Fresh and Exciting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

"Little Caesar" marked the beginning of a new chapter for "Warner Bros." Released in 1931 but filmed in 1930, the film made a big star of theatre actor Edward G. Robinson and launched the studio onto a run of gangster films that dominated the decade. In addition, many a classic film from "Warner Bros." would be made from the early 30s until the late 40s and featuring some of the biggest stars and actors in Hollywood history. Edward G. Robinson plays a hoodlum who has plans to work his way up the ladder in organised crime and to become a crime lord. He succeeds in achieving just that but at a considerable price..... "Little Caesar" has many great scenes and some good dialogue and Robinson gets the best lines. His is the best performance in this film, he oozes menace in every scene. I was hoping that the film would have included more action and to carry more of a gritty edge in the screenplay. Also, the film is looking its age but in all fairness, films of this decade tend to. The film does a fine job of showing Little Caesar's eventual decline after his main weakness gets the better of him: Caesar's vanity. The final scene had to be slightly re-written after some influential religious groups voiced their displeasure of the Lord's name being taken in vain.

One of the earliest of the gangster films which launched a cottage industry: people pretending to be Cagney or Robinson. Edward G. Robinson made many great movies, but this is the genre he is most remembered for. Here he plays a guy who is bad from the beginning, who immediately got into the hierarchy of the criminal world. His friend Joe wants to be good but Robinson won't leave him alone and eventually drags him down. But he goes to his knees eventually. Unfortunately, he forgets that there is good in the world. He does have one moment of realization, but it's too late. He dies in the gutter which produced him in the first place. Robinson did a fine job and established great career.

Mervyn Leroy directed this early gangster picture that stars Edward G. Robinson as Rico, a tough-minded man who is determined to make something of himself, and so he, along with his friend Joe Massara(played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) goes to the big city, where they join a gang, and Rico quickly rises to the top, taking it over, and calling himself Little Caesar. He then sets his sights on a bigger gang, but after a high-profile assassination, Rico finds that despite his power and wealth, his violent lifestyle will catch up with him in the end... Robinson is the whole show here, so memorable is his performance that it makes up for the stilted nature of the picture.

In director Mervyn LeRoy's landmark crime thriller "Little Caesar," actor Edward G. Robinson typecast himself as a snarling, cigar-chomping, tough-guy gangster without a trace of compassion. Reportedly, the eponymous character that he portrayed was based on the real-life crime czar Al Capone. Robinson played variations on his gangster persona in subsequent films like the lightweight "A Slight Case of Murder" and the heavyweight "Key Largo." "Little Caesar" was based on W.R. Burnett's novel. This urban shoot'em up generated quite a bit of controversy when Warner Brothers released it. Some censors claimed the film served as a primer for hoodlums. Now, "Little Caesar" seems tame, even compared with other crime classics such as "The Public Enemy" and "Scarface." Although it was produced before the Production Code Administration acquired teeth to enforce its agenda in Hollywood, "Little Caesar" rarely depicts violence in all its savagery. We see Enrico "Rico" Bandello (Edward G. Robinson) blast innocent bystanders in two scenes. Never do we actually see him pull the trigger. LeRoy edited the action so the violence seems illusionary. In the opening scene, when our protagonist knocks over a gasoline station, he extinguishes the lights, plunging the place into darkness and then a couple of shots erupt. Later, at a night club, a similar incident occurs when Rico blasts Crime Commissioner McClure without realizing who he is shooting. He believes the crime commissioner is reaching to a piece when he blasts him. Nevertheless, all we see is the crime commissioner writhing in agony from Rico's bullets. Even when the violence occurs against Rico, we see no physical manifestation of it. Rico is walking along a city street in broad daylight when a milk wagon cruises past and a fusillade of lead slugs pours out of it and wounds our protagonist. We are never shown the gangsters inside firing the machine gun. The Code expressly forbade scenes of gangsters wielding machine guns because it glamorized the hoods.Basically, "Little Caesar" chronicles the rise and fall of Enrico "Rico" Bandello. Rico and his best friend Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) are robbing gas stations in the sticks when Rico decides to clear out for the bright lights of the big city. A newspaper article about Diamond Pete Montana as the guest of honor at an underworld banquet catches Rico's eyes. Secretly, Rico dreams of being like Pete. Rico assures Joe, "I could do all the things that fella does, and more, only I never got my chance. Why, what's there to be afraid of?" Rico and Joe head off to the big city. Rico joins Sam Vettori's mob. Meanwhile, Joe lands a dancing job at the Bronze Peacock gambling club. As it turns out, Rico couldn't have chosen a worst time to join Sam's outfit.. Sam clamors about gun violence and urges his men to exercise self-discipline in the face of provocation. Rico doesn't espouse Sam's ideology. He states, "And when I get in a tight spot, I shoot my way out of it. Why sure. Shoot first and argue afterwords. You know, this game ain't for guys that's soft!" "If anybody turns yellow and squeals, my gun's going to speak its peace." Rico is both fearless but reckless. Rico creates chaos when he guns down Crime Commissioner McClure (Landers Stevens) as the latter appears to be procuring a pistol at the New Years' Eve celebrations at The Bronze Peacock. Not only does Rico kill the commissioner, but he also usurps his boss Sam after the job. Rico has nothing but contempt for Sam. "Sam, you can dish it out, but you're getting so you can't take it no more. You're through." Afterward, Rico's rise is meteoric. Along the way, after he topples Sam and the Big Boy gives him a boost up the ladder. Before long Rico has changes is residence and now it resembles the sumptuous interior of the Big Boy's office. Before long Rico is so big that the opposition tries to rub him out as he strolls down the street. Miraculously, the gunmen riding in a milk wagon try to strafe Rico into stitches with a machine gun.Robinson's performance is superb, and Mervyn LeRoy never allows "Little Caesar" to bog down. Ultimately, "Little Caesar" is a classic.