If there's anything I love more than a good gangster flick, it's actors like Eddie G. spoofing their gangster image in comedies. At my dad's house today I popped this DVD in. "Oh," he said after a few minutes, "I've seen this before. It's a serious movie about a gangster trying to go straight."
"Um," I replied, "If you think it's a serious movie, you definitely haven't seen it before."
I thought it would make him laugh and I was right. Eddie is so cute and funny as Remy Marko, a gangster who sees the end of Prohibition coming and makes plans to go "strictly legitimate." His goofy sidekicks include some of my favorite character actors: Alan Jenkins, Edward Brophy, and Harold Huber.
I've seen other movies where a gangster character of Eddie's is determined to be "classy;" he even does it in Little Caesar, although there's not much to like about that character. However, I usually find it very touching that this guy wants to improve himself so much. He plays a very similiar role in The Little Giant and he makes it work really well there, too, but with less hilarity.
Ruth Donnelly is an absolute scream as Mrs. Marko, who's not too sure at first about this whole "going straight" deal but gets to like it in spite of herself. Watching her shift back and forth between society matron ("I can't imagine where our butler and steward have got to.") and the asides as her former gangster moll self ("Where are those mugs?") is a treat.
Afterwards Mr. Roberts was on TCM, so we watched that too. I love, love Cagney in this role, even though he is pure evil, because he's just so over the top crazy with it. And of course, one of the best final lines in movie history: "Captain, it is I, Ensign Pulver, and I just threw your stinkin' palm tree overboard!"
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