Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Forgotten Movies: LARCENY, INC
Directed by Lloyd Bacon, this early forties comedy tells the story of three recent paroled criminals who buy a luggage shop in order to tunnel through to the bank next door. A pretty familiar plot nowadays but perhaps less common then.
It doesn't matter though because the movie is played for laughs and takes a lot of unexpected turns. The street the shop is on is being dug up for a new line of the NY subway, which adds to the confusion. The writing is sharp (S.J. Perlman) and the acting and directing is swell.
At 93 minutes it felt a tad long but its Christmas theme fit right in with the season, so we didn't mind much. Jack Carson as a love interest? Jane Wyman as a blonde?
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7 comments:
I haven't seen LARCENY, INC but I'll track it down. Sounds like fun!
I think I saw this years and years ago. I don't remember Jackie Gleason's early appearance as a drug store soda jerk, however.
Robinson did a couple of these crime comedies. They were usually fun.
Jeff M.
Definitely forgotten for me.
Richard has left a new comment on your post "Too grim for me":
Anything bloody such as SAW, anything where the characters are doomed. Interesting that Deb's comment also describes most noir, which most of the visitors to this blog like.
Loren Eaton has left a new comment on your post "Too grim for me":
Funny, it costs me about $8.
Eh, maybe I'll give Out of the Furnace a try for a bit. I don't mind grim if it's for the right reasons. Or any reasons at all, not just existential nihilism.
Loren Eaton has left a new comment on your post "Too grim for me":
Funny, it costs me about $8.
Eh, maybe I'll give Out of the Furnace a try for a bit. I don't mind grim if it's for the right reasons. Or any reasons at all, not just existential nihilism.
I just watched A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER with Robinson the other night. A lot of fun, more farcical than this one appears to be based on the trailer. And a revelation in more ways than one. First, I never knew he was such a good comic actor, second never knew Damon Runyon was a playwright, too. Looking over EGR's resume he seemed to do a lot of self-parodying gangster comic roles over his career.
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