No More Orchids

NO MORE ORCHIDS is just a little programmer movie but it's an incredibly elegant one. Columbia studios in the early 1930's was thought of as something as a poverty row studio yet this film looks as slick and expensive as any potboiler the more uptown MGM or Paramount might have produced.

Carole Lombard stars as a spoiled society girl who is engaged to a prince in a marriage arranged by her controlling grandfather C. Aubrey Smith. On the ocean-liner back to America, she falls in love with white collar worker Lyle Talbot (who in her pampered world qualifies as "penniless") and eventually breaks his cool barrier. Lombard's pal of a dad, Walter Connally, and paternal grandmother Louise Closser Hale are crazy about Talbot but mean old grandpa Smith is not about to let his plans fall through, having seen his own late daughter marry "beneath" her.

Carole Lombard is superb as the frivolous but good-hearted socialite and she surprisingly is matched by Lyle Talbot, one of the era's reliable but usually bland leading men; in this picture, Talbot exhibits a sex appeal seldom tapped in the scores of bread-and-butter pictures he cranked out. Connally is very good in one of his first movie roles as father to a screwball romantic comedy queen (although this picture ventures more toward soap opera "women's picture" despite some nice comedy bits). Talented character player Louise Closser Hale seems a bit miscast, she's a bit too cutesy and lacks the saltiness a May Robson might have brought to the part. Smith essays a rare villainous part in a rather brief but pivotal role. Ruthelma Stevens and the very cute Allen Stevens have the only other somewhat featured parts as two of Lombard's good-time buddies in the society crowd; these small parts are among the larger ones for each of them, as they generally played bits.

Lombard is so strikingly beautiful and assured in her performance here it's hard to believe she was little more than a starlet at the time and not yet a major Hollywood star. She is sensationally photographed, although one scene makes her facial scar from an early car wreck more visible than I've ever seen it in one of her films. NO MORE ORCHIDS is just another Hollywood movie but it moves quickly and smoothly and is well worth your time if you love films from the 1930's.

Carole Lombard is spoiled heiress Annie Holt - in the '30s, it seems like everyone was writing about spoiled heiresses. Anyway, she's engaged to a prince, but while on a cruise, she falls for Tony Gage (Lyle Talbot). He has no money, isn't impressed by hers, and pays no attention to her. He ultimately tells her that her values are shallow and he doesn't respect her. Lombard cleans up her act and the two fall in love.

This is a bit of a sticky wicket - Annie's father (Walter Connolly) is in financial trouble and is planning on this marriage to help him out. And Annie's grandfather (C. Aubrey Smith), who set up this royal marriage, is looking forward to it as well. Put it this way - if she doesn't marry this guy, daddy's going to jail.

Good movie because of the wonderful cast, though the ending is a little bit of a downer. Lombard is gorgeous. She was a gal who could really turn a phrase. I wish that I could have met Lyle Talbot when he was alive - in a 56 year film career, he worked with everyone. The stories he could have told of his experiences in film, on stage, and on TV, where he did two series at one time.

Walter Connolly was a wonderful and sympathetic actor who died way too young, but he certainly made his mark. C. Aubrey Smith did an excellent job being mean as dirt, and Louise Closser Hale did a good job as the no-holds-barred grandmother.

A good film to watch but sad, too, to think that Lombard died so young. She was a true star, beautiful, radiant, funny, warm, and above all, an excellent actress. Always worth watching.

Rather schizophrenic comedy-drama from post-Prohibition but pre-Hays Code, meaning Carole Lombard gets to strut around in her flimsies, make prurient wisecracks, and be not the least timid about getting what she wants. She's a rich girl with a bumbling banker dad (Walter Connolly, playing virtually the same role as a year later in "It Happened One Night") and an aren't-I-adorable grandma (Louise Closser Hale, trying to be May Robson) who falls for unrich Lyle Talbot (a perfectly OK leading man, who looks a bit like the pre-mustachioed Gable, and has some of the Gable swagger). Why her awful grandpa would insist on her marrying somebody else isn't clear, nor is it clear why the sacrifice at the end makes everything all right. But ignore the plot and enjoy the ribald ripostes, and, especially, Carole looking gorgeous and wriggling around with great vivacity. She has star quality, but beyond that, she's a real actress, and you'll notice how carefully she's building and sustaining a not-always-likable character. Fine work.

"Annie" (Carole Lombard) is the spoilt gal used to delaying ocean liners and swapping her baubles at dinner. It's on that very boat, that she encounters "Tony" (Lyle Talbot) who proves completely impervious to her charms and that just makes her even more determined to get her man. Meantime, she gets home to her family where, unbeknownst to her, her banker father (Walter Connolly) is in a bit of a bind. The family wealth comes from her grandfather (Sir C. Aubrey Smith) and he will only help out if she agrees to marry an European prince. She loves her man, she loves her father, her grandad only loves himself and his dynastic plans. What will she do? I like Lombard. She always managed to exude a strength of character, usually disguised amidst some ditziness and flamboyance and here's there quite a bit of defiance too. Talbot does fine as her onboard foil, Connolly likewise as her out-of-his-depth dad and there are also a punchy series of contributions from Louise Closser Hale as the cocktail-loving grandmother. The ending is really quite fitting, but not in the way you might expect and with some really quite lively writing throughout, it's a good watch.

Spoiled rich girl (Carole Lombard) falls in love with poor boy (Lyle Talbot). But her father's financial troubles may force her to marry a wealthy prince. Pre-Code soaper features a scene of Carole Lombard in her underwear, which is as good a selling point as any. Carole's good in this and, of course, beautiful. Talbot does okay. Nice supporting cast. Louise Closser Hale is great as Carole's grandmother, Walter Connolly her extremely likable father, and C. Aubrey Smith fine in a villainous role. Enjoyable enough. It's not a bad movie of its type. Helps if you're a big fan of Lombard. The ending seems silly on paper but was surprisingly effective.