Brother Orchid (Warner Bros.) (1940)

REVIEW, OPENING DAY STORIES ‘Bro. Orchid’ Arrives Today Edw. G. Robinson Film Opens at the Strand “Brother Orchid” the picture which brings Edward G. Robinson back in his bullet-proof best role, has its first local showing today at the Strand Theatre. A riotously mirthful tale of hysterical homicide, “Brother Orchid” presents “Little Caesar” Robinson as a gangster who goes gunning for culture. Featured with him are that dynamic blonde, Ann Sothern, master menace Humphrey Bogart, Ralph Bellamy, Donald Crisp and Allen Jenkins. Robinson is back in action again as “Brother Orchid,’ who gets “refinement” and _ retires from the rackets—temporarily. Hurt because his henchmen neglected to send him a memo before bumping off a member of a rival gang, he decides that the time has come for him to leave off being a racketeer and go in for culture. So he says good-bye to his erstwhile pals, sets girl friend Ann Sothern up in style in a swanky night club — as hat check girl, and departs for Europe to get refinement. Still BO 310X; Mat 101—15¢ EDWARD G. ROBINSON A sucker for anything that he imagines to be “classy,” he soon parts with his bankroll in exchange for such items as a glass doorknob, palmed off on him as the world’s largest diamond, a “16th Century” bed made in Grand Rapids, and the like. Down to his last pawn ticket, he treks back home, figuring that he will go back into the rackets and recoup his losses. His erstwhile pals have other ideas, however, and he finds himself ‘“included out,” in the new organization which Bogart heads. Meanwhile the girl friend has been promoted from hat check girl to head of the night club, and with her aid, or rather in spite of it, he evens up his score with Bogart, and achieves a very unique regeneration himself. Lloyd Bacon directed “Brother Orchid” from the screen play by Earl Baldwin, based on the Collier Magazine story by Richard Connell. Crisp To Weigh Anchor Donald Crisp, who captained his yacht to Jamaica two years ago, this year will sail to South American waters around Cape Horn on a 12 weeks’ vacation. The veteran character actor is featured in “Brother Orchid” at the Strand and has two assignments to follow for Warner Bros. before it’s ‘anchors aweigh.” Edward G. Robinson is starred in “Brother Orchid” and Ann Sothern is featured. Edward G. Robinson Is Back in Action! As ‘Brother Orchid,’ He's at His Bullet Proof Best PRODUCTION STAFF: Directed by Lloyd Bacon; Screen Play by Earl Baldwin; Based on the Collier’s Magazine Story by Richard Connell; Director of Photography, Tony Gaudio, A.S.C.; Art Director, Max Parker; Dialogue Director, Hugh Cummings; Film Editor, William Holmes: Gowns by Howard Shoup; Music by Heinz Roemheld; Makeup Artist, Pere Westmore; Musical Director, Leo Forbstein ; Sound by C. A. Riggs; Special Effects by Byron Haskin, A.S.C. and Willard Van Enger, A.S.C. ; Orchestral Arrangements by Ray Heindorf. CAST: Little John Sarto......... Edward G. Robinson Flo Addameg.......... : toe Ann Sothern Jack Buck.......... Humphrey Bogart Brother Superionr.c...0ccccicce Donald Crisp Clarence Fletcher... ..Ralph Bellamy Willie the Knife... Allen Jenkins Brother Wren....... Charles D. Brown Brother Goodwin... w-Ceeil Kellaway Philadelphia Powell........Morgan Conway Mugsy O’Day.............. ....Richard Lane Red: Mantines.2 nets Paul Guilfoyle Texas, Pearsons John Ridgely Brother MacEwen...... Joseph Crehan Brother MacDonald. .. Wilfred Lucas Curley Matthews ....... Tom Tyler Buffalo Burne............ ..Dick Wessell Pattonsville Supt... .Granville Bates French Frank... ..Paul Phillips Al Muller....... Turkey Malone... Handsome Harry.. Dopey Perkins... DOSED Hye i5 e emmnn ee Cah Tommy Baker There are riotously mirthful goings-on over at the Strand Theatre where Edward G. Robinson is back in action at his bullet-proof best in “Brother Orchid.” This hilarious tale of hysterical homicide presents ‘“Little Caesar” Robinson as a gangster who goes gunning for culture, and emerges as the comedy high spot of the season. Based on a Collier Magazine story by Richard Connell, “Brother Orchid” is a rib-tickling satire on big-shot gangsters. Robinson, as the head of (Prepared Review ) the “John Sarto Protective Agency,” gets a bad case of hurt feelings when his henchmen “rub out” a member of a rival gang without even sending him, Robinson, a memo. Worse, they were guilty of bad taste in pulling the crime at Molly Madigan’s Cafe, with the result that the police closed the place. “Now, where’s a guy going to get some decent corned beef and cabbage?” the big shot plaintively demands. So badly does he feel about the matter that he decides there is *Stil BO 317; Mat 205—30c “BROTHER ORCHID” AND HIS GIRL—Edward G. Robinson plays the gangster who goes gunning for culture with the aid of blonde Ann Sothern in “Brother Orchid,” the Strand’s new comedy hit. no future in the rackets for a genteel guy like himself. He throws up the whole works, naming Bogart as his successor, and decides that he will go to Europe and get himself a bunch of culture. This is bad news to his girl friend, a darling, dumb and devoted blonde. But he takes care of her handsomely by setting her up in the Cresent Club—fanciest night spot in town—as a hat check girl. The years fly by, and our hero, a sucker for everything that smacks of “class” has gotten rid of his bankroll buying phoney objets d’art, in the happy belief that he