The White Orchid

With some similarities to the actual black dahlia case from the 1940s, which was never solved.... this was written and directed by steve anderson. Claire (olivia thirlby) is sent to a small town on the coast to investigate the murder of a young, un-identified single woman. When she meets the local sheriff (john lynch, who we know from fargo), she doesn't trust him, and realizes she is on her own. Some fun roles for well known faces... jennifer beals is vivian. Nichelle nichols (lieutenant uhura !) is teresa, friend of the deceased woman. It's okay. It's a little more melodramatic than it needs to be, and the wigs and make-up claire uses make her look like a drag queen. And we really didn't need to spend so long watching the band in the bar about an hour in... that kind of took away from the noir feeling of the story. The first three quarters of the film run in a straight forward fashion, but the ending feels like it was an extra big twist ending , or maybe changed around from what it was originally. Confusing. Produced in association with the humphrey bogart estate. Anderson seems to be employed or partnered with santana productions, which was also the name of bogart's boat. As of today, this is the last project listed for anderson. He also directed the big empty, which is good but also has an odd, mysterious ending. Seems to be his specialty.

As premises go, it's thin: Claire is a freelance investigator for the San Luis Obispo Country Department of Social Services who finds relatives and family members of those who die alone with no known heirs. (Aside: if the count government had such investigators, they'd be working for the probate court, but never mind). Claire is assigned the case of an unidentified murder victim known only as the White Orchid who was killed in a particularly grisly way. She is only supposed to identify the victim and leave the actual murder investigation to the police. Since Claire is a brunette who immediately presents as plain, timid, and inhibited, of course she dives into not only the murder investigation, but the identity of the victim, who was a stylish and (bi)sexually uninhibited blonde bombshell. Just because a movie's premise is thin and implausible doesn't mean the movie can't be good or even great: Hitchcock's Vertigo, which this movie alludes to several times with all the subtlety of a jackhammer tearing up concrete, seems similarly silly on paper, but delivers a great experience to its viewers in its visual style, great performances and direction, and a memorable soundtrack. White Orchid only has visual style going for it. Direction and soundtrack are undistinguished, while the performances are pretty bad, which isn't so much an annoyance as it is a puzzler, since many of these actors are capable of good or even outstanding work (an exception is Nichelle Nichols, who turns in a tiny gem of a performance as a shut-in retiree). It doesn't take long before the viewer realizes what this movie wants to be, and how far short of its goal it fell. You may stay with it for the (unfortunately predictable) plot twists, or you may turn it off before that. I stayed with it despite realizing I would be disappointed.

Already the title of the movie conveys that this is going to be a noir experience, and while the beginning seems a little inauspicious in that regard, setting us up with a mousy-looking female protagonist instead of a weary and cynical male one, as is usual for this kind of genre, it does pay off as the character undergoes an unexpected arc and the movie's intrigues get more perplexing.

The cinematography and acting is pretty solid, but not outstanding. I liked the music, and the story was not bad, even if it got quite a bit far-fetched toward the end.

My main points of criticism are that the transition from the nerdy investigator to bombshell blonde was somehow not truly convincing, and that the protagonist and especially villain's actions toward the end seemed rather preposterous. In fact, the self-congratulatory tone of the exchanges between them at the end turned me a bit off.

In addition, due to the similarity of this movie's title with the erotic film "Wild Orchid", it sets up audience expectations for steamy love scenes, of which there is just one, and by erotic film standards it is more on the tame side.

All in all, not a bad diversion, but it could have been better.

Just watch the movie. It's less than 90 mins. Make up your own mind. One gauge of mine is how many times I check my phone while watching a film on premium tv. Just once during this film so it certainly had my attention.

This is a pretty good modern film noir. The old staple of having the detective become obsessed with the murdered woman here gets an update by having the detective be a woman as well. Olivia Thirlby (Juno) in the lead role does fine as the detective, but is less convincing when she transforms herself later on -- but perhaps her character would be less convincing in that state. John Carroll Lynch (Fargo, Zodiac) is reliable as always as the sheriff saddled with Thirlby's investigation. And there are other familiar faces from the past - Jennifer Beals, Brendan Sexton III, and Lt. Uhuru from Star Trek. All in all, if you like your film noir in color, this movie is well worth a try.