Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

GazerRise Fantastic!

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: Ex-convict buys a luggage shop next door to a bank. NOTES: The original stage play opened on Broadway at the Morosco on 10 April 1941. Following very unenthusiastic reviews, it closed after only 22 performances. George Mathews, Ruth Weston, Forrest Orr and Phyllis Brooks starred, whilst Shelley Winters made her debut. Romney Brent directed, Courtney Burr produced. This was Robinson's last film for Warner Bros. under his million dollar contract. Thereafter he freelanced.VIEWER'S GUIDE: Despite the censor's "Parental Guidance" rating, I can see no reason to prevent children from seeing this film. Admittedly it's a very noisy farce, but since when have kids been afraid of noise.COMMENT: Plenty of Warner Bros. gloss, including a fine support cast, has gone into this somewhat over-verbose, more than a trifle over-frantic farce. One feels, however, that Robinson is miscast in slapstick comedy. Crawford is also too heavy-handed. The best of the leads are Edward S. Brophy and Jack Carson, both naturally funny men - though Brophy has the lion's share of comic opportunities here. Miss Wyman is okay in the thankless role of the voice-of-conscience, romantic lead. It's a minor but at times reasonably amusing little comedy - "little" in the sense that its one joke is stretched rather thin and doesn't amount to very much. But the director keeps it moving at a commendably brisk pace in order to disguise the film's obvious stage play origins. Too many of the scenes are still set in the luggage shop, but it's an interesting and novel setting nonetheless. The cast is great. What we don't like about the movie is that the plot runs off the rails in the third act. Anthony Quinn's gangster is suddenly introduced and though this does give rise to some amusing scenes and an action-filled climax with lots of extras milling about, the conclusion is both abrupt and unsatisfactory and the Wyman, Carson characters are completely dropped. At this stage in his career, Robinson was heartily sick of straight gangster roles. He had already spoofed the genre in A Slight Case of Murder (1938) and Brother Orchid (1940), both with rather more humorous results than on this occasion.

drjgardner Edward G Robinson (1893-1973) was one of Warner's biggest stars of the 1930s, usually playing a gangster. The 1940s would see him expand with films like "The Sea Wolf" (1941), "Double Indemnity" (1944), "The Woman in the Window" (1945), "Scarlet Street" (1946) and "House of Strangers" (1949) and later he would do such notable films as "The Ten Commandments" (1956), "Hole in the Head" (1959), "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), and "Soylent Green" (1973). He also took a brief tour into comedy with films like "The Little Giant" (1933) and 'The Whole Town's Talking" (1935), and this one "Larceny Inc." was one more attempt. While he was an excellent actor, comedy was not his forte, and this film shows it. The dialogue is snappy, but neither Robinson nor Broderick Crawford carry it off. Crawford, if you recall was best as a heavy, winning the Oscar for "All the King's Men" (1949) and spending years on TV on "Highway Patrol".It's a great cast. Look for a very young Jackie Gleason as a bartender and an equally young Anthony Quinn as a prisoner. Jane Wyman and Jack Carson appear in their first of several films together.Though the cast is talented, the film is not very funny. In addition, the film never exceeds its origins as a play.1942 was a good year in films – "Yankee Doddle Dandy" and "Mrs. Miniver" were the clear Oscar winners and at the box office. Other popular films included "Casablanca", "Woman of the Year", Alan Ladd's "This Gun for Hire", Gary Cooper's "Pride of the Yankees", and "Road to Morocco"

jacobs-greenwood A comedy directed by Lloyd Bacon that was written by Everett Freeman and Edwin Gilbert from a play by Laura and S.J. Perelman. There are lots of familiar stock players in this one, but the main characters are Edward G. Robinson, Broderick Crawford (playing an even dumber character than usual), and Edward Brophy (larger than his normal sidekick roles?). Though Jane Wyman received second billing, Jack Carson third, and Anthony Quinn fourth, their roles are small in comparison. Harry Davenport is appropriated billed at sixth though; John Qualen, Grant Mitchell, George Meeker, and even Jackie Gleason are in this one.The film starts with a prison baseball game to establish the relationship between Robinson, the leader, and Crawford, his flunkie. The two are about to released from prison after serving their time; Brophy is the part of the gang who has been tending to things while they were on the inside. Robinson is determined to go legitimate and promises Wyman, who's like a daughter to him, that he will. However, when the bank turns him down for the loan he needs to open a dog track, he decides that he'll have to get his initial stake his old way.He notices that there's a luggage business next door to the bank whose basement may provide access to it. He "buys" the business from Davenport and soon has Crawford digging in the basement. Brophy acquires the needed supplies and otherwise assists Robinson with keeping customers out of the store! However, the local businessmen befriend Robinson and ask him to help them by getting the city to finish the subway construction, which has the street torn up in front of their businesses. Though Robinson likes the fact that there is limited pedestrian traffic into his store, he accidentally helps them, becoming their hero.Wyman, who's being romantically pursued by luggage manufacturing rep (Carson), gets wise to Robinson's plans. She then enlists Carson's unknowing help to keep customers coming through the store to delay or prevent the crime. Quinn, "The Man" inside the prison, gets wind of the job Robinson & Co. are working and breaks out in order to muscle in on the deal.By this time, Robinson has become a respected businessman on his street, with the bank wanting to buy his business for 15 times what he paid for it. He has just convinced his "partners in (the would be) crime" to go straight and accept the bank's offer when Quinn shows up.The ending of this film is the only real downer ... it's worse than silly.

jesusmariacastillo This film is real hard , not just to get, but hardly ever's shown on t.v. The last time I saw it was about 15 years ago, man,I miss it,It's a shame, because this film will have you rolling in laughter for at least 3/4 of it. The Late Robinson and Crawford took their tough guys characters and turned them into the funniest you've ever seen ! This movie was made when entertainment WAS entertainment. There are no nude scenes, no foul or vulgar language. There is some shooting action, but the main story line here, is the chemistry between Robinson & Crawford. Around the 6th minute after the movie starts, when Robinson's telling Crawford that the warden's neck tie was the hardest to get from him , is hysterical , not to mention when their playing baseball in the prison's yard, or when they're digging a hole in the basement of the luggage store. This is pure clean comedy !