Little Caesar

Little Caesar (1931) is a landmark American gangster film you can watch online on iFILM. Director Mervyn LeRoy and Edward G. Robinson built the blueprint for the rise-and-fall crime story that Hollywood has been remaking ever since.

Small-time crook Rico Bandello heads to Chicago alongside his buddy Joe Massara, looking for something bigger. Joe finds a dance floor and a girl named Olga. Rico finds a gang to take over. He muscles his way to the top of the Chicago underworld fast — threats, shootings, a coup against his own boss. But success comes with paranoia, and Rico becomes convinced that Joe will eventually sell him out. One friend. One loose end.

Released in 1931, the film alarmed censors who thought it glamorized crime; now it reads as an artifact of the Prohibition era, 79 minutes that defined a genre. Robinson's performance set the template for every screen mobster that followed. Watch Little Caesar (1931) online on iFILM.