Brother Orchid

With lots of spiffy patter and a colorful array of underworld types, Brother Orchid spoofs the gangster genre as it serves its most hard-boiled crime icon sunny-side up. Edward G. Robinson (Little Caesar) plays racketeer Little John Sarto, who poses as Brother Orchid and lays low at a monastery when a turf war gets hot. Humphrey Bogart, on the verge of The Maltese Falcon stardom, again plays a second banana with a gun -- and ideas about taking over Sarto's mob. And Ann Sothern is delightfully scatterbrained as Sarto's devoted doll. Gags, gats, genuflection -- all are directed in cheerfully knockabout style by Lloyd Bacon. Oh, brother, what great fun!

• comedy
• drama