The Black Orchid
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
Rose Bianco (Sophia Loren) a florist widowed by a famous gangster, looks for happiness with widower Frank Valente (Anthony Quinn). Rose is dealing with her son Ralph in a work farm for troubled boys, while for Frank, his grown up daughter Mary (Ina Balin) takes care of everything for him. Noble and Mary love each other and are engaged, but Mary refuses to marry him because she worries about who will take care of her father. She asks Noble to marry her and stay with her in her father’s house. At the same time, however, she refuses to accept Rose as her stepmother and allow her to join the family. Before Frank’s wedding day Mary irons Frank’s clothes, cooks all the food and locks herself in her room. This leads Rose and Frank to call everything off, devastating them both.
When Rose’s son finds out, he disappointedly runs away from the work farm, leading the police to come and search for him in the house. The next day, Noble comes and sees Frank is sleeping in his chair and Mary has still confined herself in upstairs. He asks her to come out, but there is no answer. Noble decides he will drop Frank off at Rose’s house and will wait at the church for him. Frank finds out that Rose is waiting beside the telephone for news about Ralph and reveals how miserable he is, torn between her and his daughter.
Frank leaves and joins Noble in the church and Rose heads for Frank’s house to confront Mary. Her son comes to the church, hoping to see his mother one last time before they send him to reform school. Frank and Noble bring him back to the farm and manage an agreement with the boarding manager, Mr. Harmon. On the other hand, thinking herself alone in the house, Mary unlocks the door and comes out of the room. There she meets Rose, who has decided to try to help Frank find happiness, even if it is not with her. Rose argues her point with Mary and makes her understand Rose's love for her father, and finally Mary accepts her, asking her to stay for coffee. Frank, Rose, Noble, and Mary have breakfast together. In the end, Rose and Frank take Ralph out of the work farm and the three happily walk toward the horizon.

Review: Patchy weeper with terrific and enjoyable performances , in which a businessman Frank Valente (Anthony Quinn) romancing criminal's widow named Rose Bianco (Sophia Loren) and the principal problem results in convincing their children that marriage will make all their lives better .
Both of whom are strongly involved with their sons , as Frank has to convince his sternly moralising daughter (Ina Balin) about marry herself to Noble (Peter Mark Richman) , while Rose must convince her little boy Ralph (Jimmy Baird) who usually is locked at remand home like in N.Y. State Farm .
This is a plain and simple film with plenty of interesting drama , Soap opera , emotion and a sensitive as well as unexpectedly tender romance .
Excellent interpretation by protagonist duo , as Anthony Quinn as the bungling businessman romancing a moll's beautiful widow , this was the first of Anthony's European roles leading to his hit five years later in ¨Zorba the Greek¨ .
And Sophia Loren playing magnificently the mature but attractive crook's widow , though she was 23 years old during filming, only 10 years older than the actor playing her juvenile son .
It is a mostly staged drama in which the two main actors spend the majority of the movie attempting to persuade their children that all will be better if they marry and it can work out .
The music is sparse, but it's potent and lively every time it appears , it was composed by Alessandro Cicognini .This understatement motion picture was well produced by Carlo Ponti , Sophia Loren's husband , and professionally directed by Martin Ritt, who worked with Paul Newman in three Westerns : ¨Hombre¨ , ¨Hud¨ and ¨Outrage¨.
Ritt was an expert on dramas such as ¨Stanley and Iris¨ , ¨Nut¨ , ¨Norma Rae¨ , ¨The front¨, ¨The Sound and the Fury¨ , though also directed films of all kind of genres such as : ¨The Spy Who Came in from the Cold¨ , ¨The Great White Hope¨ , ¨Mafia¨ and ¨Molly McGuire¨ .
This ¨Black orchid¨ film will appeal to drama enthusiasts and Anthony Quinn/Sophia Loren fans .
Black Orchid, The (1958) *** (out of 4) Rose (Sophia Loren) is a young Italian woman who has just buried her husband who was murdered by the gangsters he worked for.
Rose's depression soon takes another turn when her young son gets sent to a boarding school for breaking into parking meters.
