Who? C’mon, you know who. According the the IMDb Brophy appeared in over 140 films and television shows with a handful prior to his break in Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman (1928) running through to his death in 1960. You’d know him if you heard him, and you might be able to hear him if you see him as his thick Brooklyn accent so perfectly fits his face:
That shot is from The Beast of the City (1932), which I hope to review in detail here within the next night or two. As he often is, Brophy is uncredited, appearing for a just a few moments in the very beginning of the film as a police dispatcher.
My own favorite Edward Brophy role is as Rollo the Knife Thrower in Mad Love (1935), which is just generally a bizarre movie. It’s strangeness due in no small part to Brophy’s appearance as the all too cheerful murderer of his own father, whose hands, so skilled at throwing knives, are grafted onto Stephen Orlac (Colin Clive) by crazy Doc Gogol (Peter Lorre). Besides their physical skill, Rollo’s hands also inject the killer’s personality into Orlac. Wildly entertaining movie.
Oh wow, after writing this up I found Brophy’s big scene from Mad Love on You Tube — I really hope it stays up on the site, here you go:
Brophy is also hilarious as Morelli, one of the key ex-cons charmed into a lifetime friendship by Nick Charles in The Thin Man (1934). Also look-out for Brophy in the cult-classic Freaks (1932), Evelyn Prenctice (1934), China Seas (1935), and really just about anything MGM released throughout the 30’s. He might only be around for a few seconds, but he shows up quite often!
Edward Brophy is best remembered for a role where we don’t see him, but just hear him, as Timothy Q. Mouse in Dumbo (1941). Brophy died in 1960 while filming John Ford’s Two Rode Together (1961).
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