No Orchids for Miss Blandish
Tags: romantic

Plot synopsis:
Miss Blandish (Linden Travers), a sheltered heiress, is targeted for a simple robbery by a cheap thug who ultimately involves two groups of rival gangsters, their goal being her diamond jewellery worth $100,000. The robbery is botched when Riley (Richard Nielson) kills her bridegroom and the three would-be robbers decide to kidnap Miss Blandish for ransom instead (her father is worth $100 million).
The three original kidnappers are killed, and Blandish ends up the captive of the Bailey gang. Her father puts a private detective on the case. The rival Grisson gang, led by Ma Grisson (Lilli Molnar), intends to collect the ransom and kill Blandish rather than take the risk of releasing her. Meanwhile, Slim Grisson (Jack La Rue) and Blandish fall in love and plan on running off together.
Blandish sends the diamonds to her father with a note saying she is in love with Slim, but he refuses to believe it. Ma Grisson is shot by rival gangsters when she cannot get Slim to the phone. The police surround the cabin where Slim and Miss Blandish are holed up and gun Slim down, "rescuing" the kidnap victim and returning her safely home. She throws herself from her balcony over the loss of Slim.

Review: The resultant outcry led Harold Wilson, a future premier who was the government minister responsible for films, to declare at an industry banquet- to loud applause- that he was glad there were "no Oscars for Miss Blandish".The fuss probably killed the career of Linden Travers, who had been in pictures since the mid-1930s but made no more appearances after 1949, dying 52 years later.
"The most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be shown on a cinema screen." Thus did The Monthly Film Bulletin judge St John Clowe's film adaptation of No Orchids For Miss Blandish (aka: Black Dice) upon its appearance in 1948, reflecting the almost universal shock and disapproval of the British critical fraternity.
Audiences, it must be said, found the movie to their liking despite, or because of, the opprobrium and where it was shown, takings were excellent.Violent and (for it's time) sexually suggestive, lurid and melodramatic, nothing St John Clowe's movie contained pleased critics more happy with a realistic tradition of filmmaking, or middle-class literary adaptations for discriminating audiences.
Neither sophisticated literary screen transposition nor completely convincing gangster piece, laced with titillation, and with roots in trash culture, These days the movie is better seen as a landmark of British crime exploitation cinema.At its heart lays a love story: that between Slim Grisson and Miss Blandish.
His tragedy is that he soon finds himself overseeing the kidnapping of the woman he loves, while Miss Blandish has the misfortune of falling for someone entirely unsuitable, socially or morally.But without the sexual experience he brings she would, it seems, be condemned to eternal frigidity.
For a film so explicit elsewhere, the restraint and sensitivity of direction here is striking.As Slim Grisson, Jack La Rue is impressive; more so when one remembers that it is almost half an hour before he is first seen on screen at all.
As Miss Blandish, Linden Travers has attracted good words, too.Others in the cast, even allowing for the variable American accents, are admittedly less strong.
Ma Grisson (Lilli Molnar), who starts out, Ma Barker-fashion, as the leader of the gang, is less menacing that one might have wished; 'Doc' the Sydney Greenstreet-type among the supporting cast is too much of a stereotype to be convincing.
While some aspects of No Orchids For Miss Blandish have been ridiculed, the budget was obviously quite a reasonable one; the nightclub fairly expansive and convincing for instance, allowing the director a chance for multiple set-ups.Of course the club, Grisson, and his followers are a world away from Miss Blandish's previous social circle.
In a way characteristic of British noir and thrillers, the film has a firm idea of class; not only in the separation of crooks and toffs, but upstairs and downstairs (the working class lovers overhearing the conversation of their betters from the basement, at the start), as well.
For Miss Blandish, her new relationship brings 'freedom', this from the "first man I've ever met" - a slight emphasis on 'man' when she speaks, implying the anaemia of the class she has just rejected.To those who wish to discover what all the fuss was about, I can say that the film may be variable, but entertaining and memorable.
That, and other cheerful little catch phrases spoken as gangster slang in this gangster melodrama (British-style), are spoken by a cast of British actors given some hilarious tough guy talk.In this terse screenplay they need little prodding to slug someone with a fist or a gun while the plan is to kidnap and rob a wealthy socialite who turns out to have a yen for the lead criminal (AL LA RUE).
La Rue does alright but he's about as wooden as George Raft when it comes to delivering key lines with any enthusiasm.LINDEN TRAVERS is the pretty socialite captured by a bunch of thugs and falling quickly into the Patty Hearst syndrome when she becomes a willing victim willing to escape the sheer boredom of her life as a pampered daughter of a wealthy aristocrat.HUGH McDERMOTT is the detective set on her trail by her father who only wants to free her from captivity.
It all feels like a Mickey Spillane thriller with little sympathy for any of the victims who get shot for the slightest infringement at a moment's notice.The nightclub scenes seem to have been inspired by GILDA ('46), with a songstress rendering a non-too-subtle rendition of a torch song in a flimsy peekaboo dress while around her all sorts of plotting and planning is going on somewhere in the dark.Not bad, but don't expect the dialog to have the sharp touch intended.
British made American gangster movie..
...the most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism...the morals are about level with those of a scavenger dog...it has all the sweetness of a sewer...the worst film I have ever seen.I saw it when I was sixteen and I loved it, even buying the record of the background music (Song Of The Orchid).
It had a mostly British cast with one imported American *star* Jack La Rue. It would be interesting to see it again fifty years later.
But she gives this part her all."No Orchids For Miss Blandish" is a British movie trying to seem an American.
Even though we're shocked at the nonstop violence, we don't believe the story fully, either.Jack La Rue is good in the male lead.
This British gangster thriller from a sensationalistic American crime novel by James Hadley Chase (also filmed on its home ground in 1971 by Robert Aldrich as THE GRISSOM GANG) is notorious for how awful it is, some claiming it "among the worst ever made", others "certainly the most bizarre British film"!
This unenviable reputation (which the writer-director could not attempt to alter or otherwise exploit since he would die at age 40 that same year!) has actually turned it into a cult, enabling a R1 SE DVD from VCI.Having been impressed with the Aldrich version and being something of a sucker for bad cinema (especially from this vintage), I acquired the film immediately when the opportunity presented itself though I only got to watch BLANDISH now as part of my ongoing Noir marathon.
As often happens, the movie is nowhere near the stinker most claim it to be: granted, the performances are hilariously over-the-top (thus a fount of entertainment in itself!), the would-be American accents do not fool anyone (there is even future "Carry On" stalwart Sidney James, for cryin' out loud, not to mention a stand-up comic amusingly spoofing the Hollywood double-act of Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre!) and, frankly, the gall of it all makes the experience that much more fascinating, almost hypnotic!
In comparison with the later version (but typical of its era), the leads here are over-age: they are Jack LaRue (the only genuine Yank in the cast: incidentally, he is far removed from the Mama's Boy as played by Scott Wilson in the remake) and Linden Travers (previously noted for supporting parts in spy thrillers like Hitchcock's superb THE LADY VANISHES [1938], she is the personification of elegance rather than Kim Darby's society brat).
Incidentally, both novel and film(s) were criticized for glorifying violence (this is indeed quite brutal for the time) and the notion of 'Amour Fou' since the kidnapped heiress ends up falling for her psychotic captor.
Other notable characters are the obese Mob-leading mother (Lilly Molnar), a no-less unhinged member of the gang who becomes involved with the girl who ultimately gives them away (Walter Crisham 'standing in' for Tony Musante), a thuggish cohort (played by Danny Green, later of THE LADYKILLERS [1955]), and a crusading reporter (a much-younger Hugh McDermott 'replacing' Robert Lansing).The photography (by Gerald Gibbs) is reasonably atmospheric, smoothing over the general amateurishness on display, and there is another definite asset in its lush score.
"No Orchids for Miss Blandish" is an excellent British film noir picture.
Its greatest strength is its script--which avoids sentimentality and has a hard edge that makes it a big tougher than its American cousins.Miss Blandish is a young lady whose father is immensely wealthy.
