This Week In Cigar History: January 7-13

Short, squat, and forever embedded in the public’s mind as the prototype of a cigar-chomping gangster, Edward Goldenberg Robinson’s mug was splattered across American movie screens this week on January 9th, 1931…in his career defining role in Little Caesar.

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, this gritty pre-Code movie chronicles a criminal’s rise through the gangsters’ ranks… and his prophetic fall in life. Edward G. Robinson, a Yiddish speaking Jewish immigrant from Bucharest who had a Broadway stage, and silent and sound movie career, was perfectly cast as the lead character Caesar Enrico “Rico” Bandello, who’s desire for fortune began as a cigarette smoking, small-time hood. However, Rico’s aptitude for crime and lust for power and spoils- soon leads him to part ways with his friend Joe Massara, played by another real life cigar lover, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Swiftly, Rico’s mobster boss life thrives and his bulldog face becomes accessorized by upscale Habanos cigars to match his slick tailored clothing. But in a series of graphically animated plot twists, he ends up in a flophouse, the result of his inability to murder his former friend…and eventually meets a tragic end immortalized with the line; “Mother of Mercy, is this the end of Rico?”

Robinson’s screen depiction of a mobster was so vivid, that underworld criminals, who thrived during the Prohibition era, were said to have affected his Rico character’s sinister curled lip, cigar sucking habits. Another unacknowledged credit to Robinson’s brilliant portrayal of a criminal- is the acronym RICO … that is shorthand for the USA federal law, Racketeer Influence and Corruptions Act.

news@doubledownmedia.com

1/7/08

NO COMMENTS YET

You must sign in to add comments.