Les frères Rico

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.

Richard Conte stars in "The Brothers Rico," a 1957 noir with James Darren, Larry Gates, Kathryn Grant, and Dianne Foster.

Conte is Eddie Rico, a former mob accountant, now in the laundry business in Florida and quite successful. The first few scenes are filled with sexual innuendo and show a loving, romantic couple who hope to adopt a baby soon. Then Eddie gets a call from his old boss, Kubik (Gates) who wants to see him on an urgent matter. Considering his boss as "Uncle Sid," he goes to New York against his wife's (Foster) wishes.

Eddie is approached by his brother Gino - he claims the mob wants him to go to St. Louis, and he's sure they plan to rub him out as he was part of a hit and the others who were involved are dead. Eddie advises him to go to St. Louis, that Sid wants him to lay low and would never hurt him. Kubik is grateful to their mother (Argentina Brunetti) who once stopped a bullet meant for him, so Eddie knows he will protect his brothers.

When Eddie meets with Kubik, he learns that his brother Johnny is married and no one has heard from him. However, his wife's (Grant) brother has been talking to the DA about a mob witness. Eddie assures Sid it can't be Johnny. Kubik wants Eddie to find his brother and talk to him. Eddie does, not realizing that they just want to find Eddie and kill him. He realizes his mistake too late.

This was a very good, edge of your seat noir, low on violence though suspenseful. It was on Empire's list of 500 greatest movies, so I wanted to check it out.

Richard Conte does a great job as Eddie, who trusts the wrong people. This was his kind of role, playing the tough son of an immigrant, mixed up with the wrong people, but with a good heart. James Darren, now 67, hasn't changed much except in recent years he's let his hair go gray.

One more point. Someone mentioned that the casting was ridiculous because there was a 26-year difference between Conte and Darren. Back in the '20s and '30s especially, women had children that died at birth or were stillborn - my grandmother had nine children and three lived. There is quiet a gap between the oldest and youngest in that family. That was not unusual.

Everyone is very good in this film, and as a point of interest, the woman playing Argentina Brunetti's mother was, in fact, her real-life mother. Recommended.

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.

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.