Editing Mervyn LeRoy (section)

=== Gangster genre: ''Little Caesar'', 1930 ===

{{quote box|width=30em|bgcolor=cornsilk|fontsize=100%|salign=center|quote="'''Mother of mercy—Is this the last of Rico?''' <br />—Iconic last words of fictional mob boss Enrico Bandello in "Little Caesar"<ref>Baxter, 1968 p. 79-80</ref><ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 93-94</ref>}}
LeRoy first departed from his comedy-romance themed films with his drama ''[[Numbered Men]]'' (1930), a character study of convicts shot on location at [[San Quentin State Prison|San Quentin]] prison. The depiction of criminal elements had enjoyed popularity with [[Josef von Sternberg]]'s silent classic [[Underworld (1927 film)|''Underworld'']] (1927), a fantasy treatment of his lone [[Byronic hero|Byronic]] gangster "Bull" Weed.<ref>Kutner, 2011: "Josef von Sternberg's Underworld (1927)... with its light-hearted gangster protagonist, is a veritable romp" compared to LeRoy's subsequent film noir efforts.</ref><ref>Flint, 1987: LeRoy "became a director to watch when he filmed ''Little Caesar,'' a riveting 1930 expose of a vicious mobster (Edward G. Robinson). The movie rocked the nation and spawned a spate of gangster films. "<br />Sarris, 1966 p. 15</ref> The gangster film as a genre was not achieved until LeRoy's 1930 [[Little Caesar (film)|''Little Caesar'']], starring [[Edward G. Robinson]], the first time that "any real attempt was made by Hollywood to describe the brutal reality of the criminal world."<ref>Baxter, 1971. p. 39: "...it was not until Little Caesar and The Big House (1931) that any real attempt was made by Hollywood to describe the brutal reality of the criminal world."<br />Sarris, 1966. p. 15-16: Sternberg's Underworld "...&nbsp;steers clear of sociological implications of his material. ... " and "law and order ... never related to society but rather to an implacable Fate ..."</ref>

LeRoy's ''Little Caesar'' established the iconography of subsequent films on organized crime, emphasizing the hierarchy of family loyalties and the function of violence in advancing criminal careers.<ref>Barson, 2020: " then came ''Little Caesar'' (1931), the film that made LeRoy's reputation, with Edward G. Robinson as a Capone-like crime czar. It stands as one of the seminal gangster pictures, along with [[William Wellman]]'s ''[[The Public Enemy]]'' (1931) and [[Howard Hawks]]'s [[Scarface (932 film)|''Scarface'']]).<br />Whiteley, 2020: "In 1931 he confirmed his rising star status with two important films, the Oscar-nominated 'Five Star Final' and the influential gangster classic 'Little Caesar', starring Edward G Robinson, which marked the start of a succession of gangster films made by the Warner Bros studio."</ref> LeRoy's adroit cinematic handling of Robinson's Rico incrementally shifts initial audience response from revulsion at the character's homicidal acts to a "grudging admiration" that provides for a measure of sympathy when the gangster meets his sordid death in a back alley.<ref>Baxter, 1976 p. 79-80: "...begins as criticism and modulates to grudging admiration...until we find ourselves distressed by his death in a back alley...moved by his final bemused words 'My God [sic], is this the end of Rico?'"</ref> LeRoy recalled the topicality of his subject in 1930: "[[Al Capone]] was a household word and the [[Saint Valentine's Day Massacre]] had happened only a year before."<ref>LeRoy and Kleiner, 1974 p. 97</ref>

LeRoy further demonstrated his talent for delivering fast-paced and competently executed social commentary and entertainment with ''[[Five Star Final]]'' (1931), an exposé of tabloid journalism, and ''[[Two Seconds]]'' (1932), a "vicious and disenchanted" [[cautionary tale]] of a death row inmate, each starring Robinson.<ref>Canham, 1974 p. 142-143: Robinson's "''tour-de-force''" performance in ''Two Seconds''..."<br />Weil, 1987: "Through the 1930s, he directed many of the fast-paced melodramas that gave the Warner Bros. studio a reputation for films embodying hard-grained social realism.</ref><ref>Baxter, 1970 p. 80: Notes on Two Seconds: "Warners...provided LeRoy with a strongly biased towards social comment. The premise is disturbing." And p. 81: "...vicious and disenchanted..."<br />Safford, 2005 TMC: "Five Star Final (1931)...addressed a different type of social problem – tabloid journalism...[an] exploitative mix of personal tragedies, prurient interest and rumors as facts, often destroying lives and careers in the process..."<br />Wood, 2009 TMC: In Two Seconds " a condemned criminal [former construction worker] whose life unfolds in flashback at the moment of his electrocution."<br />Baxter, 1970: "...Vicious...unrelieved in its dark mood..."</ref>