VividSimon Simply Perfect

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

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

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

alexanderdavies-99382 "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.

chaswe-28402 Something undeniably classic about this production. How can a movie so incredibly dated be so timeless ? How can a movie so plotlessly corny be so entertaining, so memorable and watchable ? The dialogue is something else. Robinson delivers his lines with maximum punch. My disc has a picture of Robinson holding a tommy-gun, but I don't think he has one in the film. It's more that he speaks like one. The story is merely one of rise and fall. There's no subtlety about the upward mobility: it's just a matter of Rico wants your place in the mob set-up, so move aside, you patience-playing dummy. Then it's Big Boy, here I come. The fall is simply because Rico couldn't shoot his old buddy when it came to the crunch, although the buddy had turned sissy. Actually, the buddy was just a sissy dancer to start with, hanging out with dames. It's arguable that Rico couldn't shoot him because he was a crypto-homosexual, but if so, then so were Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, Butch and Sundance, Batman and Robin, Tonto and the Lone Ranger.This offers a truly enjoyable 78 minutes in the company of Little Caesar, who falls off the wagon, and lands in the gutter. On New Year's Eve the cops enigmatically wish the hoods a Merry Christmas. No blood, and the bullets keep hitting the woodwork. There's a moral in there, somewhere. The price paid for excessive pride and ambition, perhaps.

Tad Pole . . . Enrico Bandello laments before deciding to flatten LITTLE CAESAR's love triangle by gunning down his long-time companion Joe and Olga (the dame for whom Joe has forsaken Enrico in his hour of greatest need). But Enrico doesn't know how to "quit" Joe, either, sealing his own doom. Decades before the supposedly "ground-breaking" flick BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, the same plot pervades LITTLE CAESAR for all to see, if they care to really look. If you subtract this meaty gray subtext from LITTLE CAESAR's scant 78-minute running time, is there even anything worth noting left? One might argue that the remaining coherent thread tying parts of this tawdry tale together is its vehement pro-Prohibition message. Crime czar Alvin McClure seems hell-bent upon a night of illegal drinking himself at the Bronze Peacock when he's gunned down (perhaps because his ale-addled reaction time is no match for then Tea-Totaller Enrico's). So what's the first thing "call-me-Rico; R-I-C-O" does when he finally lets himself fall under the influence of Demon Rum? He rings up his chief persecutor, Flaherty, of course, and "LITTLE CAESAR" is soon history.

freemantle_uk Little Caesar is an archetypal gangster film from the early 1930s, a early example and it offered a breakout performance for Edward G. Robinson whom distinctive voice has been copied for Chief Wiggam in The Simpsons.Rico (Robinson) and his friend Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.) are two small town hoods who move to the big city to make a name for themselves in the criminal underworld. Rico quickly raises up the ranks, earning the nickname "Little Caesar" and shows a skill for planning heists. Rico overthrows his boss Sam Vettori (Stanley Fields) and becomes one of the leading gangsters in the city. But of course with notoriety he becomes a target of other gangsters and the police, led by Sergeant Flaherty (Thomas E. Jackson), as well as alienated his old friend. g The best aspect of Little Caesar was Robinson, a very talented actor who was able to give his role real menace, someone who is willing to be very ruthless, willing to use violence and has a Machiavellian personality who will do anything to gain power. He is smart but has an ego which is his downfall. Robinson embodied his character, a rags to riches to rags story out a small time thug making it big. It is very much like Scarface in story.Director Mervyn LeRoy was able to some nice camera movements, particularly for the time where the camera was often stasis. He also made a very quick film, it is only 76 minutes and the pacing lightening fast. If anything the film was a little too quick, we do not get to establish how some events happen, like Rico and Joe just going to he big city, easily meet a gangster and then overthrow himself in the first 30 minutes. I would have like to have seen a little more background, a little more detail, like what where these two people like in the small town, what was this small time like, wouldn't they need to prove themselves to a major gangster to show they were worthy and committed to the crew before joining it, what was the internal politics of the crew and that wouldn't there be more of a challenge to Rico becoming the leader seeing he was a nobody a few months ago. LeRoy also uses some text screens to skip over long periods of time instead of showing up. But Little Caesar does everything it wants to put across in its short running time very well and I expect that it was made as a part of a double feature.Whilst Robinson was very good in his role, it was the role that made his career, the rest of the acting is typical of the early 30s, over-the-top with the delivery, very melodramatic and speaking in that 1930s hard boiled way. Still it was the standard of the time and I have seen a lot worst acting in films.Little Caesar is a good film, but it is not a gangster film that we know now. This film is a more a character study and a story how someone could rise to top just so they could fall even further. It is a solid piece of film making for the time.