Brooklyn Orchid

Short (only 50 minutes) but fun film has taxi company owners Tim McGuerin (William Bendix, always plays the blue collar palooka), and Joe Sawyer (Eddie Corbett) running out on their own party and finding all kinds of trouble. Along the way, they bump into Lucy Gibbs (Marjorie Woodworth, only 22 years old), and the real trouble begins. First of a trilogy, Brooklyn Orchid, 1942 was followed by "The McGuerins From Brooklyn" also 1942, and by "Taxi Mister" 1943, all under an hour, with the same writers, director, and leads. This was only Bendix's second gig. Plot moves right along - kind of feels like an extended episode of I Love Lucy, or Abbott & Costello. All's well that ends well, kind of....

This is a perfectly disposable entertainment, most notable for having William Bendix, some location shooting at a ritzy resort, and some OK gags, some of which are a little closer to risqué than usual for early 40s cinema. The better jokes invovlve a party about one-third into the movie.

Plot? A couple taxi drivers who hit it rich have girlfriends who want to move up in society. While playing hooky from the party, our heroes fish the "Brooklyn Orchard" out of the water, foiling her suicide attempt. Whereupon, she declares that since the boys fished her from certain death, they now own her life. The result is standard farce fare.

Why watch? The ladies are pretty and clothes they are wearing are better than the usual B frock. The drunken music critic who turns up in the second reel is funny.

Why not watch? The depiction of men as loutishly stupid and women as scheming plotters feels mean spirited outside of a Laurel & Hardy movie. And there is nothing here you can't find in many better movies (or, for that matter, in an episode of Friends).

Knockabout guys William Bendix and Joe Sawyer, a pair of millionaire taxi owners are just bored stiff at a party that Bendix's wife Grace Bradley is throwing for society. The water off Brooklyn Heights is as good as it is off Sheepshead Bay so they decide to go fishing. What they fish from the drink is suicide wannabe Marjorie Woodworth, the Brooklyn Orchid.

That's the contest she won a year before in Coney Island, but she's bored with her life now, it ain't no bed of roses for a beauty contest winner. But Woodworth is a student of Oriental philosophy and she believes like the Chinese, a life saved is a life owned.

Take Bendix's other and more famous Brooklyn character Chester A. Riley and give him a couple of million dollars and you've got Tim McGuerin. Unlike Riley, McGuerin married a stripper and Bradley does not like to be reminded from whence she came. This society bash she's giving is rather important to her.

Brooklyn Orchid was the first of three films the quartet of Bendix, Sawyer, Bradley and Woodworth made from these characters. They were done at Hal Roach Studio and Roach was lucky to grab Bendix right before he signed with Paramount and became one of their steadiest working character players. And also before he created Chester A. Riley for radio and then television.

Brooklyn Orchid is an easy to take B picture from the Roach Studio. One thing I didn't understand was not one reference to the Dodgers who had won the National League pennant the year before.

In the 1920s and 30s, the Hal Roach Studio specialized in making two-reel shorts (about 15-20 minutes in length). However, their business model changed in the late 1930. They dropped two-reelers (as well as the actors who were in them, such as Laurel & Hardy and Charley Chase). Now, instead, they started making B-movies...short ones at that they dubbed 'Streamliners' and were about 50 minutes each.

In the case of "Brooklyn Orchid", Roach decided to remake one of their two-reelers (the Lauren & Hardy vehicle, "Come Clean") as a 50 minute film. But instead of the original comedy due, they cast Joe Sawyer and William Bendix, two supporting actors in the leads.

Tim and Eddie (Bendix and Sawyer) own a taxi company and are very successful. Despite their wealth and Tim's wife's plans of becoming part of high society, they are essentially mugs with little culture or breeding.

Tim and Eddie decide to test out their new fishing rods and reels. Eddie manages to hook a big one...a woman! It seems that Lucy had just tried to kill herself and they saved her. Now here's where it gets dopey...she insists since they saved her life, she 'belongs' to them and won't leave them. Surely Tim's wife won't like this! And what about Eddie's fiancee? So what's next? Yep, the woman ends up meeting the ladies and hangs out with them!

The sad thing about "Brooklyn Orchid" is that it isn't a bad film, BUT you can't help but think that the Laurel & Hardy film was better. It's a shame, as it's a pleasant little movie despite this. Bendix and Sawyer were very capable and engaging.

Brooklyn Orchid (1942)

** (out of 4)

Hal Roach comedy about two cab workers (William Bendix, Joe Sawyer) who save a suicidal woman (Marjorie Woodworth) only to have her follow them around thinking they owe her something. I've been watching quite a few of this Roach film, which typically run 50-minutes and they're all really lacking when it comes to their screenplays. There's no question these are cheaply produced B-movies but the lack of laughs make them pretty hard to get through even though they often feature an interesting cast. I've come to really enjoy Sawyer but he isn't given anything to do here. Woodworth has a few good moments but again, her character is poorly written. The only real highlight of the film is a snob piano player and his hand. This was followed by two sequels and is a remake of the Laurel and Hardy film Come Clean.