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 (as St. John L. Clowes)

Writers:

James Hadley Chase (book), St. John Legh Clowes (as St. John L. 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 Neilson	...	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:

murder | criminal | violence | gangster | british noir | 

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Taglines:

SHOCKING as a book! SENSATIONAL as a motion picture!

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

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Did You Know?

Trivia

When the film was first shown on British television in the early 1960s, the critic Maurice Wiggin summed it up pithily by saying that "this was not the bottom of the barrel, it was the ground underneath."

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Quotes

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

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Connections

References The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

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Soundtracks

Danse d'Extase
(uncredited)
Composed by George Melachrino
Danced to by Toy & Wing

User Reviews

not sure it was worth all the trouble it caused

I guess the censors were on a lunch break when this film came before them. 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. Apparently upon its release it caused a big hullabaloo. Various councils banned the film and the lead censor had to apologize! 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). Though she has witnessed a murder and there is pressure for him to kill her, Slim returns the diamonds to her and tells her to leave. He's fallen in love with her, and she with him. This leads to lots of problems.

There are so many murders and people turning on one another in this film that I lost count. 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. Still, it's worth seeing as an artifact of not only British cinema, but of its time.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English French

Release Date:

15 April 1948 (UK)

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