User Reviews

...no, not really, but the British Boris is playing the head of one of two feuding (Italian??)-American crime families. Boris plays the head of the Ricca clan, Tony Ricca. Leo Carrillo, who is actually Spanish in descent - in fact a member of an old California Spanish land grant family - plays Mike, the head of the rival Palmerro clan.

This is a late Prohibition Era film in which the public is said to be on to the Mafia and beginning to demand action - there were several of these made in the early 30's - as the bloodshed has begun to spill onto the streets and takes the lives of innocent children. Meanwhile the warring clans have taken to killing off each other's family members in a last ditch grab for sole control of "the rackets".

The central theme of the film is the romance between young Marco Ricca and Maria Palmerro, both straight kids caught in a gangster world. Marco was taken away from his father's life of crime by his mother at the age of ten, but he has returned to America an architect who has changed his name to John Smith. Maria Palmerro is the only daughter of Mike Palmerro, the enemy of Marco/John's father. John thinks there is no danger in this association since he has long been estranged from his father, is truly legitimate, and nobody knows of his true family ties. Marco has a brother who is working in his dad's criminal enterprise, and likewise Maria has a brother who is working in her father's criminal enterprise.

This is mainly Carillo's film, as his character gradually lets the desire for revenge get the best of his common sense at the expense of his entire family. He's a brutish man, such as in a scene where he threatens his daughter that if she doesn't change out of her black dress into a white party dress he'll cut the black dress right off her body with a pair of scissors. He has raised an equally brutish man in the person of his grown son, who decides if his speakeasy flapper girlfriends are not welcome at his sister's party he'll just shove the actual party guests into the pool.

You can tell something dreadful is coming, but you're not just sure how or when or to who it is coming. I'll let you watch and find out.

The movie pulls some punches as it never actually comes out and says Prohibition is the source of the problem, instead everyone keeps talking about "the rackets". Likewise no one ever mentions the nationality of the warring families specifically. Ruth Warren is terrific as a gum-chewing gun moll-like publicist that Palmerro has hired. Although Phil Tead plays the news reporter who is writing stories on the warring clans, Mr. Tead is a dead ringer for Walter Brennan. Emma Dunn, who plays Mike Palmerro's mother, is the only member of the cast who convinces me she is Italian (although she is actually British) as she desperately tries to perform CPR on Mike's conscience.

I'd recommend this one - it certainly is rather unique among early 30's gangster films.

So, let's pretend you are a Hollywood producer back in 1931 and you are planning on making a movie about mobsters--Italian mobsters to be precise. So, for the roles of mobsters and family members of the Ricca and Palmero family, who would you pick? Well, unless you were insane, you probably wouldn't pick the British Boris Karloff, Hispanic-American Leo Carrillo or the Waspy Constance Cummings or Robert Young. And, oddly, these are exactly the actors chosen for this film that is a bit like "Little Caesar" and "Romeo & Juliet" merged into one. The only one in the cast that came off as Italian was the English actress Emma Dunn--now SHE seemed like she was cast well as she sounded Italian and was quite effective. Now I am NOT saying that the others were bad--they just didn't seem very Italian.

The film begins with nice-guy Young getting a surprise visit from his dad (Karloff). It seems Karloff is hurt because his architect son has changed his name and wants nothing to do with the family business of killing people and selling bathtub booze. But, despite his charming personality, Young is determined to make it on his own and tells his father to leave.

A bit later, the film shifts to another unhappy child of a different gangster. It seems that Constance wants to be accepted by high society but her thug brother and father (Carrillo) make it really tough. When she throws a fancy party, the brother starts acting tough by throwing people into the pool. When Young stops him, the brother is about to shoot him! Nice family, huh?! Well, it seems that Young knew Cummings when they were kids. This, combined with their angst about their mob families makes their falling in love natural...except the two fathers are rivals bent on killing each other as well as wiping out the other's family! As a result, the Romeo & Juliet angle enters into this fateful romance.

Overall, this is a low-budget but entertaining film from Columbia. It's well worth seeing and a nice reworking of Shakespeare--minus all the olde tyme dialog. However, for fans of Karloff, be forewarned that he's really not in the film that much and I assume he was billed as high as he was due to his recent appearance in "Frankenstein". Regardless, it's a tough little film that I enjoyed.

