Little Caesar (Warner Bros.) (1931)

selve Printings! Syndicatiun In 82 eading Newspapers Guarantee > Backs His Gaff With His Gat! ected by tRVYN “ROY WwW, R .ctt’s novel ne lowdown the highs of racketerdom. t?’s More verful Than “Doorway To Hell” gters Human, ‘ot Merely Killers (Advance News) otentially, we are all every of character,” says Edward G. inson, who plays the title role Little Caesar”, which comes to eo Theatre on ttle Caesar” is First National’s hone version of W. B. Burfamous best-seller. The novel selected as the book-of-theby the Literary Guild recent‘ vi-dly pictures the rise— an American gang leadally dwelling on the psyand traits and social en‘nt which give rise to his ae ee lways look for the human side very character I play, whether J good, bad, or just indifferent. character in a picture should sx be regarded as a mere type. nstance, it is wrong to look on yaugster as a mere killer. As natter of fact the biggest gangs*g never do any killing. That is to hired gunmen. The gangsters | today are a direct misdirected ‘growth of big business methods. ey operate on the idea of trusts trolling everything. They are t content until they have wiped rival gangs and control the sle business—because it is more ‘omical to operate that way. The ess king sometimes crushes his 1 in an economic coup. The rster, being outside the law, uses nt methods—the machine gun s answer to competition. Effiy, Organization, business psygy, knowledge of human naand power in leadership of -—these are the things which go ive a head gangster, such as le Caesar,’ the position which olds. And of course it is all ‘d and warped—just human * gone wrong.” ‘ition to Robinson, s, Jr., Glenda Farrell, Wilaier, Jr., Sidney Blackmer, Ince, George E. Stone, are "-3e in the cast. Mervyn rected from the scenario Faragoh. Douglas lost pera FR MILLION DOLLAR. PHOTOPLAY THEATER. 12 Cut 60c, Mat 1c Cut No. All For Art Sake How The Director Risked His Watch LeRoy Lent It For Actor To Fumble With In ‘Little Caesar” (Advance Reader) Mervyn LeRoy, First Vitaphone director, has able faith in human skill fested by actors. Nationalconsideras mani This he proved during the filming of “Little Caesar,” the gangster epic based on the W. R. Burnett novel which opens at the Theatre. Came a banquet scene with Rico, the gang leader—played by Edward G. Robinson—as the guest of honor. The script called for a fine watch to be presented to Rico by his henchmen. Because a watch had not been previously supplied by the property department LeRoy tendered the use of his own watch in order to save time and consequently added production expense. LeRoy’s watch is a diamond-studded platinum watch given him by his beautiful wife, Edna Murphy. The action called for Robinson to accept the watch and in taking it fumble clumsily and almost drop it. The scene was rehearsed numerous times and _ photographed several times while LeRoy held his breath and nearly regretted his enlargment of the heart. But Robinson didn’t drop it! “Little Caesar,” the most pretentious picture yet directed by LeRoy, contains a big cast including Doug las Fairbanks, Jr., Sidney Blackmer, Glenda Farrell, Ralph Ince, Willie Collier, Jr., Stanley Fields, Maurice Black, Ben Hendricks, Jr., and many others. Francis Edward Faragoh did the screen version and dialogue. HE was the King of Gang he ruled hard. AN Love, caught in the clutches of such a des ic Begins for one Whole Week. Warner Bros. =GRAND= land. He won hard, he hard, he fought hard, te criminal ever escape? Little aegar with EDWARD G. ROBINSON Douglas FAIRBANKS, Jr. William Collier, Jr. Sidney Blackmer Glenda _ Farrell Thomas Jackson and Ralph Ince. i First National & Vitaphone Picture CONTINUOUS 10 AM 1130 IM Now A New Yorker Edward G. Robinson, who plays the title role in “Little Caesar,” now at the Theatre, was born in Rumania, but was brought to New York at an early age by his parents. He considers himself a native New Yorker, and remembers very little about his native land. Original Lincoln Ralph Ince, who portrays a tough gangster in “Little Caesar,” now at the Theatre, was the first man to take the role of Abraham Lincoln on the screen. He played the part of Lincoln in fifteen or twenty early pictures. Its Popularity. AUTHORITIES ON UNDERWORLD TECHNIQUE PAY SOCIAL VISIT TO “LITTLE CAESAR” TALKIE LOT Chicago Racketeers Vacationing at West Coast Com ment On Authentic Scenes in New Gang Film When you want technical advice in the movies you have to go where technical advice is. Either that, or you have to send word for the kind of technical advisors you want, and ask them to come to you. In many cases this is quite easy. If you want technical advisors on the great war, there are plenty of them who have been in every branch of the army and navy, and who were in