Little Caesar (1931)
In many ways, this is where it started, and it gets judged against the better Warner gangster films that followed (including some truly amazing movies with Cagney or Muni). So if you want the original Scarface or want to find the later great one, White Heat, you'll have to understand that Mervyn LeRoy set the standards for the genre here. And Edward G. Robinson sets up the idea of the ambitious and ruthless mobster, part class act, part egomaniac.
Not that this is at all a bad film. It's pretty wonderful at times, and clips along steadily, with a little too much talk. The filming is good, and the range of bit parts gives it all a convincing air. Most of all is Edward G. Robinson's presence as Little Caesar himself, making his buddy, played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., look like the amateur he sort of was. The common roles we expect in later gangster movies aren't fully here yet--the woman on the side, the priest giving guidance--but other aspects really are, including a mother for one gangster to return to, the ruthless detective, and the shifting hierarchy of thugs.
This is actually where the action lies, this rivalry between gangster gangs and even within them. It's great stuff, the opening door for a decade and more of great crime movies.
In many ways, this is where it started, and it gets judged against the better Warner gangster films that followed (including some truly amazing movies with Cagney or Muni). So if you want the original Scarface or want to find the later great one, White Heat, you'll have to understand that Mervyn LeRoy set the standards for the genre here. And Edward G. Robinson sets up the idea of the ambitious and ruthless mobster, part class act, part egomaniac.
Not that this is at all a bad film. It's pretty wonderful at times, and clips along steadily, with a little too much talk. The filming is good, and the range of bit parts gives it all a convincing air. Most of all is Edward G. Robinson's presence as Little Caesar himself, making his buddy, played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr., look like the amateur he sort of was. The common roles we expect in later gangster movies aren't fully here yet--the woman on the side, the priest giving guidance--but other aspects really are, including a mother for one gangster to return to, the ruthless detective, and the shifting hierarchy of thugs.
This is actually where the action lies, this rivalry between gangster gangs and even within them. It's great stuff, the opening door for a decade and more of great crime movies.