MartinHafer Richard Conte plays an ex-gangster who's gone straight many years before the film begins. However, even though he's a successful businessman, he's called out of the blue to do them a couple favors. Unfortunately, it turns out that the mob is looking for his brothers--and although they claim to want to get them out of the country for their own good, it sure looks as if they are just using him as bait.The casting of this film left a lot to be desired. There was a 26 year difference in ages of Conte and Darren and they are supposed to be brothers! In addition, they looked like they were 26 years apart. Yet despite this, it's a taut and well-acted film. For lovers of film noir, you won't be disappointed--though the movie is more cerebral and less violent than most examples in the genre. Plus the plot if very interesting and kept me engaged throughout.

kenjha An ex-employee of the mob is forced to return to his old stomping grounds after his brothers get in trouble with the mob. This is an absorbing drama that takes a bleak, realistic look at mob life. Conte and Foster are fabulous as a married couple trying to distance themselves from his past as an accountant for the syndicate. They are especially good in their natural depiction of married life as they go about their morning routine. Also impressive is Gates as a mob boss. Conte appeared in a number of mob films, including "The Godfather." Curiously, Grant (who married Bing Crosby following this film) has a small role but is given equal billing with Conte and Foster.

sol1218 ***SPOILER ALERT*** Being the local Miami Mob's top book-keeper for some twenty years Eddie Rico, Richard Conte, decided to go legit and open up a laundry business in Bay Shore Florida.It's when things were going great for Eddie and his wife Alice, Dianne Foster, that a call came in from Miami to the Rico house from an old friend Miami Mafia under-boss Sid Kubic, Larry Gates. Kubik having his stooge Phil,Paul Dubov, do the talking for him whats Eddie to finds his kid brother Johnny, James Darren, so he can have a heart-to-heart talk with him. It seems that Johnny was the wheel-man in a Mafia sponsored hit on this hood Carmini with his older brother Gino, Paul Picerni, being the hit-man! Kubik the big hearted and understanding guy that he is now want's Eddie to track his little brother down and get johnny to leave the country before his fellow mobsters have him iced!The word has been going around in mob circles, in both Miami and New York, that Johnny facing indictment for murder is ready to turn states evidence against his boss Kubik for a lighter sentence! The reason that Kubik isn't at all interested in Eddie's other brother Gino is that, unknown to Eddie, he's already got him and is about to have his brains blown out! Eddie who should have known better then to trust Kubik goes along with his plan to find and then get Johnny who's now married, with his wife Norah (Kathryn Grant) expecting any moment, out of the country only to lead Kubik, or his hit-men, straight to him!***SPOILER***A tale of brotherly love gone astray with Eddie Rico in an effort to save his brothers in fact ends up having them murdered with him being unknowingly used, by Kubik, to track them down by their killers! It was Eddie's mom Moma Rico, Argentina Brunetti, who saw through Kubik's sinister plan and warned Eddie not to go through with it! Very effective confrontation between Moma Rico and Kubik at the end of the movie. Eddie finally seeing the light in him having set his brothers up was on his way to the D.A's office to spill the beans, with his inside knowledge of Kubik's organization, on Kubik. It's then that Kubik and his hoods showed up at Moma Rico's apartment to do a job,or hit,on Eddie. As things turned out it was Moma, who once save Kubik's life by taking a bullet meant for him, not Eddie who was the one who put Kubik's life of crime and murder to a sudden and surprising end!

bkoganbing Towards the end of the noir cycle director Phil Karlsen came up with a really good crime drama about three brothers all involved to a greater and lesser degree with organized crime. The oldest, Richard Conte, was at one time the syndicate accountant. But he's retired now, running a laundry the boys have set him up with. His biggest problem now is that he and wife Dianne Foster are trying to adopt a child.But brothers Paul Picerni and James Darren are still very much involved and at the dirty end of it. Picerni's a contract killer who just made a major hit and Darren drove the car. Darren's gotten married and disappeared and the syndicate heads are worried he'll turn state's evidence. His brother-in-law Lamont Johnson's already been to the District Attorney.Conte has faith and trusts in the big boss Larry Gates who's been close to the whole family Rico, including their mother Argentina Brunetti who took a bullet meant for Gates way back when. So when Gates tells him to find Darren, Conte takes it on face value. Of course it's all not that simple and it becomes a tragedy for The Brothers Rico all around.The Brothers Rico made in the Fifties as it was could have been an anti-Communist film. The syndicate seems to be really well organized, from Little Italy in New York, to Phoenix Arizona, to Miami, Florida, they've got Conte's movements all tracked. Karlson really builds the tension up as Conte seems to keep running into old acquaintances, but just keeps going on trust.Larry Gates who usually plays upright moral types on screen has that persona work for him as the syndicate boss who's just pulling the strings from coast to coast. His is the best performance in the film, followed closely by Harry Bellaver an amiable underboss in Phoenix who's just following orders.Kathryn Grant is in this film as Darren's bride. This year that The Brothers Rico came out, she became Mrs. Bing Crosby. She'd keep working a few more years, but after that retired to raise the Old Groaner's second family. She registers well in her role as a pregnant bride in love.The Brothers Rico is a gripping noir film, not one for the paranoid minded among us.