No Orchids for Miss Blandish

This 1948 adaptation of James Hadley Chase's 1939 novel offers a British take on a noir-tinged crime drama with lurid edges in an American setting that is never quite convincing. The film stars Jack La Rue—an American B-actor imported from Hollywood who looks like a poor man's Humphrey Bogart—as nightclub impresario and gangster Slim Grisson, who kidnaps the titular jaded heiress (Linden Travers) and, much to the frustration of his partners, falls in love with her. Hollywood wouldn't touch the book because it was so lascivious and the film was condemned by British politicians, not just because of the illicit affair between Grisson and Blandish. There's also a reporter (Hugh McDermott) who peeps on a showgirl getting undressed and gang members shacking up with their latest conquests. The leads have little chemistry and the odd accents of a predominantly British cast playing Americans against a backdrop of generic city streets, roadside gas stations, and country hideouts all created in the studio to mimic American culture give the film a slightly abstract and unreal quality. The direction by St. John Legh Clowes fails to bring much passion to the supposedly mad love or a savage edge to the mercenary twists, and his script dialogue is an awkward impression of American gangster talk. Still, this is a minor cult item, notable for its sleazy milieu. A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)