The Guilty Generation

So, let's pretend you are a Hollywood producer back in 1931 and you are planning on making a movie about mobsters--Italian mobsters to be precise. So, for the roles of mobsters and family members of the Ricca and Palmero family, who would you pick? Well, unless you were insane, you probably wouldn't pick the British Boris Karloff, Hispanic-American Leo Carrillo or the Waspy Constance Cummings or Robert Young. And, oddly, these are exactly the actors chosen for this film that is a bit like "Little Caesar" and "Romeo & Juliet" merged into one. The only one in the cast that came off as Italian was the English actress Emma Dunn--now SHE seemed like she was cast well as she sounded Italian and was quite effective. Now I am NOT saying that the others were bad--they just didn't seem very Italian.

The film begins with nice-guy Young getting a surprise visit from his dad (Karloff). It seems Karloff is hurt because his architect son has changed his name and wants nothing to do with the family business of killing people and selling bathtub booze. But, despite his charming personality, Young is determined to make it on his own and tells his father to leave.

A bit later, the film shifts to another unhappy child of a different gangster. It seems that Constance wants to be accepted by high society but her thug brother and father (Carrillo) make it really tough. When she throws a fancy party, the brother starts acting tough by throwing people into the pool. When Young stops him, the brother is about to shoot him! Nice family, huh?! Well, it seems that Young knew Cummings when they were kids. This, combined with their angst about their mob families makes their falling in love natural...except the two fathers are rivals bent on killing each other as well as wiping out the other's family! As a result, the Romeo & Juliet angle enters into this fateful romance.

Overall, this is a low-budget but entertaining film from Columbia. It's well worth seeing and a nice reworking of Shakespeare--minus all the olde tyme dialog. However, for fans of Karloff, be forewarned that he's really not in the film that much and I assume he was billed as high as he was due to his recent appearance in "Frankenstein". Regardless, it's a tough little film that I enjoyed.

Some parts of this movie have not survived seventy-five years well, and at times the dialogue limps. Robert Young, as the young lover, speaks in a voice that is annoying in the high register. Constance Cummings is a beautiful young woman and a good actor. Boris Karloff handles his rather small role gracefully, with just an air of lurking menace.

But it is Leo Carrillo, who begins the movie looking like a buffoon and ends the movie as a terrible monster, who owns this movie. I won't give away any details, but the ending, once you realize its inevitability, is a real shocker.

Does Carrillo's performance make the movie worth seeing? Yes, although just barely, and you may need a bit of patience until the movie is worthwhile, but perhaps the mobile camera-work will keep you interested.

Guilty Generation, The (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Warner had The Public Enemy, Universal had Scarface and Columbia had this little gem from director Rowland V. Lee. A young couple (Robert Young & Constance Cummings) fall in love even though their fathers (Leo Carrillo & Boris Karloff) are rivals of opposite gangs. There's no doubt this lifts the story of Romeo and Juliet and while it starts off a bit shaky there's no denying the final twenty minutes are extremely good as the girl's father finally finds out who the boy's father is. Everyone gives a very good performance but Cummings is the real standout with her delightful charm. Karloff is also very good in his few moments at the start of the film. It's really great that TCM is showing all these rare Columbia films and I can't wait to see what else they have from this period.

...no, not really, but the British Boris is playing the head of one of two feuding (Italian??)-American crime families. Boris plays the head of the Ricca clan, Tony Ricca. Leo Carrillo, who is actually Spanish in descent - in fact a member of an old California Spanish land grant family - plays Mike, the head of the rival Palmerro clan.

This is a late Prohibition Era film in which the public is said to be on to the Mafia and beginning to demand action - there were several of these made in the early 30's - as the bloodshed has begun to spill onto the streets and takes the lives of innocent children. Meanwhile the warring clans have taken to killing off each other's family members in a last ditch grab for sole control of "the rackets".

