Product Details

• Actors: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn
• Directors: Lloyd Bacon
• Format: NTSC, Black & White
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001IYPO4O
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,784 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Edward G. Robinson once more turns his gangster image on its head in a gleeful romp based on the Broadway farce penned by Laura Perelman and S.J. Perelman. Robinson plays Pressure Maxwell, who emerges from Sing Sing planning to run a dog track with cronies Jug (Broderick Crawford) and Weepy (Edward Brophy). But the plan needs funding, so the group (assisted by Jane Wyman) opens a luggage shop as a front while attempting to tunnel into the bank next door. Now add the store's unexpected success, a gabby traveling valise salesman (Jack Carson) and the arrival of a sour con (Anthony Quinn) who wants in on the action, and the laughs are thick as thieves.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 star comedy, 3 star package, November 29, 2008

By 

Douglas M - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Larceny, Inc. (DVD)

Edward G Robinson was a very funny comedian and at the height of his career at Warner Brothers, he made 3 farces which sent up in some way his image as a gangster. The best was the first, "A Slight Case of Murder" but "Larceny Inc" released in 1942 is not far behind.

Robinson plays an ex-con who buys a luggage shop next to a bank. Having failed to raise capital for a dog track by going in through the front door of the bank, he decides to enter into the back by drilling through into the vault via the cellar of the shop. This is a set up for a really funny farce as business in the luggage shop booms and Robinson becomes the hero of his neighbours. The film has a Damon Runyan feel and a great supporting cast led by the indispensible Ed Brophy as Robinson's sidekick, Jane Wyman as his very pretty step daughter, Broderick Crawford as a particularly dense thug and best of all, Jack Carson, as the Hotchkiss man, the prototype of every fast talking salesman. There are so many funny scenes, but Brophy ("It comes in 10 delicious colours") and Robinson ("What do you expect for nine seventy five?") are standouts when they make a sale.

The print of the film is excellent and there are a generous list of mediocre extras. The short film, directed by John Huston, was an Oscar nominee and neat recruitment propaganda. James Stewart, a decorated airman, narrates. The newsreel, without soundtrack, shows a base ball match at Sing Sing which ties in nicely with the film. The cartoons are typical Warner's fare with that touch of cynicism which made their product so much better than the other studios' output. An early Bugs Bunny appears in one.

The dud of the package is the dreadful commentary. Two erudite academics/historians, one from Harvard no less, analyse the film with absolutely no sense of humour. "Larceny Inc" is a rollicking farce, filled with cardboard 2 dimensional figures, filmed with no other purpose but to entertain and generate big box office. These absurd historians analyse the film as an example of changing American values, an insight into capitalism among other things. What a load of hogwash. Furthermore, there is no information about the wealth of marvellous character actors which fill the screen. These guys seriously need to get down off their pedestal.

The DVD is best value if purchased as part of the Warner Brother's Gangster Collection Volume 4.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Paydirt, December 6, 2008

By 

Peter Ingemi (Worcester County, Massachusetts United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Larceny, Inc. (DVD)

Larceny Inc is a witty little World war II era store of a con man (Edward G. Robinson) who plans on going straight but needs 25g's (25k in today's parlance) to buy into a dog track. When his legit attempts to raise the dough fail he falls back on Anthony Quinn's plan to hit a bank that he rejected just before leaving Sing Sing.

Unfortunately two things get in his way. He purchases a luggage store adjacent to the bank with plans to tunnel in, but his attempts to keep people out of his business are foiled by his daughter (Jane Wyman) determined to keep him strength, his fellow merchants that he accidentally champions against city hall and Anthony Quinn who doesn't take kindly to someone co-opting his idea.

You will find several familiar faces in supporting roles from Jack Carson, Broderick Crawford, Ed Brophy and an extremely young Jackie Gleason behind a pharmacy counter.

If you are looking for one of the great movies of all time you are looking in the wrong place, but if you want a solid funny "Christmas" movie that stands up to repeated watching then it is worth your time and money.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Here, the great E.G. Robinson makes fun of his bad guy roles", February 21, 2011

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Larceny, Inc. (DVD)

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "LARCENY, INC" (1942) (95 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Starring Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyman, Broderick Crawford, Jack Carson, Edward Brophy & Anthony Quinn

Directed by Lloyd Bacon

As usual Eddie G steals the show -- This very well might be my favorite Edward G. Robinson picture. I have yet to see him in a bad performance. It concerns three rather dimwitted criminals who come up with a plan to rob a bank by tunneling in through the basement of the luggage shop next door. Robinson is the boss and he is supported by even more dimwitted Eddie Brophy and Broderick Crawford. This little gem of a story just builds and builds. Everything goes haywire when Anthony Quinn shows up and throws a monkey wrench into the whole works and the "gang" have to go reluctantly on the up and up. Jack Carson, as usual, plays a bumbling but earnest character, much as his cop "playwright" wonderful performance in "Arsenic and Old Lace" (1944).

They just don't make 'em like this anymore!

Robinson's adopted daughter is Jane Wyman and her beau is salesman Jack Carson. Wyman was also a few years from an Oscar for "Johnny Belinda" and Carson did break the mold of playing lovable blow hards.

Fast-paced comedy with the kind of "crackling" dialogue they don't write anymore. Robinson is a scream in the lead, and his supporting cast equals him. Here, the great Edward G. Robinson makes fun of his bad guy roles, like he will do a few years later in "Brother Orchid".

BIOS:
1. Lloyd Bacon [Director]
Date of Birth: 4 December 1889 - San Jose, California
Date of Death: 15 November 1955 - Burbank, California

2. Edward G. Robinson [aka: Emmanuel Goldenberg]
Date of Birth: 12 December 1893 - Bucharest, Romania
Date of Death: 26 January 1973 - Hollywood, California

3. Jane Wyman [aka: Sarah Jane Mayfield]
Date of Birth: 5 January 1917 - St. Joseph, Missouri
Date of Death: 10 September 2007 - Palm Springs, California

4. Broderick Crawford
Date of Birth: 9 December 1911 - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Date of Death: 26 April 1986 - Rancho Mirage, California

5. Jack Carson
Date of Birth: 27 October 1910 - Carman, Manitoba, Canada
Date of Death: 2 January 1963 - Encino, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 95 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (01/25/2005)