The Black Orchid ** (1959, Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, Ina Balin) – Classic Movie Review 7114

Director Martin Ritt’s 1959 romance The Black Orchid has good stars in Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn and Ina Balin and plenty of talent behind the cameras to try to make it work. But still it is struggling.

Sophia Loren stars as Rose Bianco, a crook’s widow, living on the breadline in New York, and having to work all hours making artificial flowers to support herself and her son. Then she falls in love again with extrovert businessman widower Frank Valente (Anthony Quinn), but his grown-up daughter Mary (Ina Balin) resents her.

Joseph Stefano’s humourless, weepy drama is sympathetically directed by Ritt, but neither he nor the gutsy actors can brush away the sense of déjà vu and artificiality. It is hard to believe in it very much at all. However, it is worth a look, especially for Loren’s award-winning performance.

It is Stefano’s first filmed screenplay. Less than a year later, he met Alfred Hitchcock and wrote the screenplay for Psycho (1960).

Also in the cast are Jimmy Baird, Peter Mark Richman, Naomi Stevens, Virginia Vincent, Whit Bissell, Robert Carricart, Joe Di Reda, Jack Washburn and Frank Puglia.

The Black Orchid is directed by Martin Ritt, runs 96 minutes, is made and released by Paramount, is written by Joseph Stefano, is shot in black and white by Robert Burks, is produced by Carlo Ponti and Marcello Girosi and is scored by Alessandro Cicognini, with Art Direction by Roland Anderson and Hal Pereira.

Loren was only 23 years old at the time of filming, just 10 years older than Jimmy Baird, who plays her son, and three years older than Ina Balin, who plays her future step-daughter. Loren earned her first acting award, as Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. It is Ina Balin’s feature film debut, as Mary Valente.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7114

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