Brother Orchid (1940), Brother Orchid (1940), DVD

With lots of spiffy patter and a colorful array of underworld types, Brother Orchid spoofs the gangster genre as it serves it's 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 Sartos mob. And Ann Sothern is delightfully scatterbrained as Sartos devoted doll. Gags, gats, genuflection - all are directed in cheerfully knockabout style by Lloyd Bacon. Oh, brother, what great fun!