A very youthful Robert Young (of "Father Knows Best") plays an architect named "John Smith" who's changed his true name from Marco Ricca in order to sever any ties with his despicable gangster father, Tony Ricca (Boris Karloff). There's a war between the Italian Ricca family and their rivals, the Palmiero family, who are lead by Mike Palmiero (Leo Carrillo). In between mutual tit for tat retaliations of a very GODFATHER-like nature, of course things get even more complicated when John Smith falls in love with crime boss Palmiero's daughter, Maria (Constance Cummings).

This was a moderately enjoyable picture with some fun to be had, though it comes up just a wee bit short of being genuinely "good", and coughs up a rather abrupt and unsatisfying ending that doesn't satisfy our expectations. It's nicely directed most of the time by Rowland V. Lee but tends to lag every now and then. It's Leo Carrillo who is the real draw of the film and he's completely believable as Mike Palmiero. Boris Karloff is a real hoot as an Italian crime leader, but unfortunately has his best scene at the start of the movie and isn't featured very much thereafter. Recommended to be seen, if you can come across a copy. **1/2 out of ****

While it is true that this interesting crime drama has a few significant "holes" in it -- like casting Boris Karloff with his crisp enunciations as an Italian-immigrant mobster -- the film stands as a persuasive cultural document indicting the whole Prohibition Era. For those who do not know anything about our true American history, there was about fifty-two years of social agitation behind what was known as The Temperance Movement, culminating in a Constitutional amendment and "the Volstead Act." In a curious tandem movement, the long-running "Suffrage" movement for women to have the vote became intertwined and then interlocked with "Temperance." What began as a local issue, restricting or banning the sale of alcoholic beverages at a time when nearly all adult men drank beer, whiskey or gin, eventually morphed into statewide legislation. The problem was complex, however, as "dry counties" competed with "wet counties" inside of states, and then across state boundaries, as dry states conflicted with wet states.

When Congress proposed the "Prohibition" amendment in December of 1917, the country had been involved in the Declared War that T. Woodrow Wilson campaigned against in his 1916 re-election bid, since April of '17. As tens of thousands of U.S. troops were training for and shipping out for the battlefields of France, where they would learn to enjoy French wines, cognac and champagnes, their Congress was moving to provide Prohibition of drinking alcohol from sea to shining sea. The amendment as proposed achieved ratification on January 29th of 1919 and its provisions took effect one year later.

Thirteen years and twenty-one days later, Congress moved to repeal the Prohibition Amendment and this counter-amendment was ratified by December of 1933, or nine months into the new administration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In those thirteen years and nine months, the structure and integrity of American society was wholly changed and radicalized. Minor criminal gangs in the major cities blossomed into full-fledged crime syndicates, as the taste for liquor and beer among the people wholly overwhelmed the legal reality of Prohibition.

Thus, the "Roaring '20s" was a time when stock market speculations and easy money rode the same horses as did "bootlegging" or the illegal importation or illegal manufacture of beer and hard liquors ... in every part of the country. Thousands of men -- and some women and children -- were killed in the revolving battles between bootlegging gangs in the major cities, and the violence only got worse as the profits from "speakeasy" saloons and "rum-running" grew larger and larger. Municipalities and county governments were suborned. Governors were bribed, and Customs officials bought or intimidated into silence.

The background of this movie is that history: the two gangs, seeming to be from Chicago although not specifically mentioned as such, are the Ricca and the Palmero, whose leaders were formerly partners and whose families were formerly friends.

As the movie unfolds, the violence between the gangs escalates into killing each others' operatives, each others' cousins, and then each man's sons. And against this hideous background, even if played at a lower key, the daughter of Palmero meets and falls in love with the second son of Ricca, who has been raised abroad and who has changed his name to "Smith." No, it's not "Romeo & Juliet" at all but there are some similarities.

Others have commented on how this fledgling romance comes across as being "sappy" or syrupy. That's right. But that's what movie going audiences wanted in the middle of the early years of the Depression. The violence described in this film is not shown specifically, but it lurks in the shadows like a Kabuki puppet.

Leo Carrillo and Boris Karloff do very well in their roles, and the absence of any background music makes this film more intensely visual, although there are scenes where music is played in a club or for a party. The lavish life style of the Palmero family, in their Florida mansion, is another element in the fictional "testament" of just how warped the social order of the United States had become under Prohibition, and under the tyranny of these petit-princes of the Prohibition Era.

