The Grissom Gang **** (1971, Kim Darby, Scott Wilson, Tony Musante, Irene Dailey, Robert Lansing, Connie Stevens, Ralph Waite, Wesley Addy) – Classic Movie Review 4.786

Kim Darby stars in The Grissom Gang as a 1930s heiress who is kidnapped and comes under the spell of one of her captors (Scott Wilson). Robert Aldrich’s 1971 film of James Hadley Chase’s 1939 novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish is one mind-blowing movie.

Director Robert Aldrich’s subversive 1971 film version of James Hadley Chase’s controversial 1939 novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish (first filmed in Britain in 1948 as No Orchids for Miss Blandish), is one mind-blowing movie.

Kim Darby stars in The Grissom Gang as a 1930s Depression-era heiress, Miss Barbara Blandish, who is kidnapped by a band of dim-witted small-time gangsters and comes under the spell of one of her captors, Slim Grissom (Scott Wilson), who falls in love with her. Aldrich turns the violent material into a tender love story, with an ironic undertone of black comedy, but it also delivers on the gory thriller front.

The Grissom Gang is extraordinary, challenging stuff, and not for the faint hearted. Aldrich moves the setting to Kansas City and the date of events back several years to 1931, and emphasises the deranged behaviour of the gang.

It really is the film you think Chase would have hoped for from his classic hardboiled pulp shocker.

The Grissom Gang is directed by Robert Aldrich, runs 128 minutes, is made by ABC Pictures and The Associates & Aldrich Company, is released by Cinerama Releasing Corporation, is written by Leon Griffiths (the Yorkshire writer and creator of TV’s Minder), the based on the novel by James Hadley Chase, shot by Joseph F Biroc, produced by Robert Aldrich and William Aldrich, scored by Gerald Fried and designed by James Dowell Vance.

Also in the cast are Tony Musante as Eddie Hagan, Robert Lansing as Dave Fenner, Irene Dailey as Ma Grissom, Connie Stevens as Anna Borg, Wesley Addy as John P Blandish, Don Keefer as Doc, Joey Faye as Woppy, Ralph Waite as Mace, Michael Baseleon, Hal Baylor, Matt Clark, Raymond Guth, Alvin Hammer, Dots Johnson, Mort Marshall, John Steadman, Dave Willock, Alex Wilson and Elliott Street.

BBFC censor John Trevelyan extensively cut the 1971 cinema release for an X certificate in the UK. The 2001 Fremantle DVD release is 15-rated and fully uncut.

Darby recalled: ‘I really learned a lot from Mr Aldrich during the shooting and I think that it’s a terrible picture. But working with Aldrich was the most enjoyable and funny time I ever had. There was nothing like it. I don’t think Mr Aldrich ever even referenced the novel while we were shooting. I had thought that we were working off of an original screenplay.’

Wilson had turned down many roles as murderers after In Cold Blood but agreed to play Slim Grissom because he ‘was much more than just a killer. And there’s a love story involved.’

Aldrich opined: ‘I think it’s a good picture. It’s a personal story but, yes, it has quite a bit of violence. It’s not a commercially oriented picture.’ He was right. The film cost $3 million, earned $590,000 worldwide, and recorded a loss of $3,670,000.

The novel No Orchids for Miss Blandish has sold over two million copies.

James Hadley Chase published a sequel novel called The Flesh of the Orchid in 1948, 20 years later, and filmed in France as La Chair de l’orchidée [The Flesh of the Orchid].

The 1948 British film No Orchids for Miss Blandish is set in 1948 New York. Chase’s book No Orchids For Miss Blandish, written over six weekends in 1938, is set in New York City. Chase’s book was the result of a bet to write a story about American gangsters though he had never visited America. It was popular with British troops in World War Two.

Scott Wilson died from leukaemia at his home in Los Angeles, on October 6, 2018, aged 76.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4,786

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