Who once said that Walter Lang was a ruthlessly routine director? Me! But that was before I saw some of his early work, made before his journeyman days at 20th Century Fox. Another classic example of an "almost best", "No More Orchids" is absolutely brilliant, almost right up to its fade-out. That, alas, is where the movie seriously comes to grief. The writers paint themselves into a corner from which there is no escape. A pity! Almost to the end title, the writing is first-class, the dialogue catchy, the principal characterizations brilliant. In fact, even some of the minor roles – the callow prince, for instance – are indelibly etched. Before it comes to grief just sixty seconds from the fade-out, the punchy plot itself – unrelentingly served up by C. Aubrey Smith who, for a change of pace, enacts a really nasty villain in this one – is totally captivating and intriguing. Given a script of this class and a sympathetic director, the players cannot help but be charismatic. In fact, Lyle Talbot gives a really engaging performance here – one that he never bettered in his entire career. Carole Lombard is also at the very top of her form. So are Walter Connolly, Louise Closser Hale and the aforesaid C. Aubrey Smith. Production values are superb. The movie often looks as if it were lensed on an extraordinarily lavish budget that allowed for enormously lavish sets, attractive costumes, hordes of extras
Review of No More Orchids