Guilty Generation, The (1931)

*** (out of 4)

Warner had The Public Enemy, Universal had Scarface and Columbia had this little gem from director Rowland V. Lee. A young couple (Robert Young & Constance Cummings) fall in love even though their fathers (Leo Carrillo & Boris Karloff) are rivals of opposite gangs. There's no doubt this lifts the story of Romeo and Juliet and while it starts off a bit shaky there's no denying the final twenty minutes are extremely good as the girl's father finally finds out who the boy's father is. Everyone gives a very good performance but Cummings is the real standout with her delightful charm. Karloff is also very good in his few moments at the start of the film. It's really great that TCM is showing all these rare Columbia films and I can't wait to see what else they have from this period.

Some parts of this movie have not survived seventy-five years well, and at times the dialogue limps. Robert Young, as the young lover, speaks in a voice that is annoying in the high register. Constance Cummings is a beautiful young woman and a good actor. Boris Karloff handles his rather small role gracefully, with just an air of lurking menace.

But it is Leo Carrillo, who begins the movie looking like a buffoon and ends the movie as a terrible monster, who owns this movie. I won't give away any details, but the ending, once you realize its inevitability, is a real shocker.

Does Carrillo's performance make the movie worth seeing? Yes, although just barely, and you may need a bit of patience until the movie is worthwhile, but perhaps the mobile camera-work will keep you interested.

'The Guilty Generation' has a misleading title. This movie would seem to indict a generation, but it's actually more interested in indicting an ethnic group ... to be precise, the Italians. This movie takes place in a universe where everyone named Angelo or Luigi is automatically a gangster. Late in the film, there's some brief dialogue about honest Italians vilifying the crooked members of their 'race' ... but most of this movie seems to indicate that Italian ancestry and criminal behaviour are mutually inclusive.

Robert Young is a rising young architect named John Smith, a name guaranteed to attract attention. Indeed, we soon find out that he was born Marco Ricca, son of gangster Tony Ricca. The latter is played by Boris Karloff, looking not remotely Italian. (Although Italian-American actor Abe Vigoda was a Karloff lookalike.) Karloff brings deep conviction and presence to this role, but his performance is not very convincing. Part of the problem is that Tony Ricca's dialogue is full of "ain't"s and other grammatical errors, yet Karloff speaks these thick-eared lines in his usual cultured tones. Elsewhere, Murray Kinnell is good in a supporting role, but his well-bred English accent seems out of place in a setting that's knee-deep in goombahs.

There are excellent performances by two actors unknown to me, Emma Dunn and Elliott Rothe. Also impressive is Leo Carrillo. Because of his short stature and thick accent, Carrillo is best known for comic roles. Here, he's chillingly believable as a crime lord, utterly ruthless and unforgiving. Much of the film takes place in the sumptuous Florida mansion owned by Carrillo's character. I was astounded that Columbia Pictures -- at this point, a studio barely out of Poverty Row -- were able to achieve these production values.

Also quite good, in a supporting role, is Ruth Warren as Carrillo's press agent. Unfortunately, Warren was precisely the same character type as several other better-known and better actresses -- Jean Dixon and Glenda Farrell spring to mind -- so she failed to claim a niche for herself among Hollywood's character actresses. As the romantic leads in this melange, Robert Young and the insipid Constance Cummings are as dull as dishwater. I've never yet seen a performance by Cummings that impressed me.

'The Guilty Generation', well-directed by the underrated Rowland V Lee, and nicely photographed by Byron Haskin, is probably of greatest interest to Karloff fans. Be advised that Karloff's role is actually quite small, and he's miscast. Overall, I'll rate this movie 6 out of 10.

Having looked at a few of the other reviews here, some of which predictably say this is a "pale imitation of Warner Bros. gangster pictures," I have to chime in with a dissenting opinion. Those more famous films, such as "Little Caesar" and "Public Enemy," with their iconic Edward G. Robinson and Jimmy Cagney, respectively, are a whole different type of animal; you're comparing apples and oranges. Those are the seminal action films, bad guy as antihero, cautionary tales about the ultimate end of reckless lawlessness.

"The Guilty Generation" focuses instead on the offspring of two of the biggest crime families involved in bootlegging. While a gang war whirls around the shoulders of Robert Young & Constance Cummings's characters they are trying to get away from the business, while each has a brother who's trying to follow in father's footsteps. Apt comparisons to "Romeo & Juliet" are made, and the similarities extend to the fact that both began life as a play before being made into films.

