"Mother of mercy. Is this the end of Rico?" The final words of Rico "Little " Casaer (Edward G. Robinson), a small-time criminal who moves to the city, along with his buddy Joe Massara (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.). There they join Sam Vettori's gang. After Rico guns down the police commissioner during a robbery, his reputation grows, and he rises in the ranks, creating a monstrous ego. But with the rise of power and fortune comes betrayal, deceit, and the inevitable demise.
After the wall street crash of 1929, it was inescapable that the gangster film would become a huge box-office success. After all, these were men that took what they wanted, and lived in luxurious homes, and adorned with expensive jewellery. But with the glamorisation of crime, comes the moral paradox - and even here, in a film almost eighty years old, the message that a representation of good and evil is never that clear, and the concept is filled with grey areas. In the great depression, people instinctively mistrusted authority. After all, they were as corrupt as the gangsters that paid them.
With an electrifying performance by Robinson, he spits the snappy dialogue out as if he "were" the charismatic street criminal. He sneers at the camera, and is utterly magnetic. As Rico's relationship with Joe splinters, - Joe begins a love affair with the delectable Olga Stassoff (Glenda Farrel) - it soon turns nasty. But, soon the reality of the situation catches up to Rico, and, probable to a Hollywood movie, morality becomes its climax. Essential early talkie genre cinema. "Yeah! sho get-it watched. See!"
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