Kelly WandLittle Caesar
September 8th 2006 06:49
The last time I saw “Little Caesar” was on one of Bill Collin’s all night movie shows that used to run on Channel Nine before some idiot invented infomercials. I had to sneak out of bed in the middle of the night in fear of waking my parents. It was worth the risk. I loved those old Warner Brother’s flicks.
Made in nineteen thirty, “Little Caesar” strikes the template of the American gangster movie. He rises from the gutter to steal the American dream only to see it all go wrong. Edward G Robinson, who plays Caesar, is a suitably snarling little ball of fury. The plotting is tight. There is some extremely good use of montage to suggest flurries of activity that the budget didn’t stretch to. If you have any kind of serious interest in cinema and you haven’t seen it, you should.
Viewing the film yesterday, the one thing that really surprised me was how gay it all was. Caesar’s downfall comes about because he can’t accept one of his old cronies would rather go out dancing with a woman than hang around with him. (Caesar doesn’t hold with that soft sissy stuff!). Meanwhile, (despite a charitable note on the cover that Robinson was not gifted with matinee idol looks) the other gang members spend most of their time gazing upon Caesar with the kind of expressions normally reserved for Romeo espying Juliet. It’s camper than Christmas once you open yourself to that interpretation. I found myself laughing out loud.
Of course, I could be wrong. None of the learned scholars featured in the included documentary mention this possibility. They, however, looked like particularly serious guys who wouldn’t spend seventy five minutes cacking themselves over an obscure theory about a serious film.
Not like me.
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Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Fun review of an absolute must see gangster classic.