By the late-thirties, the optimistic Roosevelt years, a romantic depiction of the gangster milieu was no longer commercially viable. In 1938, with Slight Case of Murder, Warner Brothers poked fun at the style they had pioneered. Edward G. Robinson, burlesquing his most famous gangster role, played “Little Caesar” for laughs. Using comedy, the connection between illicit and licit business activities was safely made implicit. After the repeal of prohibition, Remy Marco (Robinson) finds himself without a job. Trying to do what he knows best, he buys a brewery, and hires his old gang as supervisors and salesmen. However, when four dead men are found in his summer home, things seem a little too much like old times. While Marco's chances of stepping up from the underworld to high society may seem slight, the laughs are not in this delightful parody.