''Little Caesar'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was an era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry that occurred between the widespread adoption of sound in film in the late 1920s and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship gui ...

crime film distributed by Warner Brothers, directed by

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. During the 1930s, he was one of the two great practitioners of economical and effective film directing at Warner Bros., Warner Brothers studios, ...

, and starring Edward G. Robinson, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Glenda Farrell. The film tells the story of a hoodlum who ascends the ranks of

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

until he reaches its upper echelons. The storyline was adapted from the novel of the same name by William R. Burnett. Little Caesar was Robinson's breakthrough role and immediately made him a major film star. The film is often listed as one of the first fully-fledged gangster films and continues to be well received by critics. The

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

maintains a print.

Plot

Small-time criminals Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello and his friend Joe Massara move to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

to seek their fortunes. Rico joins the gang of Sam Vettori, while Joe wants to be a dancer. Olga becomes his dance partner and girlfriend. Joe tries to drift away from the gang and its activities, but Rico makes him participate in the robbery of the nightclub where he works. Despite orders from underworld overlord "Big Boy" to all his men to avoid bloodshed, Rico guns down crusading crime commissioner Alvin McClure during the robbery, with Joe as an aghast witness. Tony, the gang's driver who becomes distraught after the job, is later killed by the gang under Rico's orders when he goes to reveal the news to the local priest. Rico accuses Sam of becoming soft and seizes control of his organization. Rival boss "Little Arnie" Lorch tries to have Rico killed, but Rico is only grazed. He and his gunmen pay Little Arnie a visit, giving him a choice of either leaving town or having him killed, after which Arnie hastily departs for

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. The Big Boy eventually gives Rico control of all of Chicago's Northside. Rico becomes concerned that Joe knows too much about him. He warns Joe that he must forget about Olga and join him in a life of crime. Rico threatens to kill both Joe and Olga unless he accedes, but Joe refuses to give in. Olga calls Police Sergeant Flaherty and tells him Joe is ready to talk, just before Rico and his henchman Otero come calling. Rico finds, to his surprise, that he is unable to take his friend's life. When Otero tries to do the job himself, Rico wrestles the gun away from him, though not before Joe is wounded. Hearing the shot, Flaherty and another police officer give chase and shoot and kill Otero. With information provided by Olga, Flaherty proceeds to crush Rico's organization. Desperate and alone, Rico "retreats to the gutter from which he sprang." While hiding in a flophouse, he becomes enraged when he learns that Flaherty has called him a coward in the newspaper. He foolishly telephones the police to announce he is coming for him. The call is traced, and Flaherty confronts Rico outside the flophouse with several officers. The Sergeant tries to coax Rico into standing down and allowing himself to be arrested but Rico refuses and Flaherty guns him down while he hides behind a billboard; an advertisement featuring dancers Joe and Olga. With Flaherty standing over him, Rico utters his final words, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"

Cast

* Edward G. Robinson as Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello / "Little Caesar": A hoodlum who ascends the ranks of organized crime later controlling Chicago's Northside. * Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Joe Massara: Rico's friend and former partner in crime, He forgoes the life in favor of becoming a dancer. * Glenda Farrell as Olga Stassoff: Joe's dancing partner who later becomes his girlfriend. * William Collier Jr. as Antonio "Tony" Passa: The driver in Vettori's gang, who has

anxiety Anxiety is an emotion characterised by an unpleasant state of inner wikt:turmoil, turmoil and includes feelings of dread over Anticipation, anticipated events. Anxiety is different from fear in that fear is defined as the emotional response ...

