What a great movie! Truly a classic: great acting, writing and direction. The hits are good, even though they were blood-less but that's good. No sex and such. Little Caesar is a traggic hero. The movie shows touching moments like the one with repentant mobster Tony and his mother.


I recommend it to Mafia fans.

5 stars.

I have two questions:

1. This movie was out in 1931 and the book its based was written one or two years. Is it coincidence that at the same time Sal "Little Caesar" was creating his empire? And what about "Little Caesar's" best friend Joe Massara? Joe Masseria was Maranzano's rival. Do you think the writers did this incidently?

2. What do you think of this movie.

Thanks

Giorgio Luigi Gambino

No question about it: a very great movie, a classic, holds up every time I see it (and I've seen it at least 50 times). Made Edward G. Robinson, too.
If memory serves, there's a little essay that rolls after the opening credits that says that "Little Caeser" and "The Public Enemy" were made to show the evils of organized crime that had swept America during Prohibition. I believe that they intended "Caeser" to be a composite of the Prohibition gangsters who captured peoples' imagination at the time. But I think he's mostly based on Capone, who was the most prominent of all the booze barons, and the biggest publicity hound. "Massera" is an interesting coincidence, but I think the writer, W.R. Burnett, was just snatching at whatever Italian-sounding names that came to his mind. I don't think he was consciously reaching for the principals of the Castellemmarese War.
A contemporaneous movie, "Scarface," starring Paul Muni, was really based on Capone. If you liked "Caeser," you should check out "Scarface," which includes George Raft and none other than Boris Karloff as a rival gangster.

Yeazh, there's some kind of prologue at the beggining telling us to stop gangsters like Little Caesar and Tom Powers. Plus, there was a quote from St. Matthew's gospel: "Those who die by the sword will die by the sword."

Interesting coincidences.

Scarface isn't in my city's public libraries like "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy". But I might find it in a local videoclub that rents oldies.

I'm looking for the movies you recommended it.


Thanks again Turnbull.

Giorgio Luigi Gambino

Wow. How did St. Matthew ever figure that one out?