the armies of all of the different nationalities engaged in the fray, There are experts in period pictures, who can tell you the exact kind of handkerchief Henry XIV used, what he wore, and how affairs in France were conducted in that day. There are experts on the old west. There are experts in Mexican banditry, and border forays. There are Civil War experts, race track experts, Soviet experts, whaling boat experts, Chinese experts, Wall Street and airplane experts. They are easy to get. There are prison experts. They can be found not only among prison officials, but ex-convicts who know all about prison life are plentiful and quickly located. But when you make a gangster picture—ah, that’s another matter. You need gangster experts, but gangsters do not list their addresses and phone numbers in handy telephone books. Furthermore a gangster is sometimes a rather difficult person to approach—provided you are not dealing in wholesale lots of bottled goods. And even then he is not noted for being garrulous and talkative about the intimate details of his profession. Mervyn LeRoy found all that out when he started doing research work on “Little Caesar,” the First National and Vitaphone version of W. B. Burnett’s book-of-the-month, now showing at the Theatre. The story is an authentic picture of the building up of a metropolitan gangster’s system, with Edward G. Robinson playing the title role. There have been gangster stories before, and there will be again. But never before, in the opinion of the Literary Guild, which selected ‘“Little Caesar” as the month, has there been such an authentic story of gangland, its organization, its purposes, its tense melodrama, its background. LeRoy wanted to get this same authentic atmosphere into the picture. Burnett, in the first place, acted as technical advisor. But they needed, in addition, some real gangsters. And real gangsters are not to be had on call from the Central Casting Bureau. Furthermore, gangsters do not like to be photographed, so it was impossible to get any real ones for the actual scenes. But that was not so important—for there are plenty of gangster types in Hollywood’s extra ranks. LeRoy and Burnett started on a TOMORROW youll know the truth about the racketeers from the lips of the most desperate criminal that ever stalked the screen. CAESAR Douglas FAIRBANKS, JR. who wanted to desert the gang for a girl His crazy bravado carries him from the gutter to big shot of gangland. A girl’s loves sends him back to the gutter again. WARNER BROS. THEATRE 50th St. & B’way Cut No. 3 Cut 60c, Mat 15c book-of-the| that live right in Hollywood. hunt for several gangsters to act as technical advisors. The police didn’t know of any Chicago gangsters hanging around Los Angeles. They were looking for them themselves, for the picture was made shortly after Alfred Lingle’s murder gangsters in Chicago, and the subsequent arrest in Los Angeles of Frankie Foster and his pals. Foster was reputed to have once owned the Lingle murder gun, and was subsequently indicted in Chicago for the crime. After a search of two weeks LeRoy and Burnett found three gangsters who consented to act as technical advisors on the production. How they were and how they found them neither LeRoy nor Burnett would reveal. Suffice it to say that they were real Chicago racketeers on a “vacation” in sunny Californier They found working in a movie studio : novel diversion. They were quite frank in their advice, and suggested changes in many scenes to make them core, form to real gangster techniqu They also suggested changes i many lines of the story. Some ¢ these could not be made, as gang ster slang is so involved that mucl of it would not be understood by the average movie-goer without ex planations, and of course these coul not be given on the screen. hw 7 The racketeers were quite prou of having the picture of the under world done just right, and highl praised the picture as being an au thentic portrayal of Chicago life They especially complimented Ed ward G. Robinson on his work, es pecially his portrayal of gangste: psychology, and praised_the worl of Ralph Ince, who has one of .. toughest roles in the picture. The were quite amazed that Dougla Fairbanks, Jr., could enact a gang ster role—a compliment whic pleased Young Doug very mucl inasmuch as it was a real tribut to his ability as an actor. Most technical advisors get scree credit. It should be mentioned tha there is no screen credit for thes gentlemen. But since their retur: to Chicago it is probably that the have been press-agenting the pic ture among their underworld pal as “the real McCoy.” Possibly will be a good idea to have t: audiences check their guns in son of the Chicago theatres when tl picture is shown there! Edward G. ROBINSON who shot to kill and never missed