This is part of the fantastic series put out by Columbia Pictures of "Film Noir Classics"- '50s B-movies from the studio's vault. The B's of the '50s took far more chances than the major Hollywood pictures of the era. If the headlining film appealed to the audiences of the time's need for a reassurance that the hope manifested in the emerging suburban phantasmagoria was real and true, the B-movie that preceded it gave space to the fears aroused by memories of the war, the revelation of the Nazi's atrocities, and the specter of nuclear war. The Brothers Rico feels quite distinctive even among the edgy Bs of the era. It gives an unusually honest depiction of a family's history and travails throughout the country. The son of Italian immigrants grew up in NYC and got involved in organized crime, moved down to Florida to realize the suburban ideal, while his younger siblings head west to California to escape the family's criminal legacy. The frank depiction of Italian-American culture surely endeared the film to Martin Scorsese. A road-movie as well as a Noir, with an acute sense of location, one can easily imagine it a favorite of Wim Wenders. This would be a near-great film except for one thing. Like Nightfall, another film unearthed from Columbia's vaults, Brothers Rico has, for its time, startlingly visceral depictions of sadism and cruelty. (The only thing akin in Hollywood A-films of the era would be those directed by Anthony Mann, but Mann's work offered depictions of the suffering of the violated, not so much of the perpetuation of suffering.) Both Brothers Rico and Nightfall offer as a condolence to the audience tacked on, artificial and utterly tone-deaf happy endings. In this way, they serve the functions of both A and B pictures. Give catharsis to those fearing the darkness, but assure them that the light at the end of the tunnel is real.
Review of The Brothers Rico
