This is a classic that's been on my list for years and which I finally got around to seeing...it's a typical gangster movie: gangster grows up poor, is a bad boy determined to have the finer things in life, leads a life of crime, gets to the top (or near it) and falls down fast, usually dying at the end.

Edward G. Robinson has never been one of my favorite actors, although by all accounts he was a great guy and everyone liked him...but his onscreen tough guy persona is not only not appealing, but actually faintly icky. But he does a good job in this movie, as the gangster who stops at nothing to rise in the crime syndicate until he loses it all.

Released in the same year as Public Enemy with Jimmy Cagney, they both tell pretty much the same story; Cagney is charming and engaging, a cute bad boy that the viewer can sympathize with even while knowing that he's bad clear through...whereas Robinson's Rico/Little Caesar is just evil, nasty and abrasive, a real example of Crime That Must Pay.

Both movies have memorable endings, although Cagney's is certainly much more sensational, and of course both bad guys are killed for their crimes...but very satisfyingly.

A good period piece, definitely worth seeing, especially in conjunction with others of its kind.