The Last Gangster

The Last Gangster (Edward Ludwig, 1937) Six years after ushering in the gangster film with his portrayal of Johnny Rico in Little Ceasar for Warner Brothers, Edward G. Robinson was playing another one named Joe Krozac in a property titled Another Public Enemy, written by William Wellman, the man who wrote and directed James Cagney's Public Enemy. For whatever reason, the property made it over to M-G-M, not the tough-as-nails "Home of the Crime Drama" Warner Brothers, and got gussied up with the Metro house style and a more family-friendly story-line. The result is a curious mixture of crime and melodrama, re-titled The Last Gangster.  

In this one, Robinson plays Joe Krozac, a mob-boss with a very loose mob, but a lot enemies, including the Kile brothers, whom he manages to wipe out except for one, Acey Kile (Alan Baxter) who manages to survive but swears revenge. 

It's bad timing because Krozac has taken an extended trip to Europe and returns with a bride from the old country, Talya (Rose Stradner), who knows nothing of his criminal activities. But, she can't help but notice the prosperity and shady character's in Joe's life, like Curly (Lionel Stander), who's a bit sketchy. But, you'd think she'd notice there's something a little "off" about Joe; when she announces she's pregnant, Joe's response is "Why, I'm so happy I'd like to go up and punch someone in the nose!"

But, life...and the law...can be inconvenient. Joe is convicted of tax evasion and sent to Alcatraz for ten tears—that's a lot of childhood to miss out on—and he vows that no pen can hold him, not for ten years. But, life is different on the inside and although his reputation helps, there are enemies on the inside, plus his gang on the outside, who want to know where he stashed all his loot before going to the Big House.But, however big he talks, he's still there when Talya gives birth—to a boy. Visitations to Alcatraz are bittersweet, as Joe cannot hold his child, but only watch him through prison-grills. On one of those visits, a newspaper scribbler named Paul North (James Stewart) sees the poignant scene and decides to make hay out of it, feigning sympathy for Talya and buying the child a toy gun, all the better to get a picture of the toddler making like father, like son and plastering it all over the newspaper. His editor is happy, but North quits in a fit of delayed conscience.

North apologizes to Talya, and she is drawn to his remorse, something completely foreign to Joe Krozec. Eventually, their marriage breaks down—Talya divorces Krozec and marries North, adopting Joe's child—and Joe loses track of them, as they move and North changes his name.

Stewing prison, Joe can't do anything about it, but he's determined to get his family back.

Robinson was attracted to the movie, even though he'd tired of playing gangsters, preferring better scripts and better writers than the genre churned out. And even though Wellman was associated with the genre—and grown out of it—the ideas of the story, originally titled "Another Public Enemy," were less concerned with mob life, but its consequences, and M-G-M was a cut above the more meat-and-potatoes Warner lot.

Still, The Last Gangster is more soap than pulp, and as much as script-writer John Lee Mahin tries to keep the script tough, he can't help but make the mobster more sympathetic than the good folks like the North family. Probably, it's Robinson's portrayal, which is far stronger than Stradner's "woe is me" immigrant wife (Louise Rainer was originally sought, but turned it down) and Stewart's weak portrayal.*

It has to be considered some kind of misfire when the actions of responsible people who are genuinely doing the right thing for a child, can't generate more sympathy over a jilted mobster. 

The Last Gangster would not prove to be the last gangster role for Robinson—just one of the lesser ones.

* I'm always fascinated by odd pairings of stars and seek them out to see what the results of such chemistry experiments are. Anybody expecting sparks between Robinson and Stewart will be disappointed. It's Robinson's show and Stewart's merely a dull co-star. The two wouldn't appear in another movie together until 1964's Cheyenne Autumn, but had no scenes together.