The Little Giant

Films in Focus

By Ed Garea

The Little Giant (WB, 1933) – Director: Roy Del Ruth, Writers: Robert Lord & Wilson Minzer (s/p). Stars: Edward G. Robinson, Mary Astor, Helen Vinson, Russell Hopton, Kenneth Thomson, Shirley Grey, Berton Churchill, Don Dillaway & Louise Mackintosh. B&W, 76 minutes.

First things first, The Little Giant is a very funny comedy-romance; a wonderful “fish out of water” film that gives Edward G. Robinson the chance to kid his tough guy image. Though it has a story line similar to the much better known A Slight Case of Murder (1938), this is a far funnier film with an excellent mix of slapstick and verbal humor, a wonderful kidding of Robinson’s gangster screen image, and a director in Roy Del Ruth who keeps the film moving at a snappy pace.

As the film opens, Roosevelt has been elected. Bootlegger James Francis "Bugs" Ahearn (Robinson) reads the writing on the wall, and realizing he will soon be out of a job, decides to go straight. “Our racket can’t last much longer,” he tells his gang. “I’m steppin’ out of it tonight, and if you’re smart you’ll all step out of it.” He pays off his gang and his girlfriend, Edith Merriam (Grey), and with his reformed partner and childhood friend, Al Daniels (Hopton), Bugs leaves Chicago for California to establish himself as a respectable millionaire. 

Once in Santa Barbara, Bugs makes plans to mingle with the upper classes. He and Al stay at a ritzy hotel, but when learns the price is $45 a night he turns on all the bathroom faucets and throws dry towels into the tub. “They ain’t gonna make a chump out of me,” he says. A few hours later, he and Al are dining at the hotel restaurant and Bugs threatens a waiter to speak French to him so that a pretty girl seated at the next table may overhear and be suitably impressed. When Al, amazed by Bugs’s “fluency,” (he’s actually speaking a form of fractured French and understanding little of what’s being said back to him), asked him how he learned it, Bugs answers “I had 10% of this French dame.”

Soon he meets socialite Polly Cass (Vinson) and it’s love at first sight. He’ll do anything to impress her, from learning polo to buying a yacht. Tired of the outrageous rates at his hotel he rents a mansion from real estate agent Ruth Wayburn (Astor), whom he also engages as his personal secretary and advisor for gracious living. But Ruth keeps a secret from Bugs: the house he renting once belonged to Ruth's family, who went bankrupt in a shady business deal with Polly's father, Donald Hadley Cass (Churchill). And here’s the beauty of the film: On his own turf Bugs is a smart operator. He built up a bootlegging empire, knew when the game was up, and left it while he was rich and still alive. But out in California Bugs is a fish out of water. His guard is down and the blinders are up. He’s so intent on marrying Polly that Ruth decides discretion is the better part of valor and keeps quiet. Some things are best learned through experience.

There is another secret being kept from Bugs, this time by his amour, Polly. While he’s proposing to her, behind his back she continues her affair with John Stanley (Thomson). The entire family is a bunch of grifters. Polly’s plan in marrying Bugs is to get a quickie divorce and hefty alimony. Her brother Gordon (Dillaway) sells Bugs polo ponies at a huge mark-up. Finally, the father sells the naive Bugs an investment firm on the verge of bankruptcy and which will later have the law coming down on them for fraud. And Bugs’s attitude is that they are doing him a favor by letting him into the family.

When Bugs is featured in Time magazine as the “Beer Baron,” Polly now has the excuse she needs to end their engagement, telling the jilted Bugs that the family plans to immediately leave for Europe. And things get even worse for Bugs because he now owns the fraudulent company and those who were taken have gone to the police, who are now about to indict Bugs for fraud. Ruth, who has fallen in love with the ex-gangster, finally tells Bugs the truth about the Casses and confesses that one of their phony bond deals killed her father. And as for Polly, Ruth has one of the great lines in the movies: “She’s been a sister-in-law to the world.” 

Bugs is apocalyptic at being taken for a sucker. “The toughest mug in Chicago comes out here and gets trimmed by a lot of fags with handkerchiefs up their sleeves,” he says. He goes to the district attorney and works out a deal whereby if he investors are paid back the DA will not press charges. His eyes now open wide, Bugs knows how to repay the investors. He calls in the Chicago mob to get the money back from the grifters, telling them that “once you sold beer, now you‘re going to sell bonds.” The boys waste no time pressuring the crooks to buy back their fraudulent bonds. Recouping his investment from Cass and his partners, Bugs also realizes that the right woman was in front of him all the time. When Ruth apologetically tells him that he hasn’t met one decent person since he came her, Bugs shoots back, “That’s where you’re wrong, sister.” He then proposes to Ruth as the film ends.     

