Little Caesar

Little Caesar

For a knock-out combination of timeless entertainment and vintage studio history, you can't do much better than The Warner Brothers Gangsters Collection. In the 1930s and '40s, Paramount specialized in glossy comedies, MGM popularized lavish musicals, Universal produced signature horror classics, and Fox scored hits with sophisticated dramas. But it was Warner Bros. that generated controversy--if not always box-office profits--with so-called "social problem" films, and that meant gangsters. When viewed in their pre- and post-Prohibition context and in chronological order (Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, 1931; The Petrified Forest, 1936; Angels With Dirty Faces, 1938; The Roaring Twenties, 1939; White Heat, 1949), these six films definitively capture Warners' domination of the mobster genre, and to varying degrees, they all qualify as classics. With its stilted visuals and pulpy plot, Little Caesar remains stuck in the stiff, early-sound era, but it's still a prototypical powerhouse, with Edward G. Robinson's titular "Rico" setting the stage for all screen gangsters to follow. The Public Enemy made James Cagney a star (who can forget him smashing a grapefruit into Mae Clarke's face?), and Humphrey Bogart repeats his Broadway success in The Petrified Forest, a stagy adaptation of Robert Sherwood's play, still enjoyable for Bogey's ever-threatening malevolence. Then it's a Cagney triple-threat in Angels (with Pat O'Brien), racketeering in The Roaring Twenties (with Bogart), and especially the jailbird classic White Heat, with a fiery finale and an exit line ("Made it Ma! Top o' the world!") that epitomized Cagney's iconic, tough-guy image. In many ways Cagney was Warner Bros., and this Gangsters Collection pays enduring tribute to him and the important films that forged the studio's rugged reputation. --Jeff Shannon

Production: Warner Home Video
  Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win.
 
IMDB:
7.3
Rotten Tomatoes:
91%
NR (Not Rated)
Year:
1931
78
3,219 Views

Rico Bandello:
[reading newspaper] "Underworld pays respects to Diamond Pete Montana."

Joe Massara:
Ah, what's that gotta do with the price of eggs?

Rico Bandello:
Plenty. Diamond Pete Montana. He doesn't have to waste his time on cheap gas stations. He's somebody. He's in the big town, doing things in a big way. And look at us, just a couple of nobodies, nothin'.

Joe Massara:
Is that what you want, Rico? A party like that for you? "Caesar Enrico Bandello. Honored by his friends."

Rico Bandello:
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? And when I get in a tight spot, I shoot my way out of it. Why sure. Shoot first and argue afterwards. You know, this game ain't for guys that's soft!

Joe Massara:
Yeah, there's money in the big town, all right. And the women. Good times, something doing all the time. Exciting things, you know. The clothes I could wear. And then I'd quit, Rico. I'd go back to dancing, like I used to before I met you. I don't know. I ain't made for this sort of thing. Dancing. That's what I wanna do.

Rico Bandello:
Dancing? Women? And where do they get you? I don't want no dancing. I'm figuring on making other people dance. Oh, I ain't forgetting about the money. Money's okay, but it ain't everything. Be somebody. Look hard at guys and know they'll do anything you tell them. Have your own way or nothing. Be somebody.

Joe Massara:
You'll get there, Rico.

Rico Bandello:
Yeah.

Joe Massara:
You'll show them.

Rico Bandello:
You know, this was our last stand in this burg. We're pulling out.

Joe Massara:
Where are we going?

Rico Bandello:
East. [gestures to the newspaper] Where things break big.

Rico Bandello:
We started off together, didn't we? Well, we gotta keep going along together. Who else have I got to give a hang about? I need ya, Joe. I got the biggest chance of my life. The Big Boy just handed me the whole North Side, but it's too much for one man to handle alone. I need somebody, somebody to work in with me, a guy like you. Somebody I can trust.

Joe Massara:
It can't be me, Rico. I've quit.

Rico Bandello:
You didn't quit. Nobody ever quit me. You're still in my gang. Do you get that? (grabbing his lapel) I don't care how many fancy skirts you got hangin' on to you. That Jane of yours can go hang. It's her that's made a softie out of you.

Joe Massara:
You lay off Olga...

Rico Bandello:
I ain't layin' off of her. I'm after her. One of us is gonna lose and it ain't gonna be me. There's ways of stoppin' that dame.

Joe Massara:
You're crazy! Leave her out of this.

Rico Bandello:
Aw, she's through. She's out of the way, that's what she is.

Joe Massara:
You're lying. You wouldn't dare.

Rico Bandello:
[brandishing his hand] I wouldn't, wouldn't I? I'll show ya.

Joe Massara:
I love her. We're in love with one another. Doesn't that mean nothin' to ya?

Rico Bandello:
Nothin'. Less than nothin'. Love! Soft stuff! When she's got you, you ain't no good for anything. We ain't out of this yet. Now we don't want no softies spilling things.

Joe Massara:
I ain't gonna spill anything if that's what you're scared of.

Rico Bandello:
You go back to that dame and it's suicide. Suicide for both of ya.


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