Os Irmãos Rico

Despite a horrible happy ending that still leaves a bad taste in the ol noir mouth and some really crappy acting from Kathryn Grant and Dianne Foster director Phil Karlson, as per usual, manages to snatch steak tartar from the jaws of Hollywood sausage. I'm especially impressed at how this fine action director can create an atmosphere of tension and menace without resorting to undue amounts of physical violence. In the first two thirds of the film, other than a very brief scene of one of the Rico boys being beaten, most of the mayhem is of the psychological variety as we see the slow, painful education of Eddie Rico into his naivete regarding the ways and means of organized crime that he had foolishly thought he'd left behind. Ably dramatizing this inner conflict is Richard Conte, one of the giants of the noir and crime genres. From an eager desire to believe that crime boss "Uncle" Sid has his best interests at heart to his sagging realization that the opposite is the case, Conte gives us a believable and powerful study in the dangers of self delusion. Ably assisting are three fine but too often overlooked late 50s/early 60s character actors; Larry Gates, who usually plays avuncular professors and DAs, chillingly effective as Sid, "Naked City" regular Harry Bellaver as a corrupt big fish in a small Calif. Desert town pond, and Rudy Bond as his none too bright flunky. So even though the denouement sucks and I would have liked more exploration of the very sick Sid/Eddie relationship I think even Georges Simenon, upon whose novel this film is based, would not have minded watching. Give it a B. PS...Great moody, black and white cinematography from Burnett Guffey of "Bonnie/Clyde" fame. I like how he renders Coronado Calif. Into Miami.

Phil Karlson may not be one of the 'great' American directors but he was a very fine genre director, specializing in tough, gritty gangster thrillers of which "The Brothers Rico" is just one. Richard Conte is the retired mob accountant who finds himself drawn back to his criminal past when one of his former associates asks him for a favour on the same day his brother confesses to carrying out a hit and Larry Gates is excellent as the mob boss who drags him back in. Others in a decent cast include Dianne Foster as Conte's wife, James Darren as the younger brother whose actions set the plot in motion, Kathryn Grant as Darren's wife and later director Lamont Johnson as one of the few 'good' guys.

The source material was a story by none other than Georges Simenon though you probably would never guess it. This is a good, old-fashioned mob movie, the kind that would sit nicely on a double-bill with either Siegel's "The Killers" or Boorman's "Point Blank". Conte spends most of the movie chasing after Darren while Gates' heavies close in and until the end action is kept to a minimum. You could say this is an American gangster film reflected through a European art-house lens. With a better actor than Conte in the lead it might have been a classic but even with Conte it still exerts a grip while the excellent black and white cinematography was the work of the great Burnett Guffey.

The Brothers Rico is directed by Phil Karlson and adapted to screenplay by Lewis Meltzer, Ben Perry and Dalton Trumbo from a story written by Georges Simenon. It stars Richard Conte, Dianne Foster, Kathryn Crosby, Larry Gates and James Darren. Music is scored by George Duning and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.

Retired from the mob and happy in his new found family life, Eddie Rico (Conte) is pulled back into the underworld when word comes that his two brothers, who are still working for the syndicate, are wanted men.

Coming at the end of the film noir cycle, The Brothers Rico sits somewhere in between noir and pure crime drama. Conte's character is a classic noir protagonist, a man who is unable to shake of his past and gets drawn into the dark underworld by family ties. Waiting there for him is a surprise, and not a good one at that. The script is very well written, which in Karlson's hands paints a sinister mob underworld operating right under the noses of everyday folk. There's much talking and very little action for most of the running time, but the dialogue is strong, always imbuing the narrative with a sense of menace, background characters are always a threat and violence implied looms over proceedings.

However, in spite of it being well written and acted with great skill by Conte, Gates and the support cast, it's a dull visual experience and crowned off by a ridiculous "aint life grand epilogue". Top cinematographer Burnett Guffey is wasted here, the film is very minimalist in production, with the film often feeling like an episode of some TV cop show. There's a brief glimpse in the last five minutes of what Guffey could do, but that's it. Conte's character provides the ticket to the noir universe, but ultimately this represents the changing of the guard, a winding down of true film noir. From a viewpoint of the film being a crime drama that provides an observation of a crime syndicate as a real presence, Karlson's movie scores a more than safe 7/10. As a film noir, though, it barely registers and noir fans should expect a flat 5/10 movie. Rounded out I make it 6/10.

