Skip to main content
Intellect

1942 comedy "Larceny, Inc." is BYU film series offering July 21

The Special Collections Motion Picture Archives Film Series at Brigham Young University will show “Larceny, Inc.” Thursday, July 21, at 7 p.m. in the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium.

Admission is free and the public is invited, but seating is limited, so early arrival is recommended. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and no food or drink is allowed in the auditorium.

This 1942 comedy is a send-up of the gangster image created, in large part, by Edward G. Robinson, beginning with his portrayal of Caesar Enrico Bandello in the 1930 hit “Little Caesar.”

“Censorship concerns by the Hayes Office in 1934 virtually eliminated the making of the kind of violent gangster films of the early 1930s,” says James D’Arc, curator of the Special Collections Motion Picture Archives and director of the film series.

“Therefore, in the latter part of the decade, Robinson and James Cagney portrayed characters on the side of the law or, as in ‘Larceny, Inc.,’ spoofs of their early gangland images,” he said.

In “Larceny, Inc.,” Robinson is “Pressure” Maxwell, who, on his release from Sing-Sing prison, becomes J. Chalmers Maxwell, and with fellow ex-cons tries to go legit by operating a luggage store-next to a bank.

Completing the time-honored cast are actors Broderick Crawford, Jane Wyman, Jack Carson, Anthony Quinn and Jackie Gleason more than a decade before he made television history in “The Honeymooners.”

“Mr. Robinson,” wrote critic Bosley Crowther in the New York Times, “as usual, is a hard-boiled egg. The principal joy is to watch him.”

The screening of “Larceny, Inc.” is part of the ongoing Special Collections Motion Picture Archives Film Series, co-sponsored by the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library and Dennis and Linda Gibson. The motion pictures shown in the series are from the permanent holdings in the library’s large film collection.

A complete schedule of showings may be accessed online at sc.lib.byu.edu.

Writer: James McCoy

Related Articles

data-content-type="article"

ForGOT Milk? BYU students address drop in dairy milk drinking with 'legen-dairy' packaging designs

March 15, 2023
A group of 25 BYU food science, industrial design and graphic design students are helping address the decline in dairy milk consumption by creating more appealing labels and packaging for cow milk.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Pornography use at any level harms romantic relationships, says new BYU study

March 09, 2023
Avoiding pornography is vital to developing a healthy and long-term romantic relationship, says a new study from BYU.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
data-content-type="article"

Ancient artifacts uncovered by BYU archaeologists reveal the 'roots of Casas Grandes'

March 07, 2023
At an excavation site in northern Mexico, BYU archaeology students and professors recently discovered artifacts that have been buried for 1,000 years, including pottery sherds, hammer stones, maize kernels and — intriguing at a location 250 miles inland — a shell bead from the Pacific Ocean.
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment=
overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection=false overrideCardHideByline=false overrideCardHideDescription=false overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText=