Os McGuerins de Brooklyn

I wonder if the Red Circle Cab Company run by William Bendix and Joe Sawyer from Brooklyn ever ran into that Harlem based outfit the Fresh Air Taxi Company run by Amos Jones and Andy Brown. Now that might have made an interesting film.

Bendix's Tim McGuerin is a blue collar knockabout guy who never forgets his roots. He's even got a pool table in his office at the Taxi Company office. But it's a sad day when wife Grace Bradley finds him in a compromising position with pretty Marjorie Woodworth. He was just giving her instructions in shooting pool, but what self respecting wife who's a former stripper herself is going to believe that.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander as Bradley starts taking classes from physical education instructor Max Baer. She even goes up to his spa for a cure. Naturally Bendix doesn't believe that.

The McGuerins From Brooklyn following the original Brooklyn Orchid film is a working class romantic comedy. When you think about it, the antics of Bendix and Bradley can be found in many comedies with sophisticated leading men like Cary Grant or Rock Hudson. It's just that no one would expect Bendix's Brooklynese speech pattern from them.

Don't believe me, check out My Favorite Wife or The Awful Truth and see what I mean.

Shortly after this film, Bendix went to Paramount where he was one of their most acclaimed and busiest character actors for the next decade. He also became a star of radio and later television with that other Brooklyn character he created Chester A. Riley.

The McGuerins From Brooklyn is a no frills romantic comedy in its own blue collar way.