To me this is just as hard to decide as The godfather and godfather part 2. But if you forced me, I would have to say the public enemy, because i think cagney is tougher and carries himself better than Eddy G. and can't forget the grapefriut scene. But story wise I think hey are equal.
TELL ME WHICH ONE YOU PREFER???
I prefer The Public Enemy, but Little Caesar's still very good. Cagney and Robinson were both terrific in their roles. They should have been in a gangster film together. All those years at Warner Bros. and they only made one film. It's our lost.
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today."
I'm a little caesar person, myself. The grapefuit scene in the Public Enemy IS rather unforgettable, but you gotta love the last line of Li'l Caeser ("Is this the end of Rico??") That really got to me. Edward G may not have been as stocky as Cagney, but he had that tough-guy aura and voice (what a voice!!) that made him seem like such a threat.
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"The Public Enemy" most definately. While "Little Caesar" is great in it's own merits (Edward G. Robinson's performance here probably tops Cagney's in "Public Enemy"), the film itself is rather muddled with some slow, uninteresting scenes between the Douglas Fairbanks Jr. character and the girl that he loves. A boring love story subplot that just wastes about 15 minutes of film and keeps us way from Edward G. tearin' it up. "The Public Enemy" is just much smoother, and not to mention it's better made (that sounds weird when I look at it) than "Little Caesar."
shareBoth films are excellent but I slightly prefer Little Caesar, which is starker and more to the point, while Public Enemy seems a little too long to me, zig-zagging in too many different directions, many of them interesting but the movie at times has almost too much "local color". The Robinson film has a classic simplicity and directness. Also, LC makes its "protagonist" so charismatic that it becomes almost "immoral", while PE is obviously very anti-crime, and has less ambiguity as a result. I like ambiguity.
shareI prefere The Public Enemy as it doesn't seem quite as stiff. It's still stiff but a little less-so than Little Caesar.
Little Caesar has it's merits though; I think I like this early Robinson better than the early Cagney.
Dire_Straits
lover of all B&W; especially film-noir
After careful consideration, my own personal opinion is it's a dead heat between the two films. "The Public Enemy" has a better moving story, the legendary performance by the charismatic Cagney, and it's ending is still shocking after 74 years. But Edward G.'s performance in "Little Caesar" is outstanding. Despite Rico having few admirable traits, I can't help rooting for the guy, especially after his tragically muttered dying declaration. "Caesar" also gets points for being the only movie of the pair to feature the infamous Thompson submachine gun.
One of the opening scenes in "Caesar" at the roadside diner reminds me of one in the 2002 film "Road to Perdition" with Tom Hanks and Jude Law, which took place right around the same time "Caesar" would have been in the theater.
Overall, I like both equally. So much so, I always watch them together, like a double feature.
The Public Enemy definatley. This movie is directed better, and Cagney gives a much more electrifying performance.
shareThe Public Enemy is my choice. Cagney just seems more spontaneous to me... the "grapefruit scene" was spontaneous, after all. Robinson is great in "Little Caesar" but his voice has been parodied... so it's not really his fault that his performance doesn't stand the test of time as well as Cagney's. "Public Enemy" also offers several individual scenes that make the movie more memorable and the main character more interesting. Any fan of the movie will know which scenes I'm talking about.
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Definitely Little Caesar. I find Public Enemy to be overrated with the exception of its shocking and powerful final scene. Yes, Little Caesar drags in a few spots but I find its characters much more interesting than the ones in Public Enemy plus Edward G. Robinson is a much more convincing gangster than James Cagney. Cagney was more a song and dance man playing a role on-screen while Robinson WAS Rico.
shareMy votes going for Little Ceasar. It's a tough call. If this were LC vs White Heat. I'd go White Heat. But my favorite thing about LC is that it starts and ends in violence. It's uncomprising and unapologetic. Rico is destroyed ultimately by his own ego and greed.
Man they don't make'em like that no more.
Public Enemy definitely, Cagney vs. Robinson is a close race but to me Cagney comes ahead by a nose.
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I'm going to ride with 'The Public Enemy' on this one but not by much. Both films are representative of the genre at that time and both anchored by riveting central performers in Robinson and Cagney but I give the nod to PE for two reasons: 1) As touched on in another reply, Robinson's mannerisms and speech from this film have been parodied so many times that when I was watching LC, I expected Bugs Bunny or Mel Blanc to step into the set. That took away part of Rico's menace for me. 2) PE's ending was just so much more gangsta than LC. Rico's last scene was memorable but by that time he was a total maniac who fell for Flaherty's calculated jabs at his vanity while seeing Cagney drop at his brother's feet after his enemy propped his dead body on the front door was just as shocking then as today. PE's ending can stand with anything from modern gangster movies of today and that's saying something for a movie over seventy years old.
Both great but still PE by a nose.