CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

mmallon4 How can you resist a film like Larceny Inc once you've heard the plot? It's one of those quirky film concepts I just love. A cocky criminal and his two buffoons buy a luggage store to they can dig their way into the bank next door. Perhaps the film's greatest strength is how it plays out like a live action cartoon. Nothing ever goes beyond the scene in the moment; for example in one scene a set of oil pipes are burst during the digging process and the basement from which they are digging from is drenched in oil and yet this is never mentioned again. Even as one character who is not involved in the ban heist comes across the two drenched in the oil he bizarrely does not comment on their appearance; that's the twisted cartoon world Larceny Inc incorporates. I've always thought actors from the 1930's resembled cartoon characters with their exaggerated facial features and distinctive accents; very true with this cast including Edward G. Robinson, Jack Carson and even a young Jackie Gleason; all live action caricatures. Actors who emerged after the war generally didn't have this and instead were actually more lifelike. You really get a sense of the world the movie takes place in with a street populated with such memorable and mostly ethnic characters giving the movie that Shop Around the Corner edge to it.Maxwell aka Pressure's gift wrapping has to be the comedic highlight of Robinson's career; a comedy moment which couldn't be timed more perfectly. His uttering of "$9:75" is funny enough as it is but his pathetic attempt at gifting wrapping which follows had me in stitches. I also love Jack Carson's attempt at hitting on Jane Wyman. This scene has nothing to do with the rest of the movie but has got to be the ultimate "skipping the pleasantries" monologue I've ever heard.There are so many layers within Larceny Inc. Is the movie a celebration or an indictment on capitalism? The gangsters involvement in legitimate business is what makes them renounce their past ways but only after they've essentially been seduced and consumed by the capitalist system. Larceny Inc was released in 1942 just months after the US got involved in the war but the film's production began prior to that with its themes of business and consumerism are completely counterproductive to the war effort, something I've noticed with many films released in 1942. There is also the irony that the gangster is the one who brings the community together and the authority figures in the movie are played as fools.Larceny Inc can also join films like Rocky IV and Die Hard as Christmas movies which aren't about Christmas; and Edward G Robinson dressed as Santa Claus? Sold!

John T. Ryan MADE DURING THE great, Golden Age of the Sound movie, this is a great example of Warner Brothers at the zenith of its production machine. Not so coincidentally, it was during the first year of our (the USA's) official involvement in World War II.WE SEE FROM the credits that this is a film that was adapted from a stage-play. This was not an unusual method of movie-making then, nor is it now. Adaptation of even plays that were considered to be unsuccessful for not having been produced often led to what would be considered to be at least a passable motion picture. We do seem to recall that Warners bought the rights to one here to for unheard of play called EVERYONE COMES TO RICK'S. The play was adapted without any pretensions of being a major motion picture into CASABLANCA (Warner Brothers, 1942). Ever hear of it Schultz? SO IT WAS with that same sort of casual attitude that the studio adopted in its prosecution of this story. It was just to be another of the yearly output. This was a policy that was wisely followed and insured that a great and entertaining roster of pictures would guarantee moviegoers of America and the World would get their money's worth on "Movie Night" at the local movie houses.IN EXAMINING AND dissecting the very crux of LARCENY INC., we find a certain adherence to formula. Basically speaking, they take a preexisting story and bring it to the celluloid medium via their employing the roster of contract players to deliver the finished product. On the top spot in billing, we have Edward G. Robinson as the proverbial crook with the heart of gold. His support is furnished by folks like: Jane Wyman (then Mrs. Ronald Reagan), Jack Carson, Broderick Crawford, Ed Brophy, John Qualen, Barbara Jo Allen, Grant Mitchell and others; including young Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason.THE STORY's PLOT is kind of old hat, even having whiskers then. Simply stated, a group of hardened (but with hearts of Gold) ex-cons plot to open a luggage shop as a means of using the cellar as a venue to tunnel into the bank vault adjacent to the storefront. But things go wrong as the new business turns out to be quite lucrative, as well as its being strictly legit.IN THE END (of course) the gang opts for staying in the luggage business. Chalk this up to the State Pen's Correctional system! ANOTHER ASPECT THAT we must consider is that of "the comical and lovable" good crook. In this they area, the movie's pedigree can also be traced to folks like Damon Runyan; who made a living by turning out tales of members of the underworld, whom he romanticized.WE CERTAINLY ARE not suggesting that one should skip getting the chance to screen this whenever it shows up. It is a delight in the development of character and in the interplay between the thugs. Jack Carson, Broderick and Edward Brophy tend to steal many a scene and Jane Wyman provides us with a fine, if somewhat diminutively crafted role.BUT TO US, both Schultz and I agree that it is a testament to the versatility of Edward G. Robinson. Sometimes it's difficult to believe that such a brilliant comedy role is done so well by one who is a virtuoso dramatic actor and an iconic figure in Hollywood history.

Alex da Silva Prisoners Edward G Robinson (Pressure) and Broderick Crawford (Jug) are released from prison and team up with Edward Brophy (Weepy). Robinson wants to go legitimate but it doesn't take much to convince him to go back to tried and tested means of making a living, particularly, when a bank refuses to give him a loan. So, they decide to get the money via another route. Literally. They buy a luggage shop next to the bank and plan to tunnel into the bank via an adjoining cellar. Well, their plans change once the luggage shop becomes successful, until a certain escaped hard-man Anthony Quinn (Leo) shows up. The bank robbery had initially been his idea when all were inside jail together.This film is a comedy with a great premise. Once in the luggage shop, Robinson and his gang couldn't give two figs about making any sales and positively loathe the idea of having customers disturb them while they are trying to dig a tunnel to their fortune. Some of the comedic situations are brilliant and just what you wish you could get away with in a real-life sales environment in light of today's politically correct nonsense about the customer always being right. Not here. Ha ha.The cast are good for their roles but I have to drop some marks for the slapstick scenes. Not my thing at all. Quinn plays his role well and is suitably menacing as the villain of the piece, and this contrasts well with the amusing antics of the bungling trio in the luggage shop who end up with a successful business that they didn't want. And they have a brilliant hiding place for a gun. They are sooooo not interested in making a success of the business but fate conspires against them. Entertaining film.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . all the time. One blew up there just last week. So when clueless thugs start jack-hammering in a shop's basement with absolutely no guidance from "Miss Dig" halfway through LARCENY, INC., viewers begin a vigil for the other shoe to drop. First the hapless mugs hit the water line. Next they "strike" oil--fueling the store's furnace. Gas would be the logical next step. But LARCENY, INC. was released during WWII, meaning that special effects budgets were low, and skittish audiences subject to nightly black-outs and air raid drills were NOT in any mood for gratuitous explosions. So instead of ending with a bang, LARCENY, INC. closes with a whimper, as Edward G. Robinson--just clipped in the street by a car--"runs" from the police. The rest of LARCENY, INC. is equally Uninvolving, drifting off on implausible scatter-shot tangents at the drop of a portmanteau. Though Anthony Quinn's escaped con character, "Leo," is mildly menacing, Jane Wyman's role--comparable to WEST SIDE STORY's "Anybody's"--lends little spark to this listless story. Daughter of a dead man, Robinson's ward, and "Jug's" crush, she falls much too easily into the clutches of the first Film-Flamming fellow flirting her way.