With all the heartbreak going on, Rose spends her evenings alone making what money she can.Down the street is Frank (Anthony Quinn), another widower who is getting ready to see his only daughter married.
Rose finally drops her guard and the two become quick friends and soon start to fall in love but Frank's daughter, bitter with jealousy, refuses to let their relationship go anywhere.Perhaps I missed something or the entire film went over my head but the back of the DVD case called this a sensitive comedy romance and a couple other film books I owned called this a bittersweet romantic comedy but I certainly didn't find any comedy in The Black Orchid.
Why this film would be called a comedy is beyond me but it's certainly romantic in the sense of meeting two lonely people who must travel a hard road and learn tough lessons before seeing a greener field.The movie has its heart in the right place, although near the end things start to tumble a little bit.
The biggest key to the film is its two stars who both turn in wonderfully charming performances.
Sophia Loren has always been known for her beauty, which is in pull blossom here but she also manages to be quite believable as the distraught widow trying to make good for her troubled son.
Loren does a very good job during various quiet scenes where she must confront her past and she also fairs very well in her louder, bleaker moments where she's trying to push people away from her.The key highlight to the film is Anthony Quinn who was an actor who never received enough praise for his work.
Quinn gives one of the most charming performances I've ever seen in a film and this here really brings the relationship of all the characters together.
Quinn features a certain grace that makes him appear to float through his scenes and this adds all the believability that a viewer will need.They certainly don't have star chemistry like this any more and that's one shame when it comes to people refusing to watch older films.
Director Martin Ritt (Norma Rae, Stanley & Iris) does a very nice job at holding the film together and not letting the melodrama become too thick, although his selection for the music score is really distracting.
Other than that The Black Orchid offers two great stars the ability to shine and create a wonderfully quiet little film that has enough charm to make it worth watching..
An early effort by director Martin Ritt, "The Black Orchid" is an unconvincing melodrama about the romance between a widow and a widower.
The widower's daughter, played by Ina Balin, evidently suffers from mental illness, although professional help is not sought.
The character is unsympathetic, and most fathers would have put her on an analyst's couch, while most fiancés would have seen what the future held and walked out.However, the film cannot be completely dismissed, because the widow is played by Sophia Loren at her most beautiful, despite a nearly all-black wardrobe, and the widower is played by Anthony Quinn, who is wonderfully appealing in a rugged lovable way.
That such an imposing forceful man would allow his daughter to ruin his life is hard to swallow, especially when the happiness of the widow, her son, and his daughter's fiancé also hang in the balance.
Her strong performance foreshadows her later work in "Marriage Italian Style." Loren's famous eyes are on full display, and the actress seems wise and earthy beyond her years.
Perhaps Quinn's performance was not acting, because who could fail to fall for Sophia.The movie moves back and forth between sets and locations.
Like a well-oiled episode of "As the World Turns," "The Black Orchid" moves slowly to a predictable, if unconvincing, conclusion that extols the power of sausage, which is perhaps a symbolic key to the daughter's emotional problems.
Unfortunately, Loren and Quinn no longer grace the screen, but fortunately their shadows linger and enhance even otherwise lackluster films such as this one..
I liked "The Black Orchid", as it's a film that works well because the script is very good and the acting really carries it off well.
Too many films feature everything but fine acting--so this one is a great lesson to aspiring actors and folks who want to learn to appreciate more than explosions and the like.The film begins with the death of a gangster.
He's left a mixed up son and a beautiful but mixed up wife (Sophia Loren).
He figures that they both are lonely and they should make a go of it.When it comes to Loren's change from closed and unhappy to falling in love with Quinn, this is probably the weakest point in the film.
However, considering that their being in love and wanting to get married is NOT the main point of the film, this can be forgiven.The hiccup in this relationship is, surprisingly, not from Loren's son.
While this may seem a bit unrealistic, as a family therapist, such reactions from daughters to the prospect of their widowed fathers remarrying isn't that unusual--and is the great basis of a film.All this works together very well due to the acting.
Sophia Loren won the Venice Film Festival best actress award for her portrayal of Rose Bianco (White Rose) in The Black Orchid.
Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren are quite good as the older lovers whose romance hits a family obstacle (Quinn, in particular, is well-attuned to his role), but the stereotypical Italian characters get to be a bit much.
