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 monstery 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!