I didn’t know, going into St Benny the Dip, that a “dip” is a pickpocket. In these circles the dip is the one who goes in for the goods, the “stall” having provided a distraction, while the “mule” is the one to whom the hot item is swiftly transferred, in case the dip is caught in the act.
That established, into the film, which doesn’t seem to be about pickpockets at all, though it is about street criminals. When we meet Benny (Dick Haymes) the smooth, Matthew (Roland Young) the plausible and Monk (Lionel Stander) the operator, they are midway through a gambling sting, trying to bilk a high roller, when the police arrive to arrest the trio.
On the run, the trio take sanctuary in a church, where they disguise themselves as priests and, this being a not particularly plausible film, are forced to stay in disguise for so long that they end up re-opening a closed mission for the destitute.
So it’s the plot of Some Like It Hot, give or take, though eight years ahead of Wilder, Lemmon, Curtis and Monroe, with the joke always being about the gulf between real and assumed identities. Emphasising the similarity even more, a subplot about one of the “priests” – Benny – trying to woo a sexy blonde, Linda, played by Nina Foch.
As a sub-sub plot, two genuine priests, the Reverend Miles (Dick Gordon) and young Reverend Wilbur (Freddie Bartholomew) trying to track the trio down, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear but might involve getting the dog collars and black outfits back.
Hard to believe this was originally meant to be a straight drama starring Marlon Brando – though wasn’t Guys and Dolls all premised on identity subterfuge? It became what the IMDb calls a musical comedy when Haymes came on board. Though calling it a musical of any sort is a stretch. Haymes, a well known crooner, does get a song, but you have to wait a whole hour for the first and only one. St Benny the Dip is not exactly a comedy either. Light entertainment is closer to the mark, with lots of feelgood thrown in for good measure, as the street-hardened trio realise there is something to be said for the virtuous life after all.
It’s a nice though dopey film, with the standouts being the witty, bantering scenes between Benny and Linda, he trying to get into her pants while maintaining the priestly front, she resisting even though she obviously finds this handsome sweet-talker attractive. If only he weren’t a man of the cloth.
The director is Edgar Ulmer, a talent who found himself at the wrong end of Hollywood’s “you’ll never eat lunch in this town again” power dynamics after sleeping with the wrong man’s wife. So here he is on a B movie, when in films like The Black Cat and Detour he’d proved he could really bring home the goods. He keeps the pace up. If nothing else, this is a jolly, jaunty movie.
This is also the last film by Freddie Bartholomew, who’d played a lot of insufferable brats as a child actor. Here, aged 27, he bids the big screen farewell in a sweet turn as the blithering, dim-bulb cleric.
There is good writing here, and some lovely acting, and the direction is pretty good too. There isn’t very much for Stander or Young to do, and the two real priests in pursuit of the three phoney ones makes no sense, except as plot filler. The treat is Foch, often pigeonholed as an icy sophisticate, and the real surprise, trading lines with Haymes with savvy and screwball energy.
St Benny the Dip (aka Escape if You Can) – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2026
