Rent No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948)

Flowers and Graves Galore - No Orchids for Miss Blandish review by CH

For those who have a relish of post-war English cinema, it is no surprise to find that the man behind the bar of a low-life establishment is none other than Sid James. As did Sam Kydd, he popped up in many such a part. More startling, in No Orchids for Miss Blandish (1948) is that he uses an American accent. With an eye on the transatlantic market, the English makers of this version of James Hadley Chase’s once-shocking novel filmed it in Teddington but set it in New York.

All of the cast had to do their best in sounding American (the sole native was Jack La Rue). The film has been ridiculed for this in some quarters but one soon gets used even to the beautiful Linden Travers speaking from the side of her mouth. She is the eponymous heriress who, about to be unsuitably married, finds herself robbed of diamonds at the roadside while that fiancé is killed in the process. She is kidnapped by a gang over which a bulky mother, Ma Grisson, holds sway and, in the process, falls for one of them - the dangerously smooth, sharp-suited La Rue - with whom she appears to have been previously acquainted, or at least receiving flowers from him.

Stylishly filmed, with several musical scenes in a night club more lavish than those which usually figured in such English films, here is something which was a violent sensation in its time and again deserves to step from the shadows - much as this unsavoury crowd are in the habit of doing - and bring a scream or two along the way.