The Black Orchid

Anthony Quinn adds an Italian to his long list of ethnic types in 'caring hunk' mode as he courts widow with a past Sophia Loren in the face of opposition from daughter Ina Balin (actually only three years younger than Loren) to the accompaniment of an appropriately noisy score by Alessandro Cicognini in this garrulous soap opera set in New York but obviously shot almost entirely on a Hollywood soundstage. Under the tutelage of husband Carlo Ponti, Loren's dressed-down appearance ("you shouldn't dress in mourning all the time") sufficiently impressed the jury at Venice that year for them to vote her Best Actress.

At first , I saw it as a sort of refuge . Familiar actors, good script, old fashion romance , beautiful acting. And a realistic obstacle front to a form of new chance to happiness for two single people after not easy experiences from past. A film about love, neighbuorhood, attitudes and answers, difficulties and life in fresh aspects . Sure, for so many reasons, the film of Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn. But it is not honest or fair to ignore the supporting actors. The main virtue of film, maybe wise mix of honesty and noble simplicity. A film who you feel it , scene by scene, against a sort of hurry to craft the romance. But, no doubts, a film who deserves be seen. Not only once.

The Black Orchid features a perfect, typical Anthony Quinn role. He's passionate, full of love and laughter, and devoted to the woman who captured his fancy. Basically, he's every woman's fantasy that doesn't exist. All kidding aside, he plays the timid but ardent suitor of Sophia Loren. Sophia is a widow whose troubled son is stuck in a reform school run by Whit Bissell. Tony's been a widower for a long time, and he believes if Sophia got the chip off her shoulder, they'd be a great match. For the whole beginning section, Sophia pouts and ignores him. But it's Anthony Quinn! Do you think he'll get her to thaw and show her beautiful smile? You might wonder why Alessandro Cicognini's music sounds so eerie, when The Black Orchid is a love story. This movie isn't all giggles and hand-holding at the diner (although that scene is adorable), since Tony's adult daughter Ina Balin is very attached to her father and can't stand the idea of him getting another woman in his life. I'd recommend this drama if you like both exciting leads. It's entertaining and keeps you guessing, and it's pretty sweet.

The Black Orchid is a beautiful movie. Anthony Quinn plays a cheerful middle aged Italian American who comes into Sofia Loren's life and makes her realize that there is goodness and happiness in life. The movie has interesting characters and great acting, especially by Anthony Quinn and Sofia Loren who give great performances. It has several touching scenes such as when Anthony Quinn has the conversation with Sofia Loren's son, and when Sofia Loren and Ina Balin (Anthony Quinn's daughter) make breakfast. The most heartwarming scene is when Anthony Quinn subtlety asks Sofia Loren to marry him and her smile is priceless. The movie also showed the importance of prayer. At the point in the movie where everything is spiraling out of control, they decide to go to church and pray. Right after this, everything seems to fall into place. Sofia Loren is radiant and Anthony Quinn makes you smile in this tender love story.

"The Black Orchid", a fairly anonymous picture by director Martin Ritt ("Hud", "Hombre" etc), stars Sophia Loren as Rose Bianco, a widowed florist who strikes up a relationship with widower Frank Valente (Anthony Qinn). Other subplots deal with Frank's grown up daughter, Mary (Ina Balin), who's reluctant to leave home and marry a man of her own; she fears that doing so will constitute an abandonment of her father. Indeed, virtually everyone in the film fears abandonment. Rose's son, stuck in a boarding school, feels discarded, as do Rose and Frank, who've been abandoned by their respective spouses, and Mary herself, who desires not to be torn away from her father. The film ends with these anxieties resolved, new connections made and bridges built. Amongst the cast, actor Anthony Quinn stands out; he's as infectious as usual. Sophia Loren is stiff, but this fits her role. The film was directed by Martin Ritt, who would go on to do a number of far more interesting films. 7/10 – Worth one viewing.

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.

Well, I have to tell ya - Had Sophia Loren not been in The Black Orchid, then, you can bet, I would have probably rated this picture somewhat lower than I did. Not only do I consider Loren to be one of the greatest beauties of her day, but, besides being just another pretty face, she was really quite a competent actress, as well. Loren certainly had the ability to inject a sense of genuine believability into her character portrayals, as she did so here in The Black Orchid, as the recently widowed, Rose Bianco. I think it's kinda funny to note that at the time of filming The Black Orchid, Loren was 25 years old which, in reality, made her only 12 years older than the age of her character's son in the story. In this "Eat-Drink-And-Be-Merry" tale of love, Italian-style, Loren plays an unglamorous role of a struggling, single mother (with a few skeletons in her closet) who is being romantically pursued by a boisterous and persistent older man with a few family problems of his own. The Black Orchid's "lonely hearts" story (which was set in NYC) was basically something of a soap opera, and it really wasn't all that great. But because of Loren it earned itself 6 stars from yours truly. *Note* - Sophia Loren is now 80 years old.

Black Orchid concerns the story of two neighbors both of whom lost their respective spouses and seem like a natural match for each other. But for their respective children the ship of romance would have some smooth sailing. Sophia Loren is a bit young to play a middle aged widow, but she carries it off beautifully. She was a bride fresh from Italy when she married her husband and she fell in love with the material wealth of America. It cost her husband his life when he turns to being a gangster to give his wife all she desires. She also shuns and is shunned by the neighborhood. Anthony Quinn is a widower whose wife died years earlier and left him to raise daughter Ina Balin who was making her big screen debut. Although she is engaged to Peter Mark Richman she wants him to move in with her and her father and Richman who has his business in another town wants his own household. As for Loren's kid Jimmy Baird he's on a youth farm for youthful offenders. How he reacts to his mother's new romance is a bit unusual but in keeping with how the adult characters are drawn in this drama. What I liked about Black Orchid is the sheer ordinariness of the people yet some great drama is played out across the screen. No heroes or villains, just people going about the day to day business of living. For a writer it's probably the most difficult to find a story with these characters, but it is done beautifully in Black Orchid. Case in point. Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren were together before in the Italian film Attila where Quinn plays the title role the scourge of Europe and Loren is a pulchritudinous and seductive Roman princess. Two totally different types, but that's a tribute to the acting ability of the stars. This is a film that should get more attention and maybe it will some day.

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.

Anthony Quinn and Sophia Loren play two lonely, recently widowed people whose tentatively blossoming romance is in danger of being derailed by the behaviour of their respective children in this Martin Ritt melodrama that calls for its audience to exercise a high degree of patience combined with a low expectation of anything exciting happening. Quinn is very good as the single father of a grown daughter, exuding a charm that makes the speed with which the widow Rose's initial reluctance towards him is turned into a willing embrace believable. Loren is OK, although for me she lacked confidence in some of the quieter moments in which she is called upon to emote without words. But then, she was only in her early twenties – a good few years younger than her co-star – so perhaps a disparity in the quality of their acting is forgivable. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the movie is that it isn't Rose's tearaway juvenile son (Jimmy Baird) who proves to be the biggest obstacle to their romance, but Quinn's grown daughter Mary (Ina Balin) who is herself on the verge of marriage. This aspect of the story is also the least convincing, and to be honest you just feel like telling her to get over herself and let her Dad get on with his life. Any adult who would deliberately imitate the behaviour of their mother immediately before she (the mother) committed suicide in order to get their way really deserves no sympathy from the audience and a lot less understanding than they get from the characters here. This situation also lacks any meaningful resolution between father and daughter as it is Rose who finally brings Mary around – and then seals the deal by showing her prospective daughter-in-law how to cook the perfect sausage