Larceny, Inc.

Premiered April 24, 1942.

Today we review the Christmas crime comedy Larceny, Inc., which includes contributions from multiple Academy Award winners.

Broderick Crawford won Best Actor for his portrayal of Willie Stark in All The King's

Men (1949).  

The Academy honored Jane Wyman with the Best Actress Oscar in 1948 for Johnny Belinda.  

Anthony Quinn won two Best Supporting Actor Academy Awards for his roles in Viva Zapata! (1952) and Lust For Life (1956).  

Larceny, Inc. is based on a play called The Night Before Christmas, which was written by the husband and wife writing team of Laura and S.J. Perelman.  In 1956, S.J. Perelman won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Around The World In 80 Days.  

1942 lobby card for Larceny, Inc.

J. Chalmers "Pressure" Maxwell (Edward G. Robinson) has just gotten out of prison and has decided to pursue legitimate ways of making money.  His former henchman Jug Martin (Broderick Crawford) has also just been released.  Another prisoner named Leo Dexter (Anthony Quinn) asks them to help him rob a bank when he gets out, but Maxwell turns him down.

Pressure plans to move to Florida and open a dog track with help from his adopted daughter Denny (Jane Wyman), but they're short on funding.  When a bank rejects Pressure's request for a loan, he decides to rob the bank...but not in the traditional way.

The bank is next door to a luggage store.  Pressure buys the shop from the owner and plans to break into the bank's vault through the basement wall.  Their robbery will take place on Christmas Eve.  He and Jug enlist their old friend Weepy Davis (Edward Brophy) and the three would-be thieves begin the process of breaking through the bank's walls. 

Their plans are complicated when smooth-talking luggage salesman Jeff Randolph (Jack Carson) gets Pressure to buy more luggage.  Pressure encourages Denny to go out with Jeff to keep her from finding out about their bank heist.

A funny thing happens while the crooks are planning their crime: the luggage shop turns into a VERY profitable venture.  The owners of neighboring shops come to respect Pressure and they see him as a leader of their community. This gives Pressure second thoughts about going through with the Christmas Eve heist.  When Denny learns of the planned robbery, she encourages Pressure to keep buying new luggage from Jeff, so she can discourage Pressure from pursuing a criminal lifestyle. 

Things get even more complicated when Leo Baxter shows up and learns about Pressure's plans for Christmas Eve.  Leo is determined to enlist Pressure's gang in robbing the bank and will force them to do so at gunpoint if necessary.  

Will Pressure, Jug and Weepy go through with their plans to rob the bank?  Will Leo Dexter ruin Christmas for everyone?

J.A. Morris says:

I've always been a big fan of gangster films and in the 1930s and 40s, Edward G. Robinson was the king of Hollywood's gangsters.  Larceny, Inc. gives Robinson the chance to poke fun at this tough guy image and he's great in this movie.  

Broderick Crawford and Edward Brophy are equally good as Pressure's hapless henchmen.  There's a funny running gag where Jug gets hit by a car so he can threaten to sue drivers and get funds for Pressure's schemes.  

Plus, the movie ends with both Robinson and Crawford wearing a Santa suit, and a Salvation Army band playing "Silent Night" in the luggage shop, which adds lots of Yuletide atmosphere. 

If there's anything that didn't work, I felt like we got a bit too much of Denny and Jeff's budding romance.  However, the characters (and the actors who play them) are likeable, so it doesn't really detract from the film.  

A few notes about the cast:

Jack Carson plays Jeff Randolph.  He also appears in Arsenic And Old Lace, another holiday (Halloween) film we've reviewed here.  

Grant Mitchell has small role as Mr. Aspinwall.  Mitchell also appeared in Arsenic And Old Lace and
in two other classic Christmas films, The Man Who Came To Dinner and It Happened On 5th Avenue.  

Jackie Gleason, years before he became one of the biggest stars of television, has a small role as a soda jerk.  

Last, but not least, near the end of the film, Jug has an altercation with a passerby portrayed by Arthur Q. Bryan. 

Arthur Q. Bryan makes a brief cameo.

