The 1948 British film, "No Orchids For Miss Blandish", is sometimes listed on compilations of the worst films ever made, mainly because its content was so violent that it ended up being banned and deeply criticized at the time. By the time of this gritty and ugly remake, so much had changed in the world of cinema that violence was almost expected to bring in the desirable audiences. It is certainly watchable and sometimes even unintentionally funny, but some aspects of it had me rolling my eyes at its absurdities. The film starts with the stalking of socialite Kim Darby and her athlete hero boyfriend, resulting in his unnecessary murder and her kidnapping. The men, mostly all part of the Grissom Gang, who kidnap her don't realize at first who she is, but once they have figured out that she's the daughter of the extremely wealthy and powerful Wesley Addy, they realize that she's worth hanging onto simply for the million dollars they can get for her, a price put on her by their nasty controlling mother (Irene Dailey) who intends to have Darby killed as soon as they get the cash. But one of the brothers (Scott Wise) becomes obsessed with her, deciding that any brother (or mother) who tries to harm her will become his own victim, resulting in an ugly road for everybody in this Barker like family.
I found Kim Darby to be completely miscast as the beauty of Kansas City society who gets headlines in the society page yet would probably never win a beauty pageant unless pop paid the judges to vote for her. However, in the scenes where Wise ogles her and begs for a kiss, she does become very convincing in her fear and disgust. The confrontation between Darby and Dailey after Darby is cruel to Wise shows the versatility of veteran Broadway actress Dailey (the original mother in "The Subject Was Roses") who made only infrequent film appearances but is best known as the lovable but meddlesome Aunt Liz (Matthews) for 20 years on the soap opera "Another World". Dailey is definitely a rival to the infamous Ma Barker, who had recently been seen on screen as played by Shelley Winters, and had earlier been played in a fictional version of that gang's story by Blanche Yurka in "Queen of the Mob".
A separate story has Wise's brother Tony Musante going out of his way to silence all the witnesses and his interactions with dizzy moll Connie Stevens who works as a cabaret singer at the nightclub which Dailey and her brood eventually take over. Some of those sequences where witnesses are dispatched are humorously presented, especially with agent Robert Lansing going out of his way to round up witnesses, including Stevens whom he pretends to be a Brodway producer to in order to trap her into giving out information on the Grissoms. The film goes on for about ten minutes too long after a key part of how the Grissoms go down, but it does give an opportunity to humanize the psychotic Wise who easily could have been written as more one dimensional. Under the direction of Robert Aldrich, this is a unique perspective of an often told storyline, but several aspects raised my eyebrows, especially that mod looking room that Wise creates for Darby in the nightclub which looks like it belonged to some 1960's beatnik.
I found Kim Darby to be completely miscast as the beauty of Kansas City society who gets headlines in the society page yet would probably never win a beauty pageant unless pop paid the judges to vote for her. However, in the scenes where Wise ogles her and begs for a kiss, she does become very convincing in her fear and disgust. The confrontation between Darby and Dailey after Darby is cruel to Wise shows the versatility of veteran Broadway actress Dailey (the original mother in "The Subject Was Roses") who made only infrequent film appearances but is best known as the lovable but meddlesome Aunt Liz (Matthews) for 20 years on the soap opera "Another World". Dailey is definitely a rival to the infamous Ma Barker, who had recently been seen on screen as played by Shelley Winters, and had earlier been played in a fictional version of that gang's story by Blanche Yurka in "Queen of the Mob".
A separate story has Wise's brother Tony Musante going out of his way to silence all the witnesses and his interactions with dizzy moll Connie Stevens who works as a cabaret singer at the nightclub which Dailey and her brood eventually take over. Some of those sequences where witnesses are dispatched are humorously presented, especially with agent Robert Lansing going out of his way to round up witnesses, including Stevens whom he pretends to be a Brodway producer to in order to trap her into giving out information on the Grissoms. The film goes on for about ten minutes too long after a key part of how the Grissoms go down, but it does give an opportunity to humanize the psychotic Wise who easily could have been written as more one dimensional. Under the direction of Robert Aldrich, this is a unique perspective of an often told storyline, but several aspects raised my eyebrows, especially that mod looking room that Wise creates for Darby in the nightclub which looks like it belonged to some 1960's beatnik.