LARCENY INC
US, 1942, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn, Jackie Gleason.
Directed by Lloyd Bacon.
Larceny Inc is a pleasant B budget Warner Bros. comedy of the early 40s. It is a pleasant star vehicle for Edward G. Robinson who does a suave and polished comic turn. He is ably supported by Broderick Crawford, one of his goofy roles. There is a strong supporting cast which includes Anthony Ouinn as a scowling villain. Heroine is Jane Wyman, blond and very youthful at this period. Jack Carson is the genial hero with the comic touch - a variation on the role he seemed always to play.
The film is based on a play by Laura and SJ Perelman. It has a Christmas setting and is a blend of humour and wise cracks with the prison film and the criminal robbery. Direction is by Lloyd Bacon who directed so many similar films at Warner Bros.
1. Entertaining comedy? Prisons and criminals? Going straight? Crime?
2. Warner Bros. production, B-budget, black and white photography, prison and New York sets? Musical score? The Christmas setting?
3. The title and its humour, the crooks going straight after attempting larceny?
4. The setting of the scene: the baseball match in prison, Sing Sing, Maxwell? Leo as the Sinister villain? Discussions about getting out, the possibility of robbing a bank? Pressure and his conning the warden into giving him his suit, getting the overcoat?
5. Pressure and Judd and their friendship, each using the other? Meeting Denny, Judd's infatuation? Pressure's relationship with his daughter? Getting out, going straight? The plan about the racetrack? Going to the bank, the con talk and failing? Pressure? Help from the taxi driver? The gang reassembled, buying the leather goods? Smooth talking, the owner? Judd doing all the digging? the salesman and the new goods, the customers in the street, going to the official, his double-dealing them, it backfiring and his becoming a hero, party in the street? Denny and her Pressure, Jeff and his selling the goods? The accomplices getting interested in successful business? Going straight? Leo's arrival, his henchmen, the pressure, the plans for the break-in on Christmas Eve, dressed as Santa Claus? The build-up to the explosion, the police coming? The arrests and the criminals being imprisoned and the goodies going free? Edward G. Robinson in this particular style?
6. Broderick Crawford's comic touch as Judd, following on, baseball, getting out, the stooge, getting hit in the street and the insurance money, digging, loving Denny, continually imposed on?
7. The cab-driver, part of the gang, selling the fur? Getting interested, holding the shop, getting all the goods sold to him, selling to the customers? With the comedy of trying to get rid of the customers? Participation in the plot, the new beginning?
8. Penny as daughter, concern about her father, meeting, Jeff, the date, his pressure on her, their working together?
9. Bigelow, the gang, explaining the range, his attraction towards Denny, working with her, all the sales and the
advertisements, success?
10. Mr Bigelow and the people in the street, the subway digging, business in decline, the deals, getting out and his awkward return?
11. Pressure on the group, the Santa Clause disguise, the plan and their being arrested? officials wanting to buy the shop, the storekeepers, the comic crooks, the serious crooks, the soda jerk (Jackie Gleeson in an early role)?