That name may be unfamiliar, but Bryan was the voice of Elmer Fudd from 1939 to 1959.

Larceny, Inc. features an amazing cast and is fun to watch from beginning to end, filled with lots of laughs, but also tension.  This is the first gangster comedy Christmas movie we've reviewed and it gets my highest rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 candy canes!

RigbyMel says:

Larceny, Inc. is a lighthearted spoof of gangster movies.   It's also an early(ish) entry in what I'd call the "Christmas caper" subgenre of holiday film.   

As J.A. Morris notes, the cast of this film is absolutely top-notch and the comedy is pulled off with great aplomb and timing by folks like Edward G. Robinson that we don't tend to automatically associate with comedic roles.  Seeing Robinson's fast talking con artist character literally scam the suit off a prison warden's back in addition to the crazy schemes he talks his associates into makes me smile every time I watch this movie, I've seen it quite a few times in recent years.  So I can attest that it holds up to repeated viewing.  

Santa Pressure with the original luggage store owner (played by character actor Harry Davenport, who is probably best known for playing Dr. Meade in Gone With The Wind)

And Edward Brophy's character Weepy is a humorous wise guy type who discovers that he has an unexpected talent as a luggage salesman, while also engaging in silliness like trying to hide a drill in a Christmas tree.  

No stolen drills here!  Nope!!  

Speaking of Edward Brophy,  I had a "hey it's that guy" moment with him when we watched Larceny, Inc. for the first time a couple of years ago.  I couldn't quite place where I knew Brophy's voice from, but was convinced that he sounded very familiar.  Upon further research, I learned that Brophy appeared in a number of gangster and detective movies, but I realized that I knew him best as the (uncredited) voice of Timothy Mouse in Disney's 1941 animated classic Dumbo. 

Timothy Q. Mouse from Dumbo

The fact that the luggage shop scam starts to prove legitimately profitable in spite of our loveably incorrigible gang of misfit's best efforts (as well as Denny's efforts to help keep them on the straight and narrow), adds to the fun and feeds into the idea of the holidays transforming people for the better in an unusual way.     

We also get a "good criminal" / "bad criminal" contrast with Robinson & friends' juxtaposition with the more ruthless character played - to perfection - by Anthony Quinn which heightens the drama of the attempted bank caper. 

Larceny, Inc. is a fun and somewhat unconventional holiday caper comedy and it's definitely worth your time if you're looking for something a bit different for your holiday viewing!   

RigbyMel's rating: 

4 candy canes!

227: "Mary's Christmas"

Premiered December 14, 1985.

"This is gonna be the best pageant ever, the first Christmas at the new site!"

-Brenda Jenkins

This edition of "Oscar Takes A Holiday" focuses on actor/director Regina King, who played Brenda Jenkins on 227.  In 2019, King won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk.  

It’s Christmas time in Washington, D.C.  Mary Jenkins (Marla Gibbs), and her neighbors in 227 Lexington Place Rose (Alaina Reed-Hall) and Pearl (Helen Martin) have a meeting with their minister Rev. Davis (Ron Richardson). 

He informs them that the corporation that owns the land where the church sits will not renew their lease.  On a more positive note, that same corporation has given the church a new lot that overlooks the Potomac River.  City Hall has given Rev. Davis permission to move the entire church building to the new location. 

Sandra Clark (Jackée Harry), the building’s resident busybody and troublemaker, has “volunteered” Mary’s husband Lester (Hal Williams) to supervise the moving of the church, since Lester owns a construction company.  Other companies would be unable to move the church before Christmas. 

Lester is reluctant to take on such a responsibility, but is pressured to move the church when Rev. Davis and the others literally pray for Lester to move the church!

Lester believes his crew can get the church moved in time for the congregation to perform their annual Nativity pageant.  Mary and Lester's daughter Brenda (Regina King), who is playing a shepherd in the pageant, believes it will be "the best pageant ever."  

Sandra is cast somewhat against type as an angel.

The pageant will be narrated by Santa Claus, played by Lester.  

