“Little Caesar” is a crime drama film about a small town hoodlum who moves up the ranks of organized crime until he reaches the upper echelons of Chicago’s mob. Director Mervyn LeRoy and screenwriter Francis Edward Faragoh put together this top-rate film that would become the template of decades of future dramas centered on gangsters and Mafia figures, on the big screen and later on television. It was based on the 1929 novel by William R. Burnett.
The star of the show is Edward G. Robinson as Caesar Enrico “Rico” Bandello, or Little Caesar. This was his first starring role, and would type-cast him for the rest of his career. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays Rico’s good friend and partner in crime. Co-stars include Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr., Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Ince, and George E. Stone. “Little Caesar” was a big hit at the box office for producers Hal B. Wallis and Darryl F. Zanuck, First National Pictures, and Warner Bros. Pictures.
Little Caesar (1931)
cinema
My Review
“Little Caesar” is a crime drama film about a small town hoodlum who moves up the ranks of organized crime until he reaches the upper echelons of Chicago’s mob. Director Mervyn LeRoy and screenwriter Francis Edward Faragoh put together this top-rate film that would become the template of decades of future dramas centered on gangsters and Mafia figures, on the big screen and later on television. It was based on the 1929 novel by William R. Burnett.
The star of the show is Edward G. Robinson as Caesar Enrico “Rico” Bandello, or Little Caesar. This was his first starring role, and would type-cast him for the rest of his career. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. plays Rico’s good friend and partner in crime. Co-stars include Glenda Farrell, William Collier Jr., Sidney Blackmer, Ralph Ince, and George E. Stone. “Little Caesar” was a big hit at the box office for producers Hal B. Wallis and Darryl F. Zanuck, First National Pictures, and Warner Bros. Pictures.