The american dream and the culture of appearances in Mervyn Leroy’s Little Caesar

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2017v70n1p233

Abstract

Known as the precursor of the gangster sound films from this genre’s “classic” period, Little Caesar, directed by Mervyn LeRoy in 1930, narrates Rico Bandello’s (Edward G. Robinson) path from his rise as a gang leader to his death. Little Caesar established the parameters followed by the gangster films in the 1930s and also contributed to the image of the gangster as an American icon due to its dissemination through the cultural industry, mainly on films. Our objective with this present article is to verify through the analysis of some of the scenes how the culture of appearances and the ideology of the American Dream are configured throughout the narrative.

Author Biography

Elder Kôei Itikawa Tanaka, São Paulo University

Doutor em Literatura e Cinema Norte-Americano junto à Universidade de São Paulo, USP, com período de doutorado sanduíche com bolsa Capes/Fulbright filiada à University of Pennsylvania - EUA. Mestre em Literatura e Cinema Norte-Americano pela Universidade de São Paulo (2011). Tem experiência na área de cultura, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: literatura e cinema norte-americanos, história de Hollywood, censura no cinema hollywoodiano.

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Published

2017-01-27

Issue

Vol. 70 No. 1 (2017)

Section

Articles

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Copyright (c) 2017 Elder Kôei Itikawa Tanaka

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.