Larceny, Inc. (1942)

My Review

“Larceny, Inc.” is a humorous gangster-comedy film starring Edward G. Robinson as a recently released prison convict who decides to “go straight.” Circumstances seem to stand in his way, and the comedy proceeds from there. Director Lloyd Bacon (“Knute Rockne, All American” 1940) infused the film with good production values, including hiring Everett Freeman to adapt the script from the 1941 play “The Night Before Christmas” by Laura Perelman and S. J. Perelman.

Edward G. Robinson brilliantly parodies his own crime pictures here. He does comedy as well as drama. Co-stars include Jane Wyman as his daughter, Broderick Crawford and Anthony Quinn as his former inmates, Jack Carson, Harry Davenport, Andrew Tombes, George Meeker, Fortunio Bonanova, and Jackie Gleason in one of his first movie roles as a soda shop jerk. “Larceny, Inc.” was popular at the box office for producer Hal B. Wallis and Warner Bros. Pictures.