Edward G. Robinson made 14 films between 1930 and 1932. Robinson went to Universal for "Night Ride" (1930) and MGM for "A Lady to Love" (1930) directed by Victor Sjöström. At Universal he was in "Outside the Law" and "East Is West" (both 1930), then he did "The Widow from Chicago" (1931) at First National. Robinson was established as a film actor. What made him a star was an acclaimed performance as the gangster Caesar Enrico "Rico" Bandello in "Little Caesar" (1931) at Warner Bros. Robinson signed a long term contract with Warners. They put him in another gangster film, "Smart Money" (1931),
Dewey Robinson film when he played a waiter in George Cukor's "Tarnished Lady", starring Tallulah Bankhead. That performance did not receive screen credit, and this was often the case over Robinson's career, although he was in the billed main cast in "Murder on the Campus" (1934), "Navy Secrets" (1939) and "There Goes Kelly" (1945). Because of his size and physical presence, Robinson worked often during periods when gangster movies were the rage. Notable early roles for Robinson include a polo-playing hood in "Little Giant" (1933) starring Edward G. Robinson, a supervisor of slaves in Eddie Cantor's "Roman Scandals" that same year, and