Eddie G.

He had, said Time magazine, the face of a depraved cherub. Like W.C. Fields and Marlon Brando, his voice launched a thousand amateur imitations. He was short, pudgy, a hair's width away from being ugly, and had no business being a star. Except, of course, that of the three big Warner Brothers tough guys of the 30s and 40s, he was the best actor.

He was Edward G. Robinson.

James Cagney certainly brought more energy to his roles, and Bogart is the one who has come down to us as an icon. In the race for posterity, Robinson runs a distant third. In the early 30s, he was the king of Warners, but was soon eclipsed by the kinetic Cagney and later by the brooding Bogart. He didn't mind - he kept working. If Warners didn't want him, other studios did. Like all stars, he had his share of forgettable pictures - CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY (1939) comes to mind - but his best films represent a far more eclectic mix than Cagney or Bogart. Can you imagine Cagney as a timid bank clerk or Bogie as a Norwegian farmer? Cagney brought to every film the hyper Cagney personality, and even in a good biopic like THE MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (1957), he was not really playing silent screen star Lon Chaney, Sr., but James Cagney playing Lon Chaney, Sr. Bogart, once he established his persona in THE MALTESE FALCON, stayed with that image for most of the rest of his career. Robinson burst onto the screen and into America's consciousness in the gangster film LITTLE CAESAR (1931). Spitting orders out of the side of his little slit of a mouth, while chomping on a ubiquitous cigar, Robinson was a sensation, and the performance still holds up today, if the film does not. He spent several years playing the same kind of character, and even spoofing his own image in films like THE LITTLE GIANT (1933). But he was not entirely happy at Warners, and Warners did not always know what to do with him, so he found work elsewhere.

Robinson spent the 30s and 40s making a variety of films, the best of which show off his incredible versatility. In DR. ERLICH'S MAGIC BULLET (1940), he portrays the man who discovered the cure for syphilis, and it remained his own favorite role for the rest of his life, probably because it was so far removed from his "Little Caesar" image. In OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES (1945), he is a Norwegian farmer, and the almost plotless film rides along beautifully on the tender chemistry he has with little Margaret O'Brien who plays his daughter. (Would Cagney or Bogie ever risk having a film stolen by Margaret O'Brien?) In ALL MY SONS (1948), the excellent screen version of Arthur Miller's classic play, Robinson plays a suburban father hiding a terrible secret. His performance in this film is so good, it makes me wish that he had played Willie Loman in Miller's most famous play, DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Yet, at the same time, he could be hilarious in an unpretentious little comedy like MR. WINKLE GOES TO WAR (1944), playing a small town father who somehow gets drafted. And he could easily slip back into the Little Caesar world, as in KEY LARGO (1948), his greatest performance as a gangster. The first shot of Robinson in the film, an unforgettable close-up of him sitting in the bathtub smoking a cigar, is almost John Huston's admission that this will be Robinson's film. Robinson easily steals KEY LARGO from Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Lionel Barrymore.

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