Brother Orchid *** (1940, Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Ann Sothern, Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, Cecil Kellaway) – Classic Movie Review 5065

Director Lloyd Bacon’s 1940 Warner Bros gangster movie stars Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart, Donald Crisp, Ann Sothern, Ralph Bellamy, Allen Jenkins, and Cecil Kellaway.

Robinson plays racket boss mobster Little John Sarto who returns from Europe to find he has lost his gang to his his right-hand man Jack Buck (Bogart). But he doesn’t like retirement and recruits a rival new mob to to reclaim his king place in the underworld.

Sarto’s former friends then try to kill him and hides out from Bogart’s murderous henchmen in Brother Superior (Crisp)’s monastery, where he finds redemption and satisfaction as a pious monk.

This amiably amusing religious-minded comedy gangster film motors purringly along on on-form acting from the two great tough guy stars and a support cast to boast about. Sothern and Jenkins particularly please as Robinson’s true love Flo Addams and true buddy Willie the Knife, respectively.

Richard Connell’s entertaining and unusual Collier’s Magazine story works out well in Earl Baldwin’s polished screenplay, and is boosted by an authentic atmosphere, both of the monastery and the gangster milieu.

When in Rome (1952), with Van Johnson and Paul Douglas, is similarly themed.

Flo: ‘It’s a rabbit’s foot… my uncle wore it for 32 years.’
Sarto: ‘A lucky charm, eh? Where’d you get it?’
Flo: ‘From my mother. With her own hand she took it off of my uncle after they hung him.’

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5065

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