Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

DKosty123 S J Perelman wrote the play this is based upon along with his wife Laura. While not household names now, they wrote for the Marx Brothers including perhaps the brothers funniest film, Horse Feathers. Here along with Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, and Broderick Crawford along with a great supporting cast, this is a movie that very much reflects Horse Feather's as far as pacing.Robinson is great at comedies, as he did several of them and all of them are quite funny. He seems to have a straight face mobster type of character yet his timing is flawless for comedy. Crawford is more known as a cop in the 1950's Highway Patrol, but as con Jug Martin, he cuts it up pretty well with Robinson. Jane Wyman whose married to 3rd Husband Ronald Reagan at this point, is pleasant in this film. For Wyman this is already her 55th role in a busy career.The plot has to do with ex-cons planning to go from the basement of a luggage store underground to a bank vault and steal plenty of money. What happens instead is by accident and a lot of help they become successful businessmen on the up and up. The important thing here is the laughs with a great script and capable cast.

PamelaShort Top-notch comedic performances are finely delivered by Edward G. Robinson, Broderick Crawford and Edward Brophy in this hilarious story about three ex-cons, who buy a Luggage Shop that is next door to a bank. The shop is used as a clever front, while they try to tunnel into the the banks vault. The comical antics are endless and the crooks soon discover selling the luggage is profitable and much easier, until the unsavoury Anthony Quinn discovers their plan, and the three are forced to resume breaking into the bank. With very funny situations and witty dialogue, all the performers mesh perfectly which helps this story to move along at a pleasing pace, creating a very rewarding comedy gem. A full synopsis cannot compare to the fulfilling enjoyment brought by watching this 1942 film, and I highly suggest the viewing is well worthwhile.

GManfred I often think that comedy is a perishable commodity, that in many instances it has a short shelf life. Times change, attitudes change, people change. So it is with 'Larceny, Inc." a good-natured comedy film which must have been much funnier in the 40's than it appears now (although it only ran for 22 performances on Broadway, according to another contributor).It was interesting to see Edward G. Robinson doing comedy; I had only seen him in one other comedy, "A Hole In The Head" (1959), and also Broderick Crawford, who was more of a gangster movie-type. There was also a bigger role for Edward Brophy than he was used to, and Jane Wyman was pretty but with little to do. (I don't do plot synopses; see another reviewer).I don't think this picture would be received very well by today's audiences - as was noted, its brand of humor is somewhat dated. But it's still good to see an example of what passed for comedy many years ago, before TV made the world a closer, coarser place.

moonspinner55 Very fast and very funny gangster-comedy from Laura and S.J. Perelman's play "The Night Before Christmas" features Edward G. Robinson as a just-sprung ex-con who finagles his way into becoming the owner and operator of a luggage store in New York City. Why? Because the National Bank is right next door...and its vault is just behind the cellar wall in Robinson's shop. Opening with a hilarious prison baseball sequence, the movie keeps rising higher with each new scene and eccentric new character, like a balloon you don't want to see pop. The dialogue is full of tickling, hard-boiled wit, and Robinson's cuddly cohorts-in-crime (Broderick Crawford and Edward Brophy) are absolutely wonderful. The picture doesn't have a mean-spirited thorn to quibble over, however the third act doesn't live up to the spirited lunacy of the rest--and the final tag jumps too far forward in time. Mostly a delightful enterprise, with a marvelous supporting cast including Jack Carson and Jane Wyman as would-be sweethearts. Woody Allen borrowed the basic premise in 2000 for his hit comedy "Small Time Crooks". *** from ****