| Little Caesar | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Written by | Francis Edward Faragoh Robert N. Lee Robert Lord (uncredited) Darryl F. Zanuck (uncredited) |
| Based on | Little Caesar 1929 novel byW. R. Burnett |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Starring | Edward G. Robinson Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Glenda Farrell |
| Cinematography | Tony Gaudio |
| Edited by | Ray Curtiss |
| Music by | Ernö Rapée |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $281,000[1] |
| Box office | $752,000[1] |
Little Caesar is a 1931 Americanpre-Code crime film distributed byWarner Brothers, directed byMervyn LeRoy, and starringEdward G. Robinson,Douglas Fairbanks Jr. andGlenda Farrell. The film tells the story of a hoodlum who ascends the ranks oforganized crime until he reaches its upper echelons.[2]
The storyline was adapted from the novel of the same name byWilliam R. Burnett. Little Caesar was Robinson's breakthrough role and immediately made him a major film star. The film is often listed as one of the first fully-fledged gangster films and continues to be well received by critics. TheLibrary of Congress maintains a print.[3]
Small-time criminals Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello and his friend Joe Massara move toChicago to seek their fortunes. Rico joins the gang of Sam Vettori, while Joe wants to be a dancer. Olga 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" to all his men to avoid bloodshed, Rico guns down crusading crime commissioner Alvin McClure during the robbery, with Joe as an aghast witness. Tony, the gang's driver who becomes distraught after the job, is later killed by the gang under Rico's orders when he goes to reveal the news to the local priest.
Rico accuses Sam of becoming soft and seizes control of his organization. Rival boss "Little Arnie" Lorch tries to have Rico killed, but Rico is only grazed. He and his gunmen pay Little Arnie a visit, giving him a choice of either leaving town or having him killed, after which Arnie hastily departs forDetroit. 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 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 police officer give chase and shoot and kill Otero. With information provided by Olga, Flaherty proceeds to crush Rico's organization.
Desperate and alone, Rico "retreats to the gutter from which he sprang." While hiding in aflophouse, he becomes enraged when he learns that Flaherty has called him a coward in the newspaper. He foolishly telephones the police to announce he is coming for him. The call is traced, and Flaherty confronts Rico outside the flophouse with several officers. The Sergeant tries to coax Rico into standing down and allowing himself to be arrested but Rico refuses and Flaherty guns him down while he hides behind a billboard; an advertisement featuring dancers Joe and Olga. With Flaherty standing over him, Rico utters his final words, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"
Burnett moved to Chicago in 1928 and wrote the novel based on his observations and research. He later said:
I was reaching for a gutter Macbeth—a composite figure that would indicate how men could rise to prominence or money under the most hazardous conditions, but not much more hazardous than the men of the Renaissance... if you have this type of society, it will produce such men. That’s what I was looking for, a type. Rico was doomed from the first. If he had a tragic flaw, it was over-impulsive action. But he is the picture of overriding ambition.[4]
The novel was a best seller. Burnett attributed this to the fact "it was the world seen completely through the eyes of a gangster. It’s a commonplace now, but it had never been done before then."[5]
Clark Gable was sought out for a role in the film, albeit with conflicting perspectives in memoirs;Jack L. Warner said that LeRoy wanted Gable for the lead role, while LeRoy stated that he wanted Gable for the second lead role, but at any rate Warner turned Gable down.[6] Robinson had already played a gangster in plays such asThe Racket andThe Widow from Chicago (1930), aFirst National Pictures production.
According to Burnett a script was written by Rowland Lee but Mervyn Le Roy "threw it out". The script was rewritten by Francis Faragoh. Burnett said "It was not a good script, although he did get the important thing in, which is the character of Rico. Otherwise, the script is taken straight out of the book, except for the ending, in which Rico dies in a flophouse."[7]
Burnett was disappointed with the film because "they conventionalized it" but felt it was saved by Robinson's performance.[8]
A DVD version was released in 2005.[9]
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The film received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences at the time and still is well received to this day.On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes,Little Caesar holds an approval rating of 96%, based on 26 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Little Caesar achieves epic stature thanks to Edward G. Robinson's volcanic charisma, forging a template for the big-screen mobster archetype that's yet to be surpassed."[10]
Together withThe Public Enemy (1931) andScarface (1932),Little Caesar proved to be influential in developing the gangster film genre, establishing many themes and conventions that have been used since then.[12]
The film's box office success also spawned the production of several successful gangster films, many of which were also made by Warner Brothers.[13] It is listed in the film reference book1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, which says "Mervyn LeRoy'sLittle Caesar helped to define the gangster movie while serving as an allegory of production circumstances because it was produced during the Great Depression— Leavening this theme alongside the demands of social conformity during the early 1930s means that LeRoy's screen classic is far more than the simple sum of its parts."[14]
The song "Tough Guys," byThe Good Rats on theirRatcity in Blue album includes in the lyrics of the first verse, the final words of Rico in the film:
