The Little Giant

Roy Del Ruth: The Little Giant (US 1933) avec Mary Astor et Edward G. Robinson.

Le Petit géant
Roy Del Ruth / États-Unis / 1933 / 74 min / 35 mm / VOSTF
Avec Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor.
Not released in Finland or Sweden.
La Cinémathèque française : Rétrospective Warner Bros., fabrique de stars
E-sous-titres français par Scéna Media.
Salle Henri Langlois, samedi 8 avril 2023, 17h15 18h30
À la fin de la Prohibition, un baron de la bière de Chicago cesse ses activités illicites et part pour la Californie en quête de nouvelles opportunités.

AA: The Little Giant starts with a blitz montage about the 1932 United States presidential election in which Franklin D. Roosevelt wins both in the electoral collage and the popular vote, carrying 42 states against 6. New legislation is planned, spelling the end of the prohibition.

In Chicago, gangster boss "Bugs" Ahearn (Edward G. Robinson) sees the writing on the wall and closes shop immediately. He disarms his bootleg operation and grants generous severance payments to gangsters and girlfriend.

In the AFI Catalog, The Little Giant is classified as a comedy. Funny situations emerge as the vulgar gangster reinvents himself as an upper class millionaire in Santa Barbara in sunny California and embarks on refinement. Ahearn as interpreted by Robinson never loses self-confidence although constantly exposed to ridicule.

The hardened criminal Ahearn is so dazzled by the glamour of the Cass family that he never suspects that they are even bigger criminals than he, including daughter Polly Cass (Helen Winson), who pretends to be in love with him. Ahearn's capital is swindled to the Cass family's fraudulent bond business. His eyes at last opened, he calls the old mob once more to rectify everything.

Because Ahearn has never courted a woman, he asks his real estate agent Ruth Wayburn (Mary Astor) to show him the steps to approach Polly in the "proposal racket", including how to kiss a woman. But one thing leads to another in an unexpected way, and a bond is created also by the fact that the Wayburn family has been a major victim of the Casses.

On display was a good 35 mm print.