No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948)

John Blandish is worth $100 million. His heiress daughter is soon to be wed to Foster Harvey, who believes she's a cold, unfeeling woman, despite loving her. Her cold emotional state is in ... See full summary »

Director:

St. John Legh Clowes

Writers:

James Hadley Chase (book), St. John Legh Clowes

Stars:

Jack La Rue, Hugh McDermott, Linden Travers

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jack La Rue	...	Slim Grisson
Hugh McDermott	...	Dave Fenner
Linden Travers	...	Miss Blandish
Walter Crisham	...	Eddie Schultz
MacDonald Parke	...	Doc (as Macdonald Parke)
Danny Green	...	Flyn
Lilli Molnar	...	Ma Grisson (as Lilly Molnar)
Charles Goldner	...	Louis--Headwaiter
Zoe Gail	...	Margo (as Zoë Gail)
Leslie Bradley	...	Ted Bailey
Richard Nielson	...	Riley (as Richard Nelson)
Michael Balfour	...	Barney
Frances Marsden	...	Anna Borg
Jack Lester	...	Police Capt. Brennan
Bill O'Connor	...	Johnny

Storyline

John Blandish is worth $100 million. His heiress daughter is soon to be wed to Foster Harvey, who believes she's a cold, unfeeling woman, despite loving her. Her cold emotional state is in large part due to leading a restricted life. A low level thug named Johnny overhears their secret wedding night plans, and peddles the idea of robbing her of the $100,000 worth of diamond jewelry with which she will be adorned to two groups of his gangster acquaintances, who are in competition with each other. The robbery doesn't go quite according to plan, with Miss Blandish ultimately being kidnapped and held under the eye of Slim Grisson, the heir apparent as head of the violent Grisson gang, currently run by Ma Grisson. Kidnapping holds higher risk but possible greater reward as everyone figures they can get at least $1 million for her. Ma has no plans of letting her go, killing her after getting the money. But a surprise move by Slim, who has a secret past with Miss Blandish, turns the tables ...

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Plot Keywords:

love | stockholm syndrome | gangster | mother son relationship | british noir | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English French

Release Date:

12 May 1950 (Austria)

Also Known As:

Black Dice

Filming Locations:

Alliance Film Studios, St Margarets, Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Tudor-Alliance

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The first film of Harold Kasket

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Quotes

Eddie Schultz: I never count my chickens till I've wrung their necks.

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Connections

Featured in Empire of the Censors (1995)

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Soundtracks

"Still Waters"
Music & lyrics by George Melachrino & James Dyrenforth
Performed by Zoe Gail

User Reviews

It's the fake accents that ruined it all.

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. The relationship of Ma to Slim was never fully clarified, either.