The central theme of the film is the romance between young Marco Ricca and Maria Palmerro, both straight kids caught in a gangster world. Marco was taken away from his father's life of crime by his mother at the age of ten, but he has returned to America an architect who has changed his name to John Smith. Maria Palmerro is the only daughter of Mike Palmerro, the enemy of Marco/John's father. John thinks there is no danger in this association since he has long been estranged from his father, is truly legitimate, and nobody knows of his true family ties. Marco has a brother who is working in his dad's criminal enterprise, and likewise Maria has a brother who is working in her father's criminal enterprise.

This is mainly Carillo's film, as his character gradually lets the desire for revenge get the best of his common sense at the expense of his entire family. He's a brutish man, such as in a scene where he threatens his daughter that if she doesn't change out of her black dress into a white party dress he'll cut the black dress right off her body with a pair of scissors. He has raised an equally brutish man in the person of his grown son, who decides if his speakeasy flapper girlfriends are not welcome at his sister's party he'll just shove the actual party guests into the pool.

You can tell something dreadful is coming, but you're not just sure how or when or to who it is coming. I'll let you watch and find out.

The movie pulls some punches as it never actually comes out and says Prohibition is the source of the problem, instead everyone keeps talking about "the rackets". Likewise no one ever mentions the nationality of the warring families specifically. Ruth Warren is terrific as a gum-chewing gun moll-like publicist that Palmerro has hired. Although Phil Tead plays the news reporter who is writing stories on the warring clans, Mr. Tead is a dead ringer for Walter Brennan. Emma Dunn, who plays Mike Palmerro's mother, is the only member of the cast who convinces me she is Italian (although she is actually British) as she desperately tries to perform CPR on Mike's conscience.

I'd recommend this one - it certainly is rather unique among early 30's gangster films.

'The Guilty Generation' has a misleading title. This movie would seem to indict a generation, but it's actually more interested in indicting an ethnic group ... to be precise, the Italians. This movie takes place in a universe where everyone named Angelo or Luigi is automatically a gangster. Late in the film, there's some brief dialogue about honest Italians vilifying the crooked members of their 'race' ... but most of this movie seems to indicate that Italian ancestry and criminal behaviour are mutually inclusive.

Robert Young is a rising young architect named John Smith, a name guaranteed to attract attention. Indeed, we soon find out that he was born Marco Ricca, son of gangster Tony Ricca. The latter is played by Boris Karloff, looking not remotely Italian. (Although Italian-American actor Abe Vigoda was a Karloff lookalike.) Karloff brings deep conviction and presence to this role, but his performance is not very convincing. Part of the problem is that Tony Ricca's dialogue is full of "ain't"s and other grammatical errors, yet Karloff speaks these thick-eared lines in his usual cultured tones. Elsewhere, Murray Kinnell is good in a supporting role, but his well-bred English accent seems out of place in a setting that's knee-deep in goombahs.

There are excellent performances by two actors unknown to me, Emma Dunn and Elliott Rothe. Also impressive is Leo Carrillo. Because of his short stature and thick accent, Carrillo is best known for comic roles. Here, he's chillingly believable as a crime lord, utterly ruthless and unforgiving. Much of the film takes place in the sumptuous Florida mansion owned by Carrillo's character. I was astounded that Columbia Pictures -- at this point, a studio barely out of Poverty Row -- were able to achieve these production values.

Also quite good, in a supporting role, is Ruth Warren as Carrillo's press agent. Unfortunately, Warren was precisely the same character type as several other better-known and better actresses -- Jean Dixon and Glenda Farrell spring to mind -- so she failed to claim a niche for herself among Hollywood's character actresses. As the romantic leads in this melange, Robert Young and the insipid Constance Cummings are as dull as dishwater. I've never yet seen a performance by Cummings that impressed me.

'The Guilty Generation', well-directed by the underrated Rowland V Lee, and nicely photographed by Byron Haskin, is probably of greatest interest to Karloff fans. Be advised that Karloff's role is actually quite small, and he's miscast. Overall, I'll rate this movie 6 out of 10.