However, just before he can complete this vicious act, another gang (headed by Slim---played by Jack LaRue) takes the diamonds and kills the remaining thug.
Overall, a very gritty film with great gangster dialog and lots to appreciate.By the way, one reviewer complained how bad the accents were, as the cast was mostly British and they were pretending to be Americans.
I'd just like to point out that this film has been shown on British TV, on Channel 4 in the early Eighties - though that was its first showing, and I'm pretty certain the only one to date.
St. John Legh Clowes (a terrific name) wrote a terrible script which lacks subtlety and nuance, and did a terrible job in directing this crime/romance and gave us a genteel Englishman's conception of an American gangster film.
The acting is stilted and artificial with characters often delivering their lines while posing defiantly.Then, midway through the film, action stops as the picture changes from an action melodrama to a romancer, and the fast pace comes to a halt.
In short, it is very worth seeing so you can compare American and UK gangster movies.P.S. When was the last time you saw a hit-man wearing a bow-tie?.
With the sound turned on the dialog and the attempts at acting tough by the brit-sissies playing American gangsters (who I admit are brutally butch looking) are both spectacularly, bad in a very disorienting, familiar way: though it precedes "Plan 9..." by 11 years, this movie sports serious (Ed) Wood.
It has a similarly quirky charm.The one actual (expatriate) American in the movie, Jack La Rue, is almost as miscast as the Brits.
To my mind the movie was a failure because of the acting, but largely because these virtually all British actors (except La Rue) were straining to fake American accents, and that caused their intonation to be 'off.' Everything sounded poorly acted, but sometimes I would imagine the actors speaking their lines in their native British accents and they would be fine.They could have just made it as a British drama, but then it might have seemed unbelievably violent for that culture...
even as "American" the violence never seemed as motivated as it is in noir and gangster films in the USA of the era.It remains a very peculiar film.
Considering the appalling state of Britain in 1947 when the film was made, it was a valiant attempt to copy such magnificently noir American films like "This Gun For Hire" and "The Blue Dahlia".
Knowing NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH (1948) was a British film, I was intrigued to discover that the action is set in the good ol' USA.
MISS BLANDISH is not a British crime film, like BRIGHTON ROCK (1947).
It is a British attempt at making an American gangster flick.
I was surprised to see its overwhelmingly negative reception.NO ORCHIDS FOR MISS BLANDISH is a gangster movie with a heart.
The girl and the gangster just want to escape and start a new life together, but the machinery of fate won't allow it.An exercise in genre, MISS BLANDISH in some ways seeks to be the ultimate gangster flick.
Even the relentless newspaper reporter pushes a gun in people's faces.Second-tier American tough guy Jack LaRue (THE STORY OF TEMPLE DRAKE, 1933) is brought in to lend credibility to the production in the starring role of Slim Grisson, the top man in the slickest criminal organization in town (and sometime nightclub owner).
It's an interesting sort of character that isn't often seen in gangster flicks like these.The British cast gamely assume American accents, with varying degrees of success.
The Americanized lingo occasionally feels awkward, but the biggest reminder for me that this is not a Hollywood film is the gunshot sound effect, which is more of a snap than a bang.Still, I was really on board with this crime/romance.
There is less violence in this movie than in the gangster films of the Thirties, especially Jimmy Cagney's, and less perversion than in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Miss Blandish, with her cut-glass debutante accent, exudes no passion, nor does her gangster lover.
Or perhaps the Brits didn't have a censorship program like we had."No Orchids for Miss Blandish" is a film ahead of its time, for sure, one filled with brutality, sex, and implied rape.
The story concerns a woman with an insanely rich father, the aforementioned Miss Blandish (Linden Travers) whose $100,000 diamonds are stolen, she is kidnapped, and her boyfriend is killed (in an awful scene) by thugs led by Slim (Jack LaRue).
The story for me was highly implausible, with not enough fleshing out of the characters to make their actions believable.Despite the fact that this is supposed to be an American gangster story, it had a distinctive British feel to it.