One can understand why Quinn's daughter is reluctant to let go of her papa (she's been mother and daughter to him for years), but her overwrought behavior--not to mention her over-acting--creates an hysterical mood which nearly undermines the love story.
Martin Ritt directed, staging the piece with sensitivity yet never allowing the characters and their emotions to bloom.
Martin Ritt was a very good director, but this film is not his best.
Two stars like Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn together again for the second time (They were acting together in "Attila" 1954) made the film a good entertainment with a very happy end.
Quinn's daughter is too egoist with his father because she does not want to share him with any other woman, and once noticed the new relationship with Sophia, a widow of a presumably maffia man, who also has a son sitting in farm school for children with problems of behavior.
Sophia solved the problem Quinn had with his daughter (too simple way of solution) and Quinn was able to get the sympathy of her son and to take him back with them.
Loren & Quinn were Great.
Enjoyed this 1958 film which was the first film that Carlo Ponti who was Sophia Loren's husband in real life, and this was the first film that he directed in the United States for Paramount Studios.
This story is about a woman, Rose Bianco, (Sophia Loren) who was the wife of a Mafia mobster who was killed and Rose just lived with her son and worked in a factory making flowers and mostly orchids.
Frank Valente, (Anthony Quinn) is a widower after many years with a wife who had a mental condition.
And it does.She's quite good in the de-glamorized role of an embittered working widow, Rose.
Trouble is Frank's daughter Mary (Balin), is very possessive of dad and also thinks Rose is undeserving of him.
If this sounds like tangled relationships, it is, especially when Rose's delinquent son (Baird) is added to the mix.Fortunately, the movie's well acted and directed (Ritt), which helps what turns out to be something of a soap opera.
Despite the obscurity in Loren's canon, the film works as an engaging showcase for the two leads, and is not without its moments..
Martin Ritt has always been a director concerned by social problems:racism,illiteracy,the lot of workers and trade unionism,juvenile delinquency.And some of his works are commendable:"Stanley and Iris","Norma Rae" "edge of the city" to name but three.This is the latter subject we find here:Ralphie ,whose late father was a gangster has been sent to a reform school.His mother (Loren) wants to marry an honest man (Quinn).But they've got to reckon with the guy's offspring who's not prepared to accept that.We deal with a "serious" sitcom which drowns out Ralphie's character.Sophia Loren 's portrayal is minimal,and Quinn cannot make up for it.The supporting cast,particularly Quinn's daughter,her fiancé and her confidant,has no presence at all.Get Douglas Sirk's "imitation of life" instead if you think melodrama can be great art!.
Black Orchid concerns the story of two neighbors both of whom lost their respective spouses and seem like a natural match for each other.
But for their respective children the ship of romance would have some smooth sailing.Sophia Loren is a bit young to play a middle aged widow, but she carries it off beautifully.
She also shuns and is shunned by the neighborhood.Anthony Quinn is a widower whose wife died years earlier and left him to raise daughter Ina Balin who was making her big screen debut.
How he reacts to his mother's new romance is a bit unusual but in keeping with how the adult characters are drawn in this drama.What I liked about Black Orchid is the sheer ordinariness of the people yet some great drama is played out across the screen.
For a writer it's probably the most difficult to find a story with these characters, but it is done beautifully in Black Orchid.Case in point.
Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren were together before in the Italian film Attila where Quinn plays the title role the scourge of Europe and Loren is a pulchritudinous and seductive Roman princess.
Well, I have to tell ya - Had Sophia Loren not been in The Black Orchid, then, you can bet, I would have probably rated this picture somewhat lower than I did.Not only do I consider Loren to be one of the greatest beauties of her day, but, besides being just another pretty face, she was really quite a competent actress, as well.
Loren certainly had the ability to inject a sense of genuine believability into her character portrayals, as she did so here in The Black Orchid, as the recently widowed, Rose Bianco.I think it's kinda funny to note that at the time of filming The Black Orchid, Loren was 25 years old which, in reality, made her only 12 years older than the age of her character's son in the story.In this "Eat-Drink-And-Be-Merry" tale of love, Italian-style, Loren plays an unglamorous role of a struggling, single mother (with a few skeletons in her closet) who is being romantically pursued by a boisterous and persistent older man with a few family problems of his own.The Black Orchid's "lonely hearts" story (which was set in NYC) was basically something of a soap opera, and it really wasn't all that great.
Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren play two lonely, recently widowed people whose tentatively blossoming romance is in danger of being derailed by the behaviour of their respective children in this Martin Ritt melodrama that calls for its audience to exercise a high degree of patience combined with a low expectation of anything exciting happening.Quinn is very good as the single father of a grown daughter, exuding a charm that makes the speed with which the widow Rose's initial reluctance towards him is turned into a willing embrace believable.
But then, she was only in her early twenties – a good few years younger than her co-star – so perhaps a disparity in the quality of their acting is forgivable.Perhaps the most interesting thing about the movie is that it isn't Rose's tearaway juvenile son (Jimmy Baird) who proves to be the biggest obstacle to their romance, but Quinn's grown daughter Mary (Ina Balin) who is herself on the verge of marriage.
I have always loved Sophia Loren.
Loren plays the widow of a mafioso who has been killed drying to give his Italian-born wife (Sophia) everything her heart desires.
Now a grief-stricken widow, she's trying to make ends meet while coping with a son who keeps running away until he is sent to a reform school.
Enter Athony Quinn, a somewhat older man--a widower with a grown daughter (Ina Balin) on the eve of her own marriage.
Quinn notices Sophia and falls for her right away.
After resisting his advances, she finally begins to date him and in not time at all, Quinn proposes, saying he will sell the New York home in Little Italy and move to Somerville, NJ near his factory, and help her get her son out of reform school and live happily as a family.
The difficulty here is Quinn's possessive daughter, who is now insisting that her fiancé move into with her and daddy after they marry.
Of course when she finds out that her Dad wants to marry "that Mafia woman," Quinn's daughter has a meltdown.
Sophia and Quinn are blissfully reunited, and her son is released form the reform school.
However, under Martin Ritt's expert direction, Sophia delivers an expert, subtly acted performance that she would later become truly famous for.
The daughter's role is the big hole in this movie, and newcomer Balin cannot do a thing to make her likable.
Still the movie achieves wonderfully acted moments and anything that Sophia did during this period is worth watching.
Entertaining And Gripping, And A Good Early Film For Ina Balin.
"The Black Orchid" is about a widow (Sophia Loren) of a murdered mobster, who finds new love in the widower who lives next door, played with great verve and humor by the always-good Tony Quinn.The Quinn character's barely-grown up daughter (Ina Balin) lives with him and she strongly disapproves of him getting involved with a gangster's widow, even going so far as to lock herself in her room for days on end in protest.This was one of the lovely Balin's earliest screen roles, and I thought that she was very good and convincing.
Even in scenes with gorgeous Sophia Loren, Ina's beauty and radiance were absolutely intoxicating!!The film also has many comedic moments, including the trip that Quinn and Loren's characters take to the boarding school where her son is attending.The end of the film, in which the two women settle their differences and make breakfast together, is very heartwarming and downright charming.Now, how would you like to have had Sophia Loren and Ina Balin prepare breakfast for YOU ??!!!.
"The Black Orchid", a fairly anonymous picture by director Martin Ritt ("Hud", "Hombre" etc), stars Sophia Loren as Rose Bianco, a widowed florist who strikes up a relationship with widower Frank Valente (Anthony Qinn).
Other subplots deal with Frank's grown up daughter, Mary (Ina Balin), who's reluctant to leave home and marry a man of her own; she fears that doing so will constitute an abandonment of her father.Indeed, virtually everyone in the film fears abandonment.
Rose's son, stuck in a boarding school, feels discarded, as do Rose and Frank, who've been abandoned by their respective spouses, and Mary herself, who desires not to be torn away from her father.
The film ends with these anxieties resolved, new connections made and bridges built.Amongst the cast, actor Anthony Quinn stands out; he's as infectious as usual.
Sophia Loren is stiff, but this fits her role.
The film was directed by Martin Ritt, who would go on to do a number of far more interesting films.7/10 – Worth one viewing.