• A moderately successful comedy brought to life by an inspired lead performance by Edward G. Robinson and Bogart waiting in the wings ready to break out in 1940.
  • Certainly a factory product- Warners Bros was cranking them out
  • One of five collaborations between Edward G and Bogart
  • Like Larceny Inc. (made two years after with Lloyd Bacon) Edward G. comically riffs upon his popular gangster role in Little Caesar (made a decade before)—his name here is “Little John”- this is decades before De Niro would do this is in a number of films (including Analyze This) and Brando in The Freshman (1990)
  • Fast-moving- wipe edits
  • Edward G. Robinson is the standout— he has such command of the screen even at the diminutive size—and that voice.
  • The ensemble is great too. Donald Crisp in a small role, Cecil Kellaway – Ralph Bellamy rifts on his role as a rich brainless southerner in The Awful Truth just three years prior. I think the film asks too much of Ann Sothern who isn’t up to snuff—should have lent more on Bogart (who is superb)- she’s clearly the second lead here after Edward G and the film is worse for it.
  • The direction is mostly pragmatic but there is one nice tracking shot and camera tilt up when he finds himself at the monastery at 47 minutes
  • The rest of the film is essentially a fish out of water comedy- and it is funny
  • Recommend but not near the top 10 of 1940