is acquiring culture. Finally, down to his last pawn ticket, he grabs a boat for home. He is not so much burned as he is hurt when he learns that the boys have gotten along so well without him that they have no intention of reinstating him as head man. He looks up the girl friend, finds her living in luxury. She is now the owner of the Crescent Club, thanks to the generosity of an alfalfa rancher from the wide-open spaces, who is content to worship her from afar. With the aid of these two he teaches the mob a few lessons in “culture.” Lloyd Bacon has directed the swiftly-paced film to take full advantage of the many comedy situations, and the entire cast, from Robinson down, plays it to perfection. Ann Sothern, as the bird-brained girl friend, demonstrates once again that besides being one of Hollywood’s most curvaciously lovely blondes she is also one of its outstanding comediennes. That accomplished master of menace, Humphrey Bogart, gives a brilliant account of himself as the Robinson’s double-crossing pal. Ralph Bellamy fits smoothly into the role of the rancher, and Allen Jenkins is funnier than ever as a cute little cut-up, known to the mob as “Willie The Knife.” As for “Brother Orchid” himself, he is the cinema’s classiest killer, and his handling of the role is flawless comedy. Ralph Bellamy Gets That Girl at Last! Beats Robinson to the Clinch in ‘Brother Orchid’ Nine times out of ten, girls will say that the ideal husband is the safe, steady, reliable type, but, take it from Ralph Bellamy, they’re just kidding themselves. And Bellamy certainly ought to know if his cinematic history counts for anything at all, because in just about every picture he plays he is the arch-type of the man the girls say they want to marry—yet he never gets the girl. Hardly ever, that is. His present role in “Brother Orchid” opening at the Strand today is an exception, and in the final fadeout it is he, not Edward G. Robinson, who winds up with curvacious Ann Sothern. He hopes it will mark a definite turning point. After all, it’s pretty discouraging to keep on being plodding and timorous and sweet through seven reels, only to lose the girl in the eighth to some handsome devil who may be quite dashing and gay, but is— if the surveys among prospective brides are to be believed at all— sure to make the worst possible husband in the world. Bellamy dates his difficulties back to “The Awful Truth.” In that picture, he had just about everything a girl could ask. Plenty of money, a_ beautiful ranch out west. A loving nature; the kindest sort of disposition. A simple man of simple tastes, who realized what it meant to settle down and raise a family. What’s more, Irene Dunne appreciated him. A level-headed girl, anyone *Still BO 29; Mat 203—30c “SURE SHE’S MY GIRL—DON’T I GO IN FOR CLASS?” Edward G. Robinson (center) gets some competition from Ralph Bellamy over girl friend Ann Sothern in “Brother Orchid” at Strand. [10] would say on the face of it. Yet what happened? Cary Grant came dashing in, let his molars gleam, his -wit sparkle, his dimple dimp, and—Bellamy was behind the well known eightball in the almost equally familiar side-pocket. The same kind of vicissitudes trailed him in “‘Boy Meets Girl,” “Tradewinds,” “Carefree” and recently “My Girl Friday.” In the latter film, it was Cary Grant for the second time. Here he was, this time an insurance salesman with a steady income, a little home in Albany, a nice mother who would live with the newlyweds for only a year. But the girl, Rosalind Russell, who proclaimed again and again that these were the things she’d been waiting for all her life, walked right out of his life and into the arms of a thoroughly no-good, unreliable, unscrupulous scamp of a newspaperman. So it is fairly easy to imagine the delight with which Bellamy perused his script of ‘Brother Orchid.” For, although Miss Sothern is snatched from him at the figurative threshold of the altar in three or four key sequences, he does manage to squeeze into the final clinch — that’s the part where Eddie Robinson gives up being a big-shot gangster and goes back to the monastery to devote his life to cultivating dahlias. But Bellamy held his breath right up to the final scene of the picture. He was aware that Little Caesar may suddenly protest that raising dahlias is no future for a self-respecting gangster; or the scenarists might double-cross him for other reasons so that his rival would get the girl. After all, it’s been impressed upon him so often it’s painful, he’s the dependable type. And that kind never gets the girl. Ann Sothern Wears Striking Fashions Clothes with motifs borrowed from foreign countries are just off the griddle and Hollywood spirits are hitting a new high. When winter furs go into the discard for daytime wear something has to take their place. Something has in the very gay Mat 102—15c ANN SOTHERN form of blanket coats and jackets as colorful as a desert. sunset. These are in Guatemalan cotton, are square and boxy and have roomy pockets. But their particular charm lies in the witprovoking designs borrowed from old South American temple ruins. Ann Sothern, starring with Edward G. Robinson in “Brother Orchid,” wore one of these quaint jackets to the studio. Hers was in black with a woven green stripe. Howard Shoup, who designed Ann’s clothes for the film, liked it so much he asked her to wear it in the picture, to supplement the wardrobe he designed for her.