No Orchids For Miss Blandish

Star Review

Any film described by the Monthly Film Bulletin as "the most sickening exhibition of brutality, perversion, sex and sadism ever to be shown on a cinema screen" has to be worth a look. Although this British gangster film has been forgotten over the years, No Orchids For Miss Blandish caused a scandal in 1948, and was banned across much of the country. Linden Travers, who plays an heiress kidnapped in a scheme that goes horribly wrong, later declared that this was her favourite film in which she starred, although its notoriety probably helped kill her career. So, fifty years later, is its disreputable reputation deserved?
It's certainly a violent picture for its time, and may surprise viewers whose impression of 1940s British Cinema is dictated by the accepted classics of the era. Jack La Rue is very good as a gangster who falls for his captive, and though Harold Wilson famously stated that there would be "no Oscars for Miss Blandish", it remains a highly entertaining piece of pulp cinema.

Alex Davidson on 15th July 2006

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Film Description

A controversial film that ran into trouble with the British censors upon its initial release. The plot, in which an heiress is abducted for ransom, was decried by critics as being too cruel and sadistic, owing to its scenes of gang brutality, duplicity and murder.

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Film Details

Cast

Linden Travers, Jack La Rue

Technical Details