However, disaster strikes when the church suddenly disappears!  Rev. Davis tells Lester that the church has been stolen!  

Will the church turn up in one piece?  Will the pageant be cancelled?  Will Christmas be ruined?  

J.A. Morris says:

227 was a fun sitcom that I haven't seen in a while and "Mary's Christmas" was a nice way to get reacquainted with the show and its characters.  It's a touching story about a neighborhood congregation working together to create a Christmas miracle.  That's consistent with 227 as a whole, since lots of episodes revolve around friends like Mary, Rose and Pearl helping each other.

Lester would have been well within his rights to walk away from moving the church, since he was forced into it by Sandra, yet he agrees to do so anyway.  The pageant rehearsal scenes are also enjoyable.  I played a shepherd in a Christmas play when I was 12, so "Mary's Christmas" brought back a lot of memories.  

Pearl's grandson Calvin (Curtis Baldwin) plays a "wise" man.

I found it particularly interesting that Santa, played by Lester, narrates the Nativity pageant, which was a nice touch.  This is not something I've seen happen in real life, since secular and religious Christmas traditions are usually kept separate.  

Jackée Harry, as Sandra, gets the bulk of the funny moments in "Mary's Christmas."  Sandra is the cause of consternation in this episode, but Harry was so great in the role (which won her an Emmy) that I never felt too angry at Sandra.  

Some notes about the cast:

Alaina Reed-Hall played Mary's best friend Rose on 227.  Children of the 1970s and 80s will remember Reed from her 12-year run on Sesame Street as Gordon's sister Olivia.  During that time, Reed appeared in the classic special Christmas Eve On Sesame Street.  

Rev. Davis is portrayed by Ron Richardson, who played the minister in two other episodes.  Richardson was primarily a stage actor vocalist and he won a Tony award for his role as Jim in the Broadway musical Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn.

"Mary's Christmas" is a great Christmas episode that features a solid ensemble cast and a story that will likely remind viewers of Christmas pageants they've been part of, it gets my highest recommendation.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 candy canes!

RigbyMel says: 

I remember watching and enjoying 227 when it first aired in the mid-to-late 1980s, but have no memory of this particular holiday episode.    It was nice to rediscover this series that I hadn't thought about much in twenty-some-odd years in researching for this blog post.   It's also enjoyable to revisit old sitcoms and see early work by actors like Regina King who have become better known as their careers progressed -  King's work as Brenda on the series is adorable.  

Regina King (l), with Curtis Baldwin, and Kia Goodwin (who plays Rose's daughter Tiffany in the series)

"Mary's Christmas" is a sweet episode from the show's first season. 

Although the "missing building" situation presented in this particular episode is perhaps not the most realistic, the interactions between the cast members conveys the inherent emotion of the scenario well .   Many of us can relate to families/communities coming together to solve problems -- particularly during the holiday season.   Many of us have also had the experience of being "volun-TOLD" to do something for a community group the way Lester is in this episode.  

J.A. Morris mentions Lester's turn as Santa/pageant narrator above, and although it might be a little unusual, I really like the way Santa ties the secular and religious holiday traditions together here.    

Resident troublemaker Sandra's against-type casting as the pageant's angel is funny and also kind of touching.   She gets quite upset when Mary threatens to snatch her wings.   

Rose and Pearl searching for "room at the inn"

Community Christmas pageants are a staple of holiday programming from A Charlie Brown Christmas onward and this episode of 227's  pageant presentation makes me think of my hometown's long running outdoor Christmas pageant which also features lovingly made sets and costumes and (often) sweet/amusing moments where things don't quite go according to plan. It also sometimes runs into complications with being outside (cold, weather, COIVD (most recently) and even issues having to do with building construction or repair.

I also appreciate that it appears that a real church choir called "The Visionaries" from Heavenly Vision Baptist Church helped to provide music and extra verisimilitude for our fictional sitcom pageant.  

"Mary's Christmas" is ultimately an episode about community and the holiday setting helps to bring everyone together to create the open air event.    It is likely that we will revisit this charming holiday story during future holiday seasons. 

RigbyMel's rating: 

4 candy canes!