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Brother Orchid

1940, Movie, NR, 91 mins

Brother Orchid: Review

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A gangster film with a unique twist, BROTHER ORCHID is a Robinson vehicle crammed with action and not a little bit of pathos. Big-shot gangster Robinson turns over his underworld empire to right-hand man Bogart and sails for Europe and culture. When he returns five years later he expects to take up his old position at the head of the boardroom table but he finds to his chagrin that Bogie is nailed to the biggest chair. He is told to get out of the rackets but Robinson vows to regain his fiefdom. Robinson finds Jenkins, his most loyal lieutenant, hiding out in a lunatic asylum, and he quickly recruits him to begin a new gang. Aiding him is his old girl friend Sothern and a gangling Texas rancher Bellamy (using a laughable Texas accent), who is taken with Sothern. But Robinson's inamorata Sothern unwittingly undoes the racketeer. She arranges a meeting between Bogie and Robinson where Bogart's minions snatch Robinson and take him for a ride. He flees into the woods when they stop the car to execute him but he is wounded in his escape. Robinson staggers through the woods and comes upon a retreat where he rings the bell and collapses. He has reached a remote monastery and the monks take him inside, tend to his wound, and help him to recover. Like Jenkins, he realizes that he has the perfect hideout. He tells Crisp, the Brother Superior, that he wishes to stay on as an apprentice monk. Given chores in the garden, Robinson pays off a local boy to perform his work for him. When he is exposed and shamed before the monks, Robinson apologizes and asks for a chance to redeem himself. This time he goes to work for real, developing the monastery's flower garden, particularly adept at nurturing orchids, so much so that he takes the name of Brother Orchid. When he learns that the monks can no longer sell their flowers in the city, that Bogie's racketeers have taken over all flower distribution, Robinson discards his monk's robe, enlists the aid of Bellamy and fellow Texas ranchers, and invades Bogart's headquarters where a roundhouse fight ensues. Robinson and Bogart meet head-to-head and Bogie is killed in a gun duel. Robinson then gives up Sothern to Bellamy and returns to the monastery where he has found genuine peace. He enters the monastery dining hall and beams broadly, stating: "This is the real class." Offbeat, funny, and improbable, BROTHER ORCHID is almost an outright spoof of the gangster films of the 1930s and Robinson broadly caricatures himself in a rollicking farce of tough guys, molls, fast cars, and racket wars. leave a comment
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