"the most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be shown on a cinema screen" apparently, No Orchids for Miss Blandish is a "gangster" film, in that it has gangsters in it. Automatically making it in gangster film. And sure enough it starts out with people putting on American Italian accents quite badly and punching each other and stuff but it quickly becomes very much a romance film when Miss Blandish (Linden Travers) falls for 'Slim', the gangster chief, and the pair opine about running away together to Mexico.
I was immediately fascinated by Walter Crisham, who plays Eddie Schultz. Every scene he is in he just demands to be the focus of attention and has the most interesting face I think I've ever seen. Genuinely. I'm not even being sarcastic. The guy was just the coolest in literally every scene he is in. How he didn't go on to do bigger roles and become a star, I have no idea.
But getting back to the opening gambit, I guess by 1940's standards this was probably a little bit outlandish... yes there is violence against women and a steamy snog that is drawn out a little bit longer than it really ought to be (which was apparently edited down from 45 seconds!). Other than that most of everything else wasn't that bad? The accents were corny, given, and obviously faked, but otherwise the acting was alright? Hugh McDermott playing Dave Fenner was a bit wooden, but I didn't really get his character? I think he was a journalist? He might have been an undercover detective? I'm not sure.
It had all the catchings of a film trying to be grandiose, trying to be a classic, trying to be a keystone in cinema history but it's spread a little bit sparsely and just didn't quite have the meat on the bones and character development sandwiched in to hit that goal, and I don't think it could ever be capable of reaching those heights, but is it worthy of it's inclusion on "Worst films" lists? Oh absolutely not. Even by 1940's standards, this is leagues ahead, light years ahead, parsecs ahead of say, Reefer Madness.
It's not without it's faults, and there's moments of deliberate provocation with the violence and abuse of women, no doubt, but it was an enjoyable film and I was genuinely captivated by it. Notwithstanding the fact that I don't have much experience with film noir, and romance films are completely not my bag whatsoever, I didn't hate this. 3 out of 5 stars.