And that's probably part of the problem movie purists have with TGG. While the aforementioned WB pics are more action-oriented, with lots of shootouts and chases, TGG is more about the internal and intergang politics and the romance. They are also more "talky," which some people have a real problem with. In this case it works, IMO.

Leo Carillo & Boris Karloff play the heads of the families; in keeping with the early '30s, their accents are not accurate (see Jimmy Stewart as a Hungarian in "The Little Shop on the Corner" for one of thousands of examples of worse casting in this regard), but they do well personality-wise in their roles.

Don't overlook the secondary characters, such as Ms. Cummings's excellent Italian grandma and her father's press agent, who provide terrific support and comic relief.

Maybe it's just the fact that this one took me completely by surprise, but I'd rather see it again than any of the aforementioned films or even the more-similar "Godfather" pictures. It avoids the bloody shootouts of the latter, yet has more to do with the human beings affected by the action than the former, and it ultimately shows a prime example of when it's most correct for children to rebel against their parents. An interesting story, well acted, perfectly paced, and with even a couple of nice plot twists. I think it holds up quite well.

The performances by Leo Carrillo, Constance Cummings, Robert Young and Leslie Fenton make compelling entertainment out of this rather routinely mounted drama about the social hardships faced by the grown children of successful Italian-American gangsters. While they live in the splendor of their parents' ill-gotten gains they remain social pariahs and must go to great lengths to achieve respectable lives.

Cummings and Young are a sort of Romeo and Juliet, offspring of rival criminal kingpins Carrillo and Karloff, respectively, who fall in love. Carrillo is quite scary as a cold-blooded hoodlum, but Karloff can't get the accent right and sounds awkwardly British, and bearing no resemblance of any kind to Robert Young doesn't help. Leslie Fenton as Carrillo's dissolute son does a good job playing nasty, particularly in a well-shot scene that has him rampaging through a garden party and knocking guest after fully clothed guest into the pool.

The fact that Boris Karloff co-stars is not why I'd recommend this movie. In fact, he probably has no more than 5 minutes of screen time if I were to guess. However, the characters are wonderful and easy to dissect and the romance mixed with gang wars make for a entertaining classic.

Viewed this film in the 1940's and again on late night TV. This film is about two notorious gangsters, Mike Palmero(Leo Carrillo, who played in the Cisco Kid 1950 TV series as Pancho) and Tony Ricca (Boris Karloff), who are trying to gain control of the bootlegging racket. Maria (Constance Cummings, who appeared in Wings TV show(1985) Palmero's daughter, is afraid of him and hates the business he is involved with. She falls in love with Ricca's son, Marco(Robert Young, who was Marcus Welby in a famous TV series). The film made by Columbia pictures was a great gangster film and the beginning for Carrillo, Karloff and Robert Young.

I first saw this film in 1999 when the NFT had a season of early Columbia films.Having just seen this again my initial reaction is unchanged.It lacks believability and the casting of dear old Borris as an Italian gangster makes it difficult to take seriously a lot of what follows.Compare this film with its Warner contemporaries Public Enemy or Little Caesar and this comes third by a long distance Leo Carillo is a pussycat compared to Edward Robinson.By the way Carillo was born in California and his accent was put on and not natural.I thought that the ending was totally unbelievable although a bit startling.Still reasonably entertaining.

An excellent cast of skilled actors and actresses coupled with a terrific, original script make this movie the best gangster flick ever made. Forget Cagney, Bogart and Edward G. Robinson. None of the gangster flicks those guys ever made is as good as this one. Here's Leo Carillo as a completely ruthless cold blooded killer who lives with his mother, a son and a beautiful daughter. His opponent is Boris Karloff who has two sons. He is not yet famous for his portrayal of the Frankenstein monster. Both of these men are serious cold blooded killers trying to put each other out of business by whacking each others people. One of Karloff's sons changed his name to escape the shadow of his father's bootlegging business. Carillo's daughter has no escape from her thuggish father. Then they meet and fall in love. Make no mistake. You will never see a more intelligent drama than this one. Everything about it is just wonderful especially the totally unexpected climatic ending.

