CLT 362: Lecture from Feb. 18, 2022
Channel: andreafedisbu
Date: 2022-05-03

Recap and introduction to the new scenes from “Little Caesar” (1931): Rico, Joe and Tony as exemplars of different narrative arcs and social evolutions.
Scenes from the movie (not included): Tony and his mother have a moving exchange; Tony is shot on the steps of his old church, where he was going to find encouragement to turn his life around; Rico is in bed wounded, but has now defeated rival boss Arnie; Rico visits Big Boy and get promoted again, taking Pete Montana’s place; Joe visits Rico in his new, swanky residence, but resists Rico’s suasive attempts to bring him back into the world of organized crime; Joes goes to Olga’s house and tells her they have to leave town to escape from Rico’s revenge; Olga calls the police and convinces Joe to get immunity from prosecution by testifying against Rico; the doorbell rings, but it is not Flaherty and his fellow police detectives, it’s Rico, with a gun in his hand; Rico however cannot bring himself to shoot his old friend, hesitates and finally has to flee Olga’s apartment from the fire escape; the cops chase after Rico and Otero and kill Otero; Rico escapes and goes into hiding; the police arrests Sam Vettori; on the day of Sam’s hanging, Rico is in a “flophouse” (a shelter for homeless and poor people); when he hears that Flaherty has been accusing him of being a coward, he calls the police station and his whereabouts are identified. Rico goes out, and is found by Flaherty and shot dead with a machine gun; the last frame shoes a big ad indicating that Joe and Olga have become big stars, finding with honest means the success, wealth and visibility that Rico tried to obtain by engaging in criminal activities.