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St. Benny the Dip

  • 1951
  • Approved
  • 1h 20m
IMDb RATING
5.6/10
329
YOUR RATING
Nina Foch, Dick Haymes, Lionel Stander, and Roland Young in St. Benny the Dip (1951)
ComedyCrime

A gang of con artists disguise themselves as clerics in order to pull off a job, but soon find that even pretending to be religious people is having an effect on them.A gang of con artists disguise themselves as clerics in order to pull off a job, but soon find that even pretending to be religious people is having an effect on them.A gang of con artists disguise themselves as clerics in order to pull off a job, but soon find that even pretending to be religious people is having an effect on them.

  • Director
    • Edgar G. Ulmer
  • Writers
    • George Auerbach
    • John Roeburt
  • Stars
    • Dick Haymes
    • Nina Foch
    • Roland Young
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.6/10
    329
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Edgar G. Ulmer
    • Writers
      • George Auerbach
      • John Roeburt
    • Stars
      • Dick Haymes
      • Nina Foch
      • Roland Young
    • 10User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos

    Top cast14

    Edit
    Dick Haymes
    Dick Haymes
    • Benny
    Nina Foch
    Nina Foch
    • Linda Kovacs
    Roland Young
    Roland Young
    • Matthew
    Lionel Stander
    Lionel Stander
    • Monk Williams
    Freddie Bartholomew
    Freddie Bartholomew
    • Reverend Wilbur
    Oskar Karlweis
    Oskar Karlweis
    • Mr. Kovacs
    William A. Lee
    • Police Sergeant Monahan
    Richard Gordon
    • Reverend Miles
    Jean Casto
    • Mrs. Mary Williams
    Edward Wells
    • Patrolman McAvoy
    • (as Eddie Wells)
    James Bender
    • House Detective
    Dort Clark
    Dort Clark
    • Lieutenant Saunders
    • (uncredited)
    Verne Colette
    • Walter, Linda's Boyfriend
    • (uncredited)
    John Lupton
    John Lupton
    • Seminary Student
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Edgar G. Ulmer
    • Writers
      • George Auerbach
      • John Roeburt
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews10

    5.6329
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    Featured reviews

    6Pleasehelpmejesus

    Parody

    How is this a parody of "Les Miserables"? I fail to see any similarity other than the fact that both stories deal with sympathetic criminals. There is no chase, no obsessive policeman-the Sgt. isn't really in pursuit of Benny and his gang in the way Javert pursues Valjean. I don't see any true parody here at all but I am willing to listen to counter arguments.

    Is it possible that you mean a particular scene? I'm going to go back and watch it again to see if I can catch something I might have missed the first time around.

    The movie is pretty lightweight despite its creative team having such a strong pedigree but still, it's pleasant enough. Stander and Roland Young are great as usual and crooner Dick Haymes is likable and believable enough as Benny. It's not "We're No Angels" or "His Girl Friday" but it's not bad.
    6bkoganbing

    Working out your own salvation

    By 1951 the blacklist was in full force. But Lionel Stander got to appear in this film St. Benny The Dip because it was an independent production shot in New York City released by United Artists. In 1951 no Hollywood studio would have employed Stander.

    Stander along with Roland Young and Dick Haymes who plays the title role play three confidence men whom the police are hot on the trail of. In eluding the cops the three go into a church basement and take three clerical habits. After that they seek shelter in what turn out to be an old closed up mission.

    The police do catch them there, but they think they're clergy come to reopen the place. After that the three are trapped in their roles, but each in his own way works out his salvation.

    St. Benny The Dip is one of those old sentimental type films that we never get seen made today save for the Hallmark Channel. All three of the leads fit comfortably into parts that are written for them.

    This film marked the farewell big screen performances of Roland Young and Freddie Bartholomew who plays a young minister. Young died two years later and Bartholomew just left the business all together.