The acting was good, even though apparently it was a career-wrecker for some of the performers, Linden Travers being among them.Not what I was expecting by a long shot and for me it was short on characterizations and long on violence.
Despite the fact that a local accent peeks through the cliché-riddled dialogue here and there, having ACTUALLY WORKED IN FILM PRODUCTION AS I HAVE, I'd call "No Orchids For Miss Blandish" a pretty valiant effort.
It's British and based upon the infamous book of the same title by the Brit, James Hadley Chase and well worth seeing.
them in the London underworld."No Orchids for Miss Blandish" was originally a West End play in 1942
The chief problem here is the attempt to make a British copy of an American noir.
What we have here is a film that was a little ahead of its time  too violent and ground-breaking for its contemporaries to stomach, but in retrospect a well-made gangster story that dares to rub the audience's face in filth and unpleasantness.Ultra rich heiress Miss Blandish (Linden Travers) is kidnapped one night whilst out driving with her fiancée.
Even though Slim is utterly ruthless and a born killer, Miss Blandish finds herself falling for his brutal charm.
However, the other members of the Grisson gang start to get nervous as Slim's behaviour grows clouded by his love life, and Miss Blandish's father refuses to believe that his daughter could possibly be happy when she's shacked-up with a sadistic killer.
As the odd couple prepare to run away and start a new life together, the fates conspire to ruin their dreams.No Orchids For Miss Blandish is good stuff.
The film is let down a little by the fact that most of the cast are British actors pretending to be Americans, complete with unconvincing accents.
Also, the ease and speed with which Miss Blandish falls in love with her captor is a plot development that takes rather a lot of swallowing.
If you thought old British films from the 1940s were all sweetness and light think again!!!.
Where passion is usually shown as quick peck on the lips you saw these people were passionate about one another.Film students will have a field with the metaphors in this film; the 360 around the room ending with the pounding rain on the window, the long lovingly lingering shot on the huge orchid, and Miss Blandish in a dressing gown, do we ever learn her first name?
And the final tragic scene of Miss Blandish's out stretched hand not far an orchid, an exotic hot house bloom crushed beneath the feet of the uncaring passersby.For a low budget film a lot a care has been taken with detail.
English crime noir follows a small-time criminal's plan to violence and unexpected tragedy..
Certain plot points will remind you of some big American films, like "White Heat" and "The Asphalt Jungle", although this one came first.
Hardworking actor Jack La Rue does nothing wrong in a role that begs for Bogart-- as so many past and present roles do.(He always reminds me of a sort of composite Bogie, Glenn Ford, and Victor Mature, especially here, without having quite their class, soul or looks, respectively.) And Linden Travers does everything she can with a practically impossible role-- you can't help but think that she could have used a little more help from director Clowes with the exposition.
A famous British example of film noir, No Orchids for Miss Blandish centers around a psychopathic killer (Jack La Rue) who kidnaps and falls in love with heiress Linden Travers.
I was bothered by the strange use of slang in the dialog where more than once I looked at the screen wondering if I'd heard right.I couldn't help noticing the idea in the movie, with her rich boyfriend, in one particular torch song, and in the actions of Miss B, that women really want a tough guy with no morals and to go over to the dark side.
Leading lady and eponymous Miss Blandish Linden Travers looks remarkably like Moira Lister (who was 23 at the time and actually appeared in three films in 1948) and fails to convince that she would succumb to Stockholm syndrome in nothing flat and was possibly a role model for the real life Patty Hearst who followed suit in real life much later.
"Miss Blandish" could qualify as a satire of films from 15 years earlier, if it didn't take itself so seriously.
In-between the horrid dialog & clichés, there's a seriously evil Bad Guy expertly played by Jack La Rue, who exceeded even Pre-Code standards of Badness (except for his own turn in "The Story of Temple Blake"), & the film is worth seeing for his role alone.
On the plus side, "Miss Blandish" was indeed far ahead of its time in terms of violence, & unrepentant crime, & it's hard to imagine how it got past the censors of the day in its 104 minute form.
This film set the record for the most Hollywood clichés I've ever seen in a film (aside from true satires), quite an accomplishment for a British movie.