Word: blandishments
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...which all of the above are somewhat laboriously maneuvered into a large, dark house, a device that may be conventional but is nonetheless well managed. Along with the expert binding of Ford's performance, these are the juicy raisins -- Shall we say the raisons d'etre? -- in an otherwise blandish pudding...
...Orchids for Miss Blandish (Renown), made in England, purports to be a movie about U.S. gangsters. Adapted from a claptrap novel by Britain's James Hadley Chase (real name: Rene Raymond), who once confessed cribbing from U.S. hard-boiled fiction, the picture outraged London (TIME, May 10, 1948). Censors howled that it was brutal, sadistic, sensual; critics slammed it as "a piece of nauseating muck...
Last week, swallowing national pride, the Grand Guignol was modernizing with a shocker based on a trashy British novel about U.S. gangsters, Rene Raymond's No Orchids for Miss Blandish. For the benefit of patriots, Mme. Berkson explained: "It's just that we're bringing the tradition up to date...
...Bien . . . Adapted by Whodunit Editor Marcel Duhamel, Pas d'Orchidées pour Miss Blandish was as different from the old Grand Guignol classics as a Tommy gun is from a thumbscrew. Amid knifings and kneeings, kidnaping and murder, the meaty blonde Miss Blandish (Nicole Riche) spent most of two hours in panties and bra, successfully pursued by drooling Gangster Slim Grisson (Jean-Marc Tennberg). A moving touch for Grand Guignol fans: Old Ma Grisson, the boss of the gang, beats Miss Blandish into submission with a rubber hose so that Slim won't be annoyed...
...Jolla pays its top stars an Equity minimum wage (lesser names get their regular price), sticks to a modest budget and limits itself to one set per production. But sometimes Hollywood will out. When Jennifer Jones starred last season in Serena Blandish, Angel Selznick insisted on surrounding his favorite actress (later to become his wife) with a cast that included Cinemactor Louis Jourdan and such polished stage veterans as Constance Collier, Mildred Natwick and Reginald Owen. He also insisted on gowns by Jacques Fath and five sets. The show drew capacity crowds throughout its run-and lost several thousand dollars...