    A lot of laughs, but also a few moments of pathos characterize St. Benny The Dip. Good family entertainment still.
    5JohnSeal

    Delightful

    Considering its a Danziger Brothers poverty row production, St. Benny the Dip is blessed with a marvelous cast. Dick Haymes, Lionel Stander, and Cosmo Topper himself, Roland Young, play a trio of small time hoodlums who disguise themselves as priests to escape a police dragnet. Finding themselves in an abandoned Bowery mission, the threesome take their masquerade to extremes, holding services and feeding the poor. This marvelous tale of redemption also stars a luminous Nina Foch as love interest and Freddie Bartholomew in his final screen appearance. This is perhaps the first and so far only noir-comedy ever made, with some very fine black and white location photography by Don Malkames, whose career took him from Yiddish pictures to 'race' films. John Roeburt's screenplay is consistently intelligent and amusing. The film's low budget is apparent, but its clear everyone involved was working very hard to make a quality picture, and they succeeded.
    Nozz

    A comedy with some wan contrasts

    In his characteristically bemused and half-faltering voice, Roland Young reads the majestic opening of Genesis to a handful of charity cases in a nobly spacious but dilapidated old building still remembered for its better days. He and his comrades, the script reminds us, are just three people in a city of eight million, and the city is visually portrayed in towering terms of expressionism; but the eccentric trio still nurses hopes of turning the game in their favor. It turns out that Man proposes, but God disposes. A wise priest is on hand waxing philosophical and poetic about the situation, and in addition along comes a woman-- Nina Foch-- whose own definition not about fame (which she seized at but lost) or about globetrotting or getting rich quick but about a successful domestic life. A comedic situation arises from the contrasting lures of a quiet, productive lifestyle versus an independent and unrestrained one. Dick Haymes sings an unexpectedly bluesy hymn in one of his last movie roles, and fellow actors Roland Young and Freddie Bartholomew are winding up their big-screen careers as well, adding unintentionally and retroactively to the movie's elegiac quality.
    8shaneskiser

    Redemption

    Regarding the previous comment about being unable to see St. Benny the Dip as a parody of Les Miserables, I, too, do not see a parody. I do see, however, an homage to Les Miserable. There is in both works the common theme of redemption. In the same way the priest in Les Miserables covers for Jean Valjean and gracefully provides for him, so, too, does the priest in St. Benny the Dip provide for our three scoundrels, and that gracious act in the same way begins the process of redemption. True, Jean Valjean was not the scoundrel that Benny, Matthew, and Monk are, but they, like Valjean move from outside the law to inside the law.

    Grace begets grace.

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    Related interests

    Will Ferrell in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Sharon Angela, Max Casella, Dan Grimaldi, Joe Perrino, Donna Pescow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Tony Sirico, and Michael Drayer in The Sopranos (1999)
    Crime

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Freddie Bartholomew's last film before retiring from acting.
    • Goofs
      When Linda talks about being an operatic star, Benny finishes pouring her drink and putting the bottle down twice in two different shots.
    • Quotes

      Benny: Say, Sergeant, this idea of your about our, uh, staying around and making a career of bums, uh, I mean, uh, running this mission, was it just an idea or were you sort of planning to make up our minds for us?

      Police Sergeant Monahan: Well, now, to tell you the truth, I was hoping you were thinking like that

      Benny: [Smiling] Oh, you were?

      Police Sergeant Monahan: I was burning to see a miracle of prophecy come to pass.

      Benny: Miracle of prophecy?

      Police Sergeant Monahan: Father Smith's faithism predicted that this old miss would one day raise itself from the dust. He stood right there.

      Benny: [Moving away from where the Sergeant his pointing] Oh?

      Police Sergeant Monahan: He stood right there when he predicted that, in the large, good time, some others would come up to take over his work.

      Benny: That's us.

      Police Sergeant Monahan: [Smiling] That's you. These ears of mine heard Father Smith and, in your references, these eyes of mine have seen his words come true.

    • Connections
      Featured in The World Famous Kid Detective (2014)
    • Soundtracks
      I Believe
      Words and Music by Robert W. Stringer

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 24, 1951 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Escape If You Can
    • Filming locations
      • New York City, New York, USA
    • Production company
      • Benny Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 20m(80 min)
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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