The Old High Hat

I read a great little anecdote about Edward G. Robinson on Twitter the other day. A kid was skateboarding in LA in the 60s, and saw him come out of a store (a blonde on each arm). The kid said, "Look, it's the Boss!" and Robinson replied, "And don't you forget it!". 

This got me thinking about Robinson, who was a cultured, sensitive man, at odds with his classic gangster characters. Of course, he did a lot of comedies, making fun of this character, so I thought I'd queue some up. 

The Little Giant (1933) has Robinson as the head of a gang of Chicago bootleggers who are put out of business by the end of Prohibition. Robinson decides to go straight - he has a lot of money put aside and has been studying culture. He pays off his mistress (well enough so that there's no hard feelings) and punches out the head of the gang who will take over his territory (so they don't think he's running out). With his sidekick Russell Hopton, he heads to Santa Barbara.

He puts up in a swanky hotel, but all the society types give him the high hat. Then, when he's at a tailor, a young wastrel who can't pay his bill overhears the banker checking Robinson's solvency with his bank, and discovers that he has over a million in ready cash. The boy's family decide he should be cultivated. His sister, Helen Vinson, has already been noticed by Robinson, and she starts being friendly. 

Meanwhile, Robinson decides to take a house and real estate agent Mary Astor rents him a beaut, without letting on that it is her family's. It's their last asset after the crash, so she has to work at the agency and rent out the old pile. Robinson decides to take her on as social secretary, even getting her to rehearse his lovemaking. 

It's silly to worry about spoilers here, but Vinson's family find out that Robinson is a Chicago crook. Vinson's dad, who has been selling worthless bonds, makes him a partner in the firm, intending to make him the fall guy for the bond swindle. But Robinson figures that he just has to pay the bonds back - which he does the Chicago way. He gets his boys to work over the crooked officers of the company until they agree to buy back the bonds. And since Vinson threw him over when she found out his past, he's free to look at Astor in a different way.

By and large, this isn't a great movie - there aren't a lot of great laughs, the plot is pretty stale (slobs v. snobs) and it kind of meanders. But, it's got Robinson, and a capable crew of character actors. It's also full of snappy late pre-code dialog, like "a bunch of fags with hankies up their sleeves", and, "I used to own 10% of a French dame". And Robinson's little giant character is a lot of fun - naive but not dumb. He isn't sore that he got taken for a sap, but he wants these people to know that when they pick a sucker, they should make sure he's a sucker. "I have smarter people than you doin' my laundry in Chicago!"

It looks like Brother Orchid isn't available on Netflix, but expect to hear about a lot more Eddie G. movies in the coming weeks.