Former gangland auditor is persuaded to locate missing brother before mob is compelled to kill him.

For a crime drama, that lengthy opening scene is a surprise. It's marital bliss all the way as Eddie (Conte) and wife Alice (Foster) cuddle up, providing a ton of promotional material for the censored 1950's. But more importantly, all the lovey-dovey defines Eddie's truly reformed character, plus Alice as a wife you'd want to come back to.

For a Karlson crime drama, however, the violence is oddly played down by a director who knew how to make the audience shudder. Instead, paranoia mounts as Eddie sees suspicious characters wherever he goes in search of brother Johnny (Darren). When Johnny is finally confronted by the mob, Karlson oddly passes over the potential of a centerpiece violent scene. I suspect that's because of censorship concerns given Johnny's youth and the emotional buildup preceding it. Also, note how abruptly the final shootout is handled, as if they're suddenly running out of film.

That early scene between Eddie and Kubik (Gates) is a minor masterpiece of treachery that carries through the rest of the film. As the oily family friend, Gates is simply superb. Excellent too is Harry Bellaver's smooth-talking local chieftain, who keeps appealing to Eddie's sense of survival.

As a whole, however, the movie is more a collection of good scenes rather than overall impact. Maybe because there's a curious lack of intensity to heighten the dramatic narrative. Whatever the reason, it's a good crime drama without being first-rate.

The Brothers Rico (1957)

With Richard Conte's role of a lifetime, and a harrowing mobster scene that presages the Godfather in its casual viciousness, this is one heck of a movie. It sometimes lacks good old fashioned drama with the lighting and the camera-work, and some people might find Conte a bit reserved for the leading man under the gun, but the writing is really solid, the story well constructed, and the movie as a whole feels believable and tragic.

At the core is a situation is Conte as Eddie Rico, formerly an accountant in a ruthless mob, now running a legit business in Florida and about to adopt a kid with his charming and playful wife. But right in scene one he gets a call from an old mob crony. They need his help. Or they say they do, at least, and a thug shows up to "work" at the business. Eddie's two brothers are still in the mob, and have been part of a hit, and there is an investigation closing in on them all unless Eddie can help get his brothers out of harms way. He takes this to mean out of the country, but it becomes clear to everyone else, and eventually to Eddie, that they mean to kill at least one of the two brothers.

So with the clock ticking over an adoption ready that very day, and with Conte flying all over the country in a desperate bid to sort this out, we see a growing menace in thug after thug, place after place, from Florida to New York, where Mama and grandmother live, to a ranch in Southern California where one brother is hiding with his pregnant wife. What makes it hold to together especially is how sympathetic the brothers are as characters, and how evil the main mob man is even though he insists he loves the Ricos, and loves their mother like his own mother, and he wants only the best.

In fact, the one long speech from this thug, played by Lamont Johnson, is a precursor to Brando's role in "The Godfather," with a chilling mixture of honorable love and threatening obligation and accountability. Eddie is at first taken by the honorable part, the love part, and events have to show him the brutal truth.

And who is director Phil Karlson? An underrated master of these kinds of gritty, and not quite film noirish, crime and mob films in the 1950s ("Kansas City Confidential" and "The Phenix City Story"). I say not quite noir only in the sense that his films lack the over-the-top dialog and punchy lines of classic noir, and the filming is not as theatrical with angles, shadows, and dark night scenes. And if you like me prefer those noirish noirs, you have to step back and say wow, this is something really convincing and powerful, too. Some of Karlson's films are, in fact, film noirs at the core, but late noirs, no longer dealing with the loner finding his footing in an alien America, but still with a man against the world, as Eddie Rico is here. And the cinematographer here is Burnett Guffey, who would later shoot "Birdman from Alcatraz" and the legendary "Bonnie and Clyde."

This is a seriously interesting film. Flawed, yes, sometimes obvious and clichéd, yes, but at its best it's penetrating.