Afterwords

By the time The Little Giant was made, its plot of a likable person being taken to the cleaners by the rich, was a common theme of both comedies and dramas. In order for the movie to be a success it need something that would make it stand apart from others of its ilk. And the movie has just that something in Edward G. Robinson, who displays a natural flair for comedy and isn’t afraid to kid his own image. Without Eddie G. the movie sinks of its own weight. James Cagney might be able to pull it off, but the movie would have a much harder edge. Eddie G. supplies just the right touch of lightness to make it an entertaining comedy.

Bugs Ahern is basically a more human version of Rico in Little Caesar, more self-assured and far more comfortable in his own skin. Having made it in the bootlegging business, Bugs aspires to something greater. He sees himself as a cultured guy – and in comparison to his gang, he is, and tells his buddy Al as much: 

“Yesiree. I'm a young guy that knows all the answers and got my whole life before me. Yeah, and I'm all washed up with mugs. I know I came from the gutter, but I'm steppin' right out of it. I'm gonna meet some real people, do something worthwhile, amount to somethin’!” 

According to Bugs, he’s just “dripping with culture.” All he needs is a venue to show it, and that venue is in Santa Barbara, hobnobbing with the elite. That’s where the comedy is the film comes from, a guy from the streets trying to appear sophisticated by taking a do-it-yourself course in culture. The genius of Robinson is the way he flawlessly pulls it off, for try as hard as he does to give the illusion of culture, Bugs always manages to slip into his gutter roots. For instance, when the skeptical Al asks, “When you meet these people, what are you gonna talk about? Machine guns and beer?” 

Bugs answers, “Oh, I'll manage to talk to them all right, and they'll listen. Say, I've been readin' a lot. I've been studyin'. I ain't been wastin' my time these last months. Whattaya think I've been readin' in all them books for?” He shows Al a copy of Plato’s Republic on the end table. 

“Greek philosophy! Pluto!” Bugs boasts. “Yeah, I bet you thought Pluto was a waiter. Ah, I'm just crawlin' with education. I've been readin' all them Greeks. They do plenty besides shinin' shoes and runnin' lunchrooms.”

There are also some moments that could only occur in a Pre-Code film. Bugs is showing a cubist painting to Al. “You ever see anything like that before?” he proudly tells his friend. Al’s reply is short and sweet: “Not since I got off cocaine.”

In his own way, Al (in what was perhaps Russell Hopton’s best performance) is more than a match for his inflated boss. When Bugs declares to Al that he’s just crawling with culture and to ask him anything, “What do you want to know?”, Al’s only question is, “A good reason why I shouldn't get stinkin' drunk.” Al sees the Casses for what they are, but Bugs is so besotted he ignores his friend’s sage advice.

What makes The Little Giant so enjoyable is not only the witty script from Robert Lord & Wilson Minzer, but also the quality of the acting. From the lead on down, everyone involved gives an excellent performance. As mentioned previously, Hopton has his best role and responds accordingly. Mary Astor, with a definitely becoming hairstyle, has never looked lovelier, and Helen Vinson is so nasty and evil as Polly Cass she practically invites one to hiss every time she appears on the screen. But special credit should go Shirley Grey who plays Edith, Bugs’ girl in Chicago. Even though her role is small, she almost steals the film from Robinson, which is a most difficult thing to do. She projects a world weariness that makes us think she may not be acting.

The Little Giant is a film whose humor and plotline of victory over society’s real leeches still works effectively today.

Trivia

Robinson and Astor had worked together before in The Bright Shawl (1923), Robinson's only silent film, in which Astor played his daughter, and they would work together afterward in The Man With Two Faces (1934). In his memoirs, Robinson was very impressed by Astor, writing that “she had then all the attributes that make for greatness in an actress: beauty, poise, experience, talent, and above all, she did her homework.” Astor, for her part, was equally complimentary of Robinson but dismissive of The Little Giant: “There was something wrong about Edward G. Robinson taking pratfalls from a polo pony.”

Wilson Mizner, a brilliant writer described by Jack Warner described as a "playwright, adventurer, and lovable con man.” It was said by his co-workers that he could write the sharpest dialogue in the business. Mizner wrote such movies as The Dark Horse (1932), 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932), and Lawyer Man (1933). He also contributed uncredited dialogue on films like Little Caesar (1931) and Five Star Final (1931). But just before his 58th birthday, he suffered a heart attack at the studio. When asked if he wanted a priest, he said, “I want a priest, a rabbi, and a Protestant minister," he said. "I want to hedge my bets.” He died before The Little Giant was finished.