. *

Sidney Blackmer Sidney Alderman Blackmer (July 13, 1895 – October 6, 1973) was an American Broadway theatre, Broadway and film actor active between 1914 and 1971, usually in major supporting roles. Biography Blackmer was born and raised in Salisbury, ...

as Big Boy *

Ralph Ince Ralph Waldo Ince (January 16, 1887 – April 10, 1937) was an American pioneer film actor, director and screenwriter whose career began near the dawn of the silent film, silent film era. Ralph Ince was the brother of John Ince (actor), John E. I ...

as Pete Montana * Thomas E. Jackson as Sergeant/Lieutenant Thomas Flaherty: A sergeant who monitors Rico and his activities. * Stanley Fields as Sam Vettori: Former boss of the film's central gang, after Rico's takeover as boss, he later works for the gang. * Maurice Black as Little Arnie Lorch * George E. Stone as Otero: Rico's goon and security guard. * Landers Stevens as Alvin McClure: Crime Commissioner * Elmer Ballard as Bat Korilla: Vettori gang member * Noel Maddison as Killer Peppi: Vettori gang member * Henry Sedley as Scabby: Vettori gang member * Ben Hendricks Jr. as Kid Bean: Vettori gang member

Production

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American actor often referred to as the "King of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". He appeared in more than 60 Film, motion pictures across a variety of Film genre, genres dur ...

was sought out for a role in the film, albeit with conflicting perspectives in memoirs;

Jack L. Warner Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-born American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's ca ...

said that LeRoy wanted Gable for the lead role, while LeRoy stated that he wanted Gable for the second lead role, but at any rate Warner turned Gable down. Robinson had already played a gangster in plays such as '' The Racket'' and '' The Widow from Chicago'' (1930), a First National Pictures production.

Release

A DVD version was released in 2005.

Reception

The film received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences at the time and still is well received to this day. On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, ''Little Caesar'' holds an approval rating of 92%, based on 25 reviews, and an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Little Caesar'' achieves epic stature thanks to Edward G. Robinson's volcanic charisma, forging a template for the big-screen mobster archetype that's yet to be surpassed."

Award and honors

4th Academy Awards The 4th Academy Awards were held on November 10, 1931, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Ac ...

: Adapted Screenplay ‒ Nominated *

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...

: Selected by the

in 2000 *

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...

: ** AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies: Nominated in both 1998 and 2007 ** AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills: Nominated ** AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains: Rico – #38 villain ** AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes: "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"– #73 **

AFI's 10 Top 10 AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute (AFI), the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008. In the special, various actors ...

: #9 gangster film

Legacy

Together with '' The Public Enemy'' (1931) and '' Scarface'' (1932), ''Little Caesar'' proved to be influential in developing the gangster film genre, establishing many themes and conventions that have been used since then. The film's box office success also spawned the production of several successful gangster films, many of which were also made by Warner Brothers.''Encyclopædia Britannica'': Entry for "Little Caesar"
/ref> It is listed in the film reference book '' 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die'', which says "Mervyn LeRoy's ''Little Caesar'' helped to define the gangster movie while serving as an allegory of production circumstances because it was produced during the Great Depression— Leavening this theme alongside the demands of social conformity during the early 1930s means that LeRoy's screen classic is far more than the simple sum of its parts."

In popular culture

The song "Tough Guys," by The Good Rats on their '' Ratcity in Blue'' album includes in the lyrics of the first verse, the final words of Rico in the film:
::Eddie, I'll always remember ::The way that you handled the good and the bad ::Mother of mercy ::Is this the end of Rico ::Oh, no

References

External links

''Little Caesar'' (1931)
youtube.com * *
''Little Caesar'' at AllMovie
* * ''Little Caesar'' essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010 , pages 176-17

* {{Authority control 1931 films 1931 crime drama films American crime drama films American black-and-white films Articles containing video clips 1930s English-language films Films based on American novels Films based on crime novels Films based on works by W. R. Burnett Films directed by Mervyn LeRoy Films set in Chicago First National Pictures films American gangster films Films about the American Mafia United States National Film Registry films Warner Bros. films Films produced by Hal B. Wallis Films produced by Darryl F. Zanuck Films with screenplays by Robert Lord (screenwriter) 1930s American films Films with screenplays by Francis Edward Faragoh English-language crime drama films