''Little Caesar'' is a 1931 American

pre-Code Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines, popularly known ...

crime film distributed by

Warner Brothers Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

, directed by

Mervyn LeRoy Mervyn LeRoy (; October 15, 1900 – September 13, 1987) was an American film director and producer. In his youth he played juvenile roles in vaudeville and silent film comedies. During the 1930s, LeRoy was one of the two great practitioners of ...

, and starring

Edward G. Robinson Edward G. Robinson (born Emanuel Goldenberg; December 12, 1893January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and screen, who was popular during the Hollywood's Golden Age. He appeared in 30 Broadway plays and more than 100 films duri ...

Glenda Farrell Glenda Farrell (June 30, 1904 – May 1, 1971) was an American actress. Farrell personified the smart and sassy, wisecracking blonde of the Classical Hollywood films. Farrell's career spanned more than 50 years, appearing in numerous Broadwa ...

, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. The film tells the story of a hoodlum who ascends the ranks of

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

until he reaches its upper echelons. The storyline was adapted from the novel of the same name by

William R. Burnett William Riley Burnett (November 25, 1899 April 25, 1982) was an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for the crime novel ''Little Caesar'', the film adaptation of which is considered the first of the classic American gangster m ...

. ''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 A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The ...

and continues to be well received by critics. In 2000, ''Little Caesar'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures added to the

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and recommended for preservation. The Library of Congress maintains a print.

Plot

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

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

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. 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, after which Arnie hastily departs for

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

. 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 injure and capture 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 he is gunned down by Flaherty behind a billboard – an advertisement featuring dancers Joe and Olga – and, dying, utters his final words, "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?"

Cast

as Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello / "Little Caesar" * Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Joe Massara *

as Olga Stassoff * William Collier Jr. as Tony Passa *

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

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 era. Ralph Ince was the brother of John E. Ince and Thomas H. Ince. Biogra ...

as Pete Montana * Thomas E. Jackson as Sergeant/Lieutenant Thomas Flaherty * Stanley Fields as Sam Vettori * Maurice Black as Little Arnie Lorch * George E. Stone as Otero *

Landers Stevens John Landers Stevens (1877–1940) was an American stage and film actor. A character actor he appeared in prominent screen roles in the early 1920s before switching to smaller supporting parts, often authority figures, in the following decade. ...

as Alvin McClure - Crime Commissioner

Production

Clark Gable William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901November 16, 1960) was an American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood". He had roles in more than 60 motion pictures in multiple genres during a career that lasted 37 years, three decades ...

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-American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's career spanned some ...

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 First National Pictures was an American motion picture production and distribution company. It was founded in 1917 as First National Exhibitors' Circuit, Inc., an association of independent theatre owners in the United States, and became the count ...

production.

Reception

Little Caesar (1931 film poster - Style B)

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wan ...

, ''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, awarding films released between August 1, 1930, and July 31, 1931. '' Cimarron'' was the first Western to win Best Picture, and would rema ...

: Adapted Screenplay ‒ Nominated *

: 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 motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

: ** 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 act ...

: #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 ''1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die'' is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions, a ...

'', 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."

References

External links

''Little Caeser 1931''
* * * * * *''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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Caesar 1931 films 1931 crime drama films American crime drama films American black-and-white films 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