Un drôle de cambrioleur

A friend of mine had told me that this was funnier than Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks I admit I was skeptical, as too many so-called comedies from the black and white era don't get much more than a smile from me. My skepticism was rewarded with a very funny, fast-paced comedy with the kind of "crackling" dialogue they don't write anymore. Edward G. Robinson is a scream in the lead, and his supporting cast equals him. Don't miss this one. There's never a dull moment!

I couldn't help but think as I watched Larceny, Inc. That it was a vehicle originally intended for The Three Stooges. Edward G. Robinson, Broderick Crawford, and Edward Brophy star as three ex-cons who appear to go straight by buying a luggage shop, but they're secretly digging underground to get to the neighboring bank. Their rapport is adorable, and with the quick banter and slapstick antics, it's easy to imagine Moe, Larry, and Curly in the leads instead.

I love Edward G. Robinson, so I'm always rooting for him when he's playing someone who doesn't get a fair shake. Broderick Crawford is surprisingly sweet and funny in this role, making me wonder why Hollywood ever cast him as a bad guy when he's so believable as a good, dumb sidekick. Usually Edward Brophy takes small roles, but as the second lead, he's given a large amount of screen time, and he holds his own and has great chemistry with Eddie. Jack Carson joins the cast as a confident luggage salesman who's intent on wooing Eddie's surrogate daughter Jane Wyman, who looks absolutely adorable as a blonde! Anthony Quinn, as you might guess, plays a gangster, and Harry Davenport, as you might guess, plays a likable old man. With this many recognizable faces in the cast, how can you resist this classic?

My favorite line is when Barbara Jo Allen tries to get Eddie's romantic attention. She owns the neighboring lingerie store and she invites him over to check out her supply. "You come over sometime and look at my trunks," Eddie answers back. Larceny, Inc. Is very funny, as the quips fly across the screen, you might find the plot a little familiar. If you remember a movie in which three ex-cons dig underground next to a bank, you might be thinking of Woody Allen's remake, entitled Small Time Crooks. Both are very funny, so no matter which one you start with, you're in for a treat.

The Warner bros, was my favorite studio from the Hollywood system between 1930-45. They make social films, gangster movies, romantic melodramas, musical comedies, and sometimes robust comedies like this one. Here, the great E.G. Robinson makes funs of his bad guys role, like he will do a few years later in Brother Orchid. Dialogues are very funny and the situations, very simples, are hilarious. Good laughs!

S. J. Perelman, on whose play this is based, would sometimes use the nom de plume Sidney Namelrep, a silly, devil-may-care joke that is perfectly in tune with his sense of humor. He wrote some of the most outrageously funny pieces ever to appear in the New Yorker. His comedy is filled with whimsy, non sequiturs, twisted clichés, notions that seem to emerge recklessly from nowhere, scarcely masked libidinous allusions, ridiculously transparent self justifications -- the kind of humor associated with the Marx Brothers. And in fact he wrote some of their best lines in (if I remember correctly) "Monkey Business" -- "Hurry, my dear, my regiment leaves at dawn."

His wit still can be seen through the screen of the more strict narrative line seen in this movie but because the characters need to seem reasonably sane, their range is a bit restricted. ("Mmm. Did you concoct these little tidbits?") The story itself, fortunately, is so absurd that it rolls right along, in the same league as Warners' "All Through The Night."

It's a pretty ancient tale. Thieves getting into a store next to a bank in order to break through the wall into the vault. The first time I remember coming across it was in a Sherlock Holmes tale, "The Red Headed League," and I doubt it was original with Conan-Doyle. This is the earliest movie about such a caper that I'm aware of. But later there was "Big Deal on Madonna Street" and most recently Woody Allan's "Small Time Crooks," which duplicated some of the incidents as well as the general idea. (The thieves break open a water pipe while digging the tunnel; the original plan fizzles out when the phony business upstairs becomes an economic bonanza.)

It's a well-done and highly entertaining comedy with the usual roster of Warners' stalwarts at their best. The kind of movie about which you can truly say, "They don't make 'em like that anymore." I don't know how long it took to shoot. Not long, I imagine. New York City is nothing more than a street on the back lot and a handful of interiors.

Loyd Bacon, whom no one ever proclaimed a genius, knows how to shoot a film efficiently, the way a good car mechanic knows his business, moving the bodies around with careless ease. There isn't a wasted motion. Every step, every opening of a door, every snarl and stutter, serves a purpose. Robinson breezes through the whole business. Jane Wyman looks cute. Broderick Crawford is dumb beyond belief. And every item of luggage in the store is "Nine seventy-five."

It's all very amusing.

"Larceny, Inc." is a 1942 film starring Edward G. Robinson, Broderick Crawford, Jane Wyman, Anthony Quinn, Jack Carson, Ed Brophy, Jackie Gleason and Henry Davenport. The idea behind this film consciously or subconsciously may have inspired Woody Allen's "Small Time Crooks." Gangsters buy a luggage shop situated next to a bank in order to break through the wall into the bank vault; instead, they find themselves dragged kicking and screaming into legitimacy.

Edward G. Robinson is "Pressure," an ex-con who at first tries to keep customers out of the store ("if a customer comes in, blow him off") - but when he tells the young woman like a daughter to him (Wyman) that he's sincere, she starts working with a luggage salesman (Carson) on big promotions. Soon the store is jumping with customers. The merchants on the street ask for Pressure's support - the street is being torn up, and it's right before Christmas; he becomes their hero. However, when an ex con comes into the store to borrow money, he realizes the store is a front for a bank robbery and goes back and tells a scary prisoner, Leo (Quinn) who escapes and decides to do the job himself.

The funniest scene is the aggravated Robinson wrapping a suitcase when a customer asks for gift-wrapping. Robinson is hilarious - he could be doing Little Ceasar, he takes it so seriously, and he's all the funnier for it. Broderick Crawford did some comedy before "All the King's Men" - he's excellent as a dumb associate of Pressure's who's digging the hole to the bank. Jackie Gleason plays a soda jerk - and makes the most of it. Wyman and Carson don't have much to do, alas. The rest of the cast is uniformly delightful.

This is a real gem - "Small Time Crooks" takes the basic plot and goes in another direction with it - both are wonderful films. Try and catch this one on TCM.