Brother Orchid

Brother orchid is a beautiful film that features two excellent actors, Edward G. Robinson and Humphrey Bogart. I can't recall the first time I saw this film, but I was around fourteen or fifteen years old. That's the sort of impact this movie had on me. I'm forty years old now, and I remembered the film enough to prompt me to look for a copy. I found that it is available on VHS, so I bought it and watched the movie for the second time in my life. It still had the same impact on me as it did the first time I watched it.

Structurally, Brother Orchid is easy to break down. It starts with an inciting incident, moves through three clear-cut acts, and ends with a wonderful little tag that wraps the story up with a nice little bow.

Edward G. Robinson plays racket boss John Sarto, who gets frustrated with being in the mob and decides he wants to quit. He hands over his operation to Jack Buck (played by Humphrey Bogart) and takes off to travel around the globe and live a life of luxury and class. When he spends all of his money, he decides it's time to come back and reclaim his place as head of the mob, but Jack Buck isn't so willing to give it up.

John Sarto puts together a new mob and goes head to head with Jack Buck. Buck hires a couple of goons who take Sarto out and shoot him, but Sarto doesn't die. Instead, he finds his way to a monastery. He decides the monastery is a good place to hide out while he recuperates, and while there, he gives himself the name Brother Orchid.

During his stay at the monastery, Sarto begins to get a new outlook on life. Toward the end of the film, he finds out that his pals at the monastery can no longer make money (which they always give to the poor) because Buck is running a protection racket and no one will buy flowers from the monastery. Sarto leaves the monastery, but he assures them that he will fix it so they can sell their flowers again.

Sarto puts together a new outfit. He goes up against Buck again, only this time he wins. There are other things going on in the story as well, and I won't give away the ending here, but I recommend you see this film. It's from 1940—a great old film that's a lot of fun to watch. Edward G. Robinson is extremely funny in his role, especially during his stay at the monastery.

The film was written by Richard Connell and Earl Baldwin and directed by Lloyd Bacon.