Les frères Rico

An entertaining film noir as the genre was nearing its end. Here we had a look at the gangster-mob life from a different perspective. Richard Conte plays Eddie Rico who worked for his uncle Kubik. The film begins with an ominous phone call as Eddie is told he needs to take in a mob member who is hiding from the justice. Eddie complies although he wishes to not get involved. He is currently trying to adopt a child with his wife.

Eddie is called out by Kubik to find their missing brother Johnny. When Eddie runs into his brothers Gino and Johnny, he tells them to trust the mob and follow their instructions. Eddie believes that fidelity is still a virtue among the mob bosses. He is committed to the cause and will do anything to make sure his brothers continue to survive. As a noir, it moves from Florida to New York to Phoenix and California, becoming one of the few national noirs (there is none I can think of right now).

The film is shot in a minimalist fashion. Most of the sound is diegetic based on the scenes on screen. On several occasions, melodramatic music plays which actually tones down the suspense, but clearly it is a tool used by the director to deprive the viewer of expected non-diegetic music. Richard Conte and his wife are very playful in the early scenes and risqué for the period as they engage playfully in the bathroom. As a mob movie with an Italian background, it continues the early gangster movies but takes the angle of the people down the line who are at the mercy of those at the top.

The Brothers Rico is worthwhile as an entertaining movie if you enjoy film-noir and tracing the developments of gangster films.

Towards the end of the noir cycle director Phil Karlsen came up with a really good crime drama about three brothers all involved to a greater and lesser degree with organized crime. The oldest, Richard Conte, was at one time the syndicate accountant. But he's retired now, running a laundry the boys have set him up with. His biggest problem now is that he and wife Dianne Foster are trying to adopt a child.

But brothers Paul Picerni and James Darren are still very much involved and at the dirty end of it. Picerni's a contract killer who just made a major hit and Darren drove the car. Darren's gotten married and disappeared and the syndicate heads are worried he'll turn state's evidence. His brother-in-law Lamont Johnson's already been to the District Attorney.

Conte has faith and trusts in the big boss Larry Gates who's been close to the whole family Rico, including their mother Argentina Brunetti who took a bullet meant for Gates way back when. So when Gates tells him to find Darren, Conte takes it on face value.

Of course it's all not that simple and it becomes a tragedy for The Brothers Rico all around.

The Brothers Rico made in the Fifties as it was could have been an anti-Communist film. The syndicate seems to be really well organized, from Little Italy in New York, to Phoenix Arizona, to Miami, Florida, they've got Conte's movements all tracked. Karlson really builds the tension up as Conte seems to keep running into old acquaintances, but just keeps going on trust.

Larry Gates who usually plays upright moral types on screen has that persona work for him as the syndicate boss who's just pulling the strings from coast to coast. His is the best performance in the film, followed closely by Harry Bellaver an amiable underboss in Phoenix who's just following orders.

Kathryn Grant is in this film as Darren's bride. This year that The Brothers Rico came out, she became Mrs. Bing Crosby. She'd keep working a few more years, but after that retired to raise the Old Groaner's second family. She registers well in her role as a pregnant bride in love.

The Brothers Rico is a gripping noir film, not one for the paranoid minded among us.

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's (Walking Tall/Ben) 1957 crime thriller starring Richard Conte. Conte is a successful businessman in Florida w/a happy home life (his wife however is infertile but they are in the process of adoption) & all of this is interrupted by a cryptic phone call summoning him to Arizona for a one on one conference. He goes & meets w/a man who has been pulling his strings for the majority of his & his family's life. It turns out Conte has been tied to the mob for some time & even though his current business concerns are legitimate, his brother (who's part of this capo's crew & has gone into hiding) has committed murder & the boss fearing if caught, will spill to the authorities decides to rub him out w/Conte's help. At first hoping his familial loyalty will convince him of turning over his brother (he actually believes him at this point), Conte instead flies out to California to warn a third brother to run away (even though his own wife is expecting) but all along as much as Conte tries to keep his movements close to his vest, the mob boss's minions are on him every step of the way. A demoralizing hero's journey is taken whereby the cold waters of reality wash over him in the worst possible way w/blood being the price to be paid. Conte is excellent here & his trek to the unknown plays like a travelogue of the worst kind as he city skips his way to a bitter truth. Co-starring James Darren (I remember him from TJ Hooker growing up) as one of Conte's brothers.

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.