L'orchidée noire

Martin Ritt has always been a director concerned by social problems:racism,illiteracy,the lot of workers and trade unionism,juvenile delinquency.And some of his works are commendable:"Stanley and Iris","Norma Rae" "edge of the city" to name but three.

This is the latter subject we find here:Ralphie ,whose late father was a gangster has been sent to a reform school.His mother (Loren) wants to marry an honest man (Quinn).But they've got to reckon with the guy's offspring who's not prepared to accept that.We deal with a "serious" sitcom which drowns out Ralphie's character.Sophia Loren 's portrayal is minimal,and Quinn cannot make up for it.The supporting cast,particularly Quinn's daughter,her fiancé and her confidant,has no presence at all.

Get Douglas Sirk's "imitation of life" instead if you think melodrama can be great art!

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.

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.

Black Orchid, The (1958)

*** (out of 4)

Rose (Sophia Loren) is a young Italian woman who has just buried her husband who was murdered by the gangsters he worked for. Rose's depression soon takes another turn when her young son gets sent to a boarding school for breaking into parking meters. News gets even worse for her son after many attempts at running away, one more attempt will send him into a reform school where he won't get released until he is much older. With all the heartbreak going on, Rose spends her evenings alone making what money she can.

Down the street is Frank (Anthony Quinn), another widower who is getting ready to see his only daughter married. Frank is the type who keeps a smile on his face no matter how much bad luck life delivers him. When he first sees Rose he notices her extreme beauty but soon he becomes interested in the person that he has so much in common with. Rose finally drops her guard and the two become quick friends and soon start to fall in love but Frank's daughter, bitter with jealousy, refuses to let their relationship go anywhere.

Perhaps I missed something or the entire film went over my head but the back of the DVD case called this a sensitive comedy romance and a couple other film books I owned called this a bittersweet romantic comedy but I certainly didn't find any comedy in The Black Orchid. Why this film would be called a comedy is beyond me but it's certainly romantic in the sense of meeting two lonely people who must travel a hard road and learn tough lessons before seeing a greener field.

The movie has its heart in the right place, although near the end things start to tumble a little bit. The biggest key to the film is its two stars who both turn in wonderfully charming performances. Sophia Loren has always been known for her beauty, which is in pull blossom here but she also manages to be quite believable as the distraught widow trying to make good for her troubled son. Loren does a very good job during various quiet scenes where she must confront her past and she also fairs very well in her louder, bleaker moments where she's trying to push people away from her.

The key highlight to the film is Anthony Quinn who was an actor who never received enough praise for his work. Quinn gives one of the most charming performances I've ever seen in a film and this here really brings the relationship of all the characters together. No matter who he's sharing the screen with Quinn sells the viewer on each subject brought up and we can't help but want him to smile and be happy no matter what. Quinn features a certain grace that makes him appear to float through his scenes and this adds all the believability that a viewer will need.

They certainly don't have star chemistry like this any more and that's one shame when it comes to people refusing to watch older films. Director Martin Ritt (Norma Rae, Stanley & Iris) does a very nice job at holding the film together and not letting the melodrama become too thick, although his selection for the music score is really distracting. The score seems to be something from The Twilight Zone, which really isn't needed here. The biggest problem with the film is the forced, if cute, ending and some of the scenes with the daughter become very obnoxious and annoying. Other than that The Black Orchid offers two great stars the ability to shine and create a wonderfully quiet little film that has enough charm to make it worth watching.