One of Warner Bros' prototypical gangster flicks, released the same year as The Public Enemy that still stands out for Eddie G's bold and in-your-face turn as the vicious mug of the title. The film itself though shows and sounds its age more than most from the era and at times is a slow moving bore. This came very soon after the transfer to sound pictures and most of the actors show it, suffering from a languid, ponderous delivery that holds the picture up in several scenes but never seems to hamper Robinson.
The short statured star bulls his way through the unassured cast just like his character bulls his way to the top of the criminal empire - determined, abrasive, cocksure, miserable and not to be denied. It really is an early tour de force for Robinson, eminently quotable and much imitated. Forever a cinematic icon.
But it's far from a perfect picture. The structure is flimsy and Rico has no depth coming from the direction or script, just what Robinson gives him. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. will have probably written his performance off in this out of embarrassment by 1933, and ditto for Glenda Farrell who did much better work later on.
The film's strengths are its visual style, at times very inventive, and Robinson's performance, culminating in his dying words stolen no doubt at gunpoint from Nero 'Is this the end of Rico?'
A famous picture and worth seeing, but Cagney and Harlow in the Public Enemy is probably your best bet of the two.
The short statured star bulls his way through the unassured cast just like his character bulls his way to the top of the criminal empire - determined, abrasive, cocksure, miserable and not to be denied. It really is an early tour de force for Robinson, eminently quotable and much imitated. Forever a cinematic icon.
But it's far from a perfect picture. The structure is flimsy and Rico has no depth coming from the direction or script, just what Robinson gives him. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. will have probably written his performance off in this out of embarrassment by 1933, and ditto for Glenda Farrell who did much better work later on.
The film's strengths are its visual style, at times very inventive, and Robinson's performance, culminating in his dying words stolen no doubt at gunpoint from Nero 'Is this the end of Rico?'
A famous picture and worth seeing, but Cagney and Harlow in the Public Enemy is probably your best bet of the two.