L'orchidée noire

Enjoyed this 1958 film which was the first film that Carlo Ponti who was Sophia Loren's husband in real life, and this was the first film that he directed in the United States for Paramount Studios. This story is about a woman, Rose Bianco, (Sophia Loren) who was the wife of a Mafia mobster who was killed and Rose just lived with her son and worked in a factory making flowers and mostly orchids. Frank Valente, (Anthony Quinn) is a widower after many years with a wife who had a mental condition. The neighbors all felt sorry for Rose and the fact that her only son was sent to a correction farm because he was a problem child and always ran away. The same neighbors wanted to matched up Rose & Frank in hopes of them getting married someday. This story becomes very complicated with many people falling in love and then there are many fights and plenty of cold shoulders going on. I noticed in the film whenever something was going wrong with people there was this strange music being played like in a horror film. Very unusual film and worth viewing this great 1958 Classic film.

I liked "The Black Orchid", as it's a film that works well because the script is very good and the acting really carries it off well. Too many films feature everything but fine acting--so this one is a great lesson to aspiring actors and folks who want to learn to appreciate more than explosions and the like.

The film begins with the death of a gangster. He's left a mixed up son and a beautiful but mixed up wife (Sophia Loren). Because of some sense of guilt for pushing her husband to succeed, he chose organized crime--and now she feels responsible for killing him. Her penance is to shut herself away from the world and be miserable. However, a gregarious widower (Anthony Quinn) is determined to break through this wall. He figures that they both are lonely and they should make a go of it.

When it comes to Loren's change from closed and unhappy to falling in love with Quinn, this is probably the weakest point in the film. It happens very quickly--as if some period of time is missing. However, considering that their being in love and wanting to get married is NOT the main point of the film, this can be forgiven.

The hiccup in this relationship is, surprisingly, not from Loren's son. While he is in reform school, he likes the idea of the marriage. The problem is Quinn's adult daughter. She has an almost incestuous bond with her father and she is determined to do anything to prevent him from remarrying--even if it means her losing her own chance for marriage. While this may seem a bit unrealistic, as a family therapist, such reactions from daughters to the prospect of their widowed fathers remarrying isn't that unusual--and is the great basis of a film.

All this works together very well due to the acting. Quinn is simply great--very likable and decent. As for Loren, it's one of her earliest English language films--and she is exceptional. In particular, I loved her body language and expressions. As for the rest, the ensemble cast is uniformly good. While this is not an exciting film, it is very well done and deserves to be seen. A sweet and worthwhile romance that will probably leave you feeling a bit misty-eyed.

Martin Ritt was a very good director, but this film is not his best. Probably because the film was one of those he directed after being accused of being communist during the McCarthy's hunt. Two stars like Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn together again for the second time (They were acting together in "Attila" 1954) made the film a good entertainment with a very happy end. Quinn's daughter is too egoist with his father because she does not want to share him with any other woman, and once noticed the new relationship with Sophia, a widow of a presumably maffia man, who also has a son sitting in farm school for children with problems of behavior. Sophia solved the problem Quinn had with his daughter (too simple way of solution) and Quinn was able to get the sympathy of her son and to take him back with them. I wish life could be like it was shown here, it was so simple and easy.

An early effort by director Martin Ritt, "The Black Orchid" is an unconvincing melodrama about the romance between a widow and a widower. Each has a child that complicates the situation, although the widower's daughter provides most of the roadblocks to the couple's happiness. Filmed in black and white by Hitchcock favorite Robert Burks, the story is predictable and often frustrating and annoying. The widower's daughter, played by Ina Balin, evidently suffers from mental illness, although professional help is not sought. She locks herself in her room to protest her father's involvement with the widow, she walks out on her fiancé after he refuses impossible living arrangements, and she is obsessed with maintaining her hold on her father and his life. The character is unsympathetic, and most fathers would have put her on an analyst's couch, while most fiancés would have seen what the future held and walked out.

However, the film cannot be completely dismissed, because the widow is played by Sophia Loren at her most beautiful, despite a nearly all-black wardrobe, and the widower is played by Anthony Quinn, who is wonderfully appealing in a rugged lovable way. Physically and emotionally, Loren and Quinn make a fine pair, and their performances rise above the problematic material. Quinn particularly has a difficult time making his character believable. That such an imposing forceful man would allow his daughter to ruin his life is hard to swallow, especially when the happiness of the widow, her son, and his daughter's fiancé also hang in the balance. Loren is on firmer ground in a role that takes the actress from mourning a dead husband to the joy of newfound romance. Her strong performance foreshadows her later work in "Marriage Italian Style." Loren's famous eyes are on full display, and the actress seems wise and earthy beyond her years. Perhaps Quinn's performance was not acting, because who could fail to fall for Sophia.

The movie moves back and forth between sets and locations. Although the sets are well designed, their stagy nature is jarring when the action moves outdoors. Few actors stand out beyond the leads, except for a matchmaking neighbor amusingly played by Naomi Stevens. The screenplay by Joseph Stefano, better known for "Psycho," borders on soap opera and seems conceived for the stage. Like a well-oiled episode of "As the World Turns," "The Black Orchid" moves slowly to a predictable, if unconvincing, conclusion that extols the power of sausage, which is perhaps a symbolic key to the daughter's emotional problems. However, despite its flaws, the magnificent stars ultimately redeem the film and save it from the dustbin of Hollywood history. Unfortunately, Loren and Quinn no longer grace the screen, but fortunately their shadows linger and enhance even otherwise lackluster films such as this one.

To this point in her American career, Italian actress Loren had starred mainly in big budget, Technicolor productions—e.g. Legend of the Lost, The Pride and the Passion, Boy on a Dolphin, (all 1957). Of course, such a format showed off her ample proportions for that mammary obsessed decade. I suspect this little b&w production was intended to help establish her as more than a sex goddess. And it does.

She's quite good in the de-glamorized role of an embittered working widow, Rose. Despite her resistance, she's being intensely courted by prosperous business man, Frank (Quinn). Trouble is Frank's daughter Mary (Balin), is very possessive of dad and also thinks Rose is undeserving of him. So Mary creates problems that jeopardize not only dad's engagement but also her own—to nice guy Noble (Richman). If this sounds like tangled relationships, it is, especially when Rose's delinquent son (Baird) is added to the mix.

Fortunately, the movie's well acted and directed (Ritt), which helps what turns out to be something of a soap opera. The first part comes across as mainly a character study as the hardened widow Rose fends off Frank's persistent gambits. However, once the relationships begin to spread and conflict, the screenplay takes on a more conventional tone. Also, looks like the movie was shot entirely on the Paramount lot. Thus, I expect they were able to squeeze it into her hectic schedule. Note too how subtly actress Loren expresses emotions with her eyes. That's probably something guys like me never noticed before.

Despite the obscurity in Loren's canon, the film works as an engaging showcase for the two leads, and is not without its moments.