Tuesday, September 13, 2011

50. Little Caesar

Little Caesar
1930

This movie is the introduction to gangster films.  Actually, it is pretty much every gangster film you have ever seen, all rolled into one not-so-interesting plot line.  I am not a big fan of gangster movies.  I felt like The Godfather was overrated, was almost bored to tears during Casino, and I have not seen Goodfellas yet.  I also recently saw the 1932 version of Scarface and this is pretty much the same film.

Do I have to give a plot summary?  Common sense really.  Rico joins a mob and raises in the ranks.  I bet you have no idea how this ends! Now, I know I am bashing but I did actually enjoy this movie.  It is well-acted, and you can't really roll your eyes at cliches when you watching the movie that invented them.  This movie is also a statement on the post-depression era.  That is what I love about this journey; you get to experience the times with the audience!

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

50!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A federal anti-organized crime division is named RICO after this movie.

The line "Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?" was voted 74 in top 100 movie lines by AFI.

Clark Gable was going to be cast but the director thought his ears were too big.  Good luck living that down.

The famous line:


1 comment:

  1. This was also the movie that made Edward G. Robinson and I can forgive it a lot for doing that.
    I am also not a big gangster flick fan.

    ReplyDelete