role became the stereotypical gangster motif) and it's an edited version of what's on IMDb: “The ambitious criminal Caesar Enrico “Rico” Bandello moves from the country to the big city in the east and joins Sam Vettori's gang with his friend Joe Massara. Sooner he becomes the leader of the gangsters and known as Little Caesar.”


While it is cliché by now, Robinson as the title character is still quite entertaining and good. While I haven't seen enough of this specific genre, I enjoy watching those old gangster movies from the '30's where you have tough guys that can be sassy pretty often, clubs that are front for illegal activities (especially alcohol, if it's a movie made when the all-time terrible idea known as Prohibition was still a thing), the cars of the era, and people being mowed down (especially from a Tommy Gun)... I dig it.


The story here wasn't too different from Scarface, the original or the remake. There's a tough guy who moves to the big city to join a gang. Like the remake he has a pal who has a love interest and he doesn't seem as ambitious as his pal. He has to deal with a boss who he argues with and he ends up throwing out the boss and he runs the whole thing. He has conflict with the pal. He enjoys the big time but his brashness and boldness that made him rise to the top was also his downfall.


Interestingly, some people say that Rico is a closeted homosexual; even the guy who wrote the book on which the movie was based on thought the same. You could look at it that way and it makes you look at the movie differently, but it doesn't really affect things and you can view it without that idea and it's still a quality movie. It's just one of those theories for if you want to view the movie on multiple occasions, you know.



Overall, it's simply a good time and a look at how movies were different back then; while you don't have such blatant stereotypes and accents anymore, it is nice to see a bunch of tough guys utter clean dialogue with a lot of sass and you still get the intent of how they're feeling without any cursing or being too over the top; you also have women that look "healthier" than all those emaciated ladies that dominate the entertainment scene today due to lame and awful social pressures. I won't be back until Sunday night.