"The Little Giant" Review

 

by Daniel White

As if further evidence is even needed to prove that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is an institution that doesn't know its arse from its earlobe, is the fact that screen legend Edward G Robinson was never even NOMINATED for an Oscar! Robinson, one of the greatest actors to ever work in film did get a shabby, "honorary" Oscar, awarded two months after his death, but it's a sad example of too little, too late. Somebody needs to be slapped for this, and I don't think it's Chris Rock.

First National's The Little Giant (1933) was Robinson's first comedy after his breakthrough role in Little Caesar, two years previous. It's a send up of his gangster, Rico, in that movie, and he is terrific. He plays Bugs Ahearn, a successful bootlegger from Chicago who decides to retire from his criminal activities when Prohibition is repealed. Looking to mingle with high society and establish himself as a gentleman, he descends upon tony Santa Barbara with his best pal, Al (Russell Hopton).

Directed by the capable Roy Del Ruth with a highly amusing screenplay, The Little Giant is a Pre-Code comedy flick that hits the bullseye more often than not. And when the accomplished Mary Astor shows up almost half-way through, it becomes a near-classic. It is definitely worth watching, and offers up another brilliant Edward G Robinson performance.

It also offers, for those who care about such things, plenty of racy Pre-Code dialogue, lines that would not be allowed if the movie had been made a year later. The first jaw-dropper is when Bugs is displaying a piece of modern art to Al, and asks if he'd ever seen anything like it. "Not since I've been off cocaine," deadpans Al. It's a funny line. There is a good-hearted moll (a sexy Shirley Grey) who is Bugs' obvious sexual companion, and Italians are referred to as "greaseballs" and "garlic blossoms."

The real surprises are the queer references, of which the movie abounds. The word "pansy" is heard more than once and toward the end of the flick, Robinson utters one of the most shocking lines I've ever heard in a Pre-Code movie. Realizing he has been fleeced by a supposedly wealthy family, he snarls in true Eddie G fashion, "The toughest mug in Chicago... gets trimmed by a lot of fags with handkerchiefs up their sleeves!" Wow, if that don't beat all.

The movie is fun, a well-conceived comedy that has plenty of laughs and shows America's favorite gangster, Edward G Robinson, could poke fun at himself. Equally adept at handling a rod, or tossing off a killer one-liner, Edward G Robinson was the tops.

With Helen Vinson as a shady society lady, and Berton Churchill and Donald Dillaway as her equally untrustworthy pops and brother, The Little Giant is available on YouTube.