Black Orchid

I caught this film late one night on the ABC and was pleasantly surprised to find Ronald Howard - best known for his role as Sherlock Holmes in the 1954 television series - playing the main character Dr.John Winnington, a kind hearted doctor who has the misfortune to stuck in a loveless marriage to a selfish woman, more interested in dinner parties than his work in curing disease.

I thought Black Orchid was a rather good film, short and sweet (running a little less than one hour). A neat little murder mystery in a who-dunnit structure. The audience is able to participate in attempting to pick who the "real" killer is, following Christine and John's friend Eric as they desperately try to clear Winnington's name and find her sister's "real" murderer, whoever that may be...

4 out of 5 stars.

Research doctor Ronald Howard and his wife, Mary Laura Wood, are not getting along. Her sister, Olga Edwardes has his affection and Miss Wood bitterly accedes to a divorce... noting, when all is done, that the law prevents them from marrying while she lives. She is pretty shaky, so he gives her a draft of medicine, and she exits.... to stumble in front of a lorry that can't stop.

Now Howard and Miss Edwardes can marry, but a coroner's jury returns a finding of murder, and Howard's research with nicotine fits him for the noose by an uncaring police. Can Miss Edwardes and second lead John Bentley find out whodunnit before they use the gallows?

Charles Saunders directs this second feature in a manner that suggests Hitchcock's REBECCA, without a sense of humor, as the players stiff-upper-lip their ways through disasters of their own making. Worse, in many ways, the solution to the entire mystery element of the movie is presented in an obvious and clumsy manner, leading to a conclusion in which the real murderer is thwarted by the Mrs. Danvers character. Despite these rather stupid and tiresome characters, it's always watchable, but never particularly compelling.

Ronald Howard stars in "Black Orchid," also starring Olga Edwards, Mary Laura Wood, and Sheila Burrell. Howard is a successful doctor in an unhappy marriage who wants to divorce his wife and marry her sister. Under British law, this is not possible unless his wife happens to be dead. You can guess the rest.

Howard at some angles and certainly in his mannerisms resembles his famous father. He gives a smooth performance, but one not particularly filled with emotion. The meatier roles go to Sheila Burrell as his wife's loyal maid, and Mary Laura Wood as the cold wife.

This is one of those short British cheapies, which I happen to like for some reason. They're always very familiar, and it's like sitting down with an old friend. And I did want to see Ronald Howard, best known for his Sherlock Holmes.

These movies, and there are hundreds of them, are all of a piece. If you've seen one, you've seen all of them.

Black Orchid (1953)

A smart, crisp, and very British kind of drama with a touch of murder thrown in. It has a flavor of a classic whodunit, but it's never quite seen from the point of view of someone who has to solve the crime. Rather, we are wrapped up in this upper class world (at one point a woman says, as an apology, that she has just one gardener), and the crossed loves of two or three or maybe four of the characters becomes the meat of it. It is a deceptively noir titled movie, directed by British workaday director Charles Saunders, but it's not a noir one bit.

For movie buffs there is the wonderful Leslie Howard's son, Ronald, who has an amazing resemblance (and something less of a presence) on the screen. Ronald Howard had a middling career, and many less than stellar performances on stage, and then screen, and then lots of telly, including a series of 39 episodes as Sherlock Holmes.

More impressive by far is his wife, played by Mary Laura Wood, an even lesser known actress of mostly 50s era dramas and some t.v. Here she is sharp and alive, so taut you are never sure what she's about to do or say next. And she was in almost nothing else you can get your hands on, so enjoy her for what she's worth. There are several good secondary performances, as well, and indeed, if anything lifts this movie up a bit, it's the committed, convincing acting all around.

And the clever, if formulaic, plot.

Yes they were Russell Napier as Capt. Stanley Lord and Tucker McGuire as The Unsinkable Molly Brown the latter credited in "Black Orchid"(1953) as "American Woman" in the travel agency - (blink and you will miss her).And to clear up an above user who commented that at one point a woman apologized she "had only one gardener", well it was the wife of the publisher of "Eric Blair" literary joke ha ha, played by Patrick Barr.The latter being miscast as he normally played professional honest roles like "Mutt" Summers in "The Dam Busters" (1955).

Whenever a character has his car tampered with by the murderer sawing through brake pipes in a downhill ride, I find myself screaming at the screen "Turn off the ignition and change down gears and use the side of the road to brake your speed".I accept compulsory safety belts were some time off into the future.Another annoying trait occurred when a complete stranger (nice Christine) knocks at the door and a maid lets her in unmonitored even saying she will be going off duty leaving the house apparently unoccupied.Another stupid mistake in films occurs when the murderer insists on acknowledging his crime and explaining his motive unbidden to a stranger.

I suspected the maid Annette had lesbian leanings for Sophie her boss, the estranged wife of Dr.John Winnington (Ronald Howard) but of course film producers could not deal with same sex love on screen in 1953.Anyway it kept my attention for an hour so I awarded it 6/10.