1931's "The Guilty Generation" was the last feature that Boris Karloff did before starring as The Monster in James Whale's "Frankenstein," here cast as vicious New York mobster Tony Ricca (future Monster Glenn Strange as a bodyguard with one line), opening the picture with his best scene against Robert Young as successful architect John Smith, secretly Ricca's estranged son, his mother having spirited him off to Europe for a proper education at the age of 10. Rebuffing his father's unexpected offer of a position of power providing he use his birth name, John sets off for Florida to begin a new project, only to be invited to a birthday party for pretty Maria Palmero (Constance Cummings), daughter of Tony Ricca's former partner Mike (Leo Carrillo), a bitter breakup that finds both men engaged in tit for tat violence that will strike closer to home before long. The young couple hit it off rapidly, until John learns the identity of the girl, a nervous laugh betraying a secret only revealed to her the following day, when he apologizes by admitting that he was her very first kiss as a child, and that his real name is Marco Ricca, son of Tony. Both are dismayed by the gang war instigated by their respective parents, choosing to hide John's true identity from Mike but not his approving mother Nina (Emma Duun), nor sassy publicist Nellie Weaver (Ruth Warren). By the time John and Maria decide to marry, Mike faces the tragedy of losing his son Joe (Leslie Fenton) to the Ricca mob, his dying testimony revealing John Smith to be an alias for Ricca's son, a fact that may doom poor Maria to become a widow even before the honeymoon in Havana. This Columbia release arrived months after the 1-2 punch of "Little Caesar" and "The Public Enemy," never glorifying but vilifying the gangsters on screen and the innocent lives claimed in their ambition for power and status. Karloff was hardly adept at playing one but acquits himself well despite the Italian name, 4 scenes resulting in 7 minutes screen time. Carrillo is the real standout, almost likable in his way yet quite ruthless overall, a stark contrast to his later comic typecasting though he did make a return to villainy opposite Lionel Atwill in PRC's 1945 "Crime, Inc." Constance Cummings is a fetching, winning presence as the long suffering daughter, but Robert Young is wildly miscast as an Italian gangster's son, not helped by an unconvincing mustache, coming off his feature debut "The Black Camel," with Bela Lugosi. Constance had previously worked with Karloff in her first film "The Criminal Code," only three months away from her third opposite Boris, "Behind the Mask," while the vastly underrated Ruth Warren deserved a higher profile career than playing uncredited maids or scrubwomen, her final role coming in a 1961 episode of Karloff's THRILLER, "Late Date" (Emma Dunn of course got to be frightened by The Monster himself in 1939's "Son of Frankenstein").

So, this is why I am going through all the films in chronological order - the good and the bad. There are so many great films that never made it to the top of the "Best Films" list. If I just watched "The Greatest Films of 1931", etc. I am sure I would NOT have had the pleasure of seeing this film.

"The Godfather" almost pales in comparison to this great film about feuding mafia families and their acts of obligatory revenge.

Where do I start? I don't want to give the story away but, suffice it to say, there are so many great portrayals in this film it is hard to just focus on one part of it. It works so well as a whole.

Leo Carrillo is mind blowing as the "Godfather" of one of the top mafia families. He goes in and out with his sweetness and ruthlessness and warmth and cold cruelty like "falling off a log". He makes it look so easy and natural. He has a son who is a buffoon and lazy. But he has a daughter portrayed by Constance Cummings who is a knockout and is trying to be accepted in high society though everyone knows she is the daughter of a gangster.

Robert Young belongs to the opposing family. Years ago, he left the mob to start a new life on his own. He even changed his name. Boris Karloff plays his father and even Karloff does a great job without going over the top, as he can sometimes.

The families are constantly playing "tit for tat". A cousin is killed so they must get revenge by killing a cousin of the other family. Then a son. Then a brother. And so it goes back and forth.

As fate would have it, Robert Young attends a party and falls for Cummings before they each realize whose families they belong too. But this is no "Romeo and Juliet" plot, though it sounds like it. The couple are always on the edge of being found out and their lives could be over in a heartbeat.

Emma Dunn is amazing also as the grandmother trying to get her son Carrillo to go straight. She could have easily playing the "hand wringing" and weepy character, but she does not. She plays the mother real and strong and believable. She is perfect!

I must mention Ruth Warren. She adds some humor and wise cracks to the film playing Carrillo's press secretary. She is the only character who can believably make cracks and comments and observations right in Carrillo's face and get away with it.

I can not praise this film enough. It moves at a good pace. It is intriguing to watch. The actors do an amazing job.

How have I never even heard of this film or the great Leo Carrillo??

I would watch this again. I enjoyed it that much. There are few films I would say that about!!

So spend the time to watch this 1931 "Godfather"-type classy classic. I dig through the mud to find such gems so you don't have to! And, if you see this one, you will thank me!