No More Orchids

Carole Lombard was loaned from Paramount to Columbia to star in No More Orchids in which she plays a spoiled heiress, not unlike the one she played in her later classic My Man Godfrey.

She lives pretty high on the hog, but the pig is about to be slain as this is the Great Depression and the bank that her father Walter Connolly heads is about to go belly up. Her grandfather C. Aubrey Smith does not like his son-in-law.

But he does like his granddaughter and he wants Lombard to marry some empty suit with a title. He fancies being in-laws to nobility. He's got the empty suit picked out. but Lombard wants to marry lawyer Lyle Talbot.

In the end it's Connolly who makes the sacrifice so that Lombard can live her life with whom she loves. Won't say how.

Good performances all around. The revelation here is C. Aubrey Smith who usually plays stern but upstanding upper crust types is a real no good in this one. Good but way off type for him.

A wonderful cast of supporting character actors enlivens a soap opera about how Carole Lombard falls in love with reverse-snob Lyle Talbot and thwarts the plans of her grandfather -- played by the wonderful C. Aubrey Smith -- to marry his family into European royalty. In the meantime her father -- played by Walter Connolly -- is about to see his bank fail.

It seems apparent that the novel on which this book is based is a lot more complex than this movie. The dialogue is competent, but not great, and people tend to play types rather than individuals. But while this is not a great movie, the wonderful players make it far more enjoyable than anyone would expect it to be. Even Lyle Talbot, usually confined to a simple juvenile lead at his home base of Warner Brothers in this period, is excellent, if a tad declamatory.

NO MORE ORCHIDS is just a little programmer movie but it's an incredibly elegant one. Columbia studios in the early 1930's was thought of as something as a poverty row studio yet this film looks as slick and expensive as any potboiler the more uptown MGM or Paramount might have produced.

Carole Lombard stars as a spoiled society girl who is engaged to a prince in a marriage arranged by her controlling grandfather C. Aubrey Smith. On the ocean-liner back to America, she falls in love with white collar worker Lyle Talbot (who in her pampered world qualifies as "penniless") and eventually breaks his cool barrier. Lombard's pal of a dad, Walter Connally, and paternal grandmother Louise Closser Hale are crazy about Talbot but mean old grandpa Smith is not about to let his plans fall through, having seen his own late daughter marry "beneath" her.

Carole Lombard is superb as the frivolous but good-hearted socialite and she surprisingly is matched by Lyle Talbot, one of the era's reliable but usually bland leading men; in this picture, Talbot exhibits a sex appeal seldom tapped in the scores of bread-and-butter pictures he cranked out. Connally is very good in one of his first movie roles as father to a screwball romantic comedy queen (although this picture ventures more toward soap opera "women's picture" despite some nice comedy bits). Talented character player Louise Closser Hale seems a bit miscast, she's a bit too cutesy and lacks the saltiness a May Robson might have brought to the part. Smith essays a rare villainous part in a rather brief but pivotal role. Ruthelma Stevens and the very cute Allen Stevens have the only other somewhat featured parts as two of Lombard's good-time buddies in the society crowd; these small parts are among the larger ones for each of them, as they generally played bits.

Lombard is so strikingly beautiful and assured in her performance here it's hard to believe she was little more than a starlet at the time and not yet a major Hollywood star. She is sensationally photographed, although one scene makes her facial scar from an early car wreck more visible than I've ever seen it in one of her films. NO MORE ORCHIDS is just another Hollywood movie but it moves quickly and smoothly and is well worth your time if you love films from the 1930's.

No More Orchids (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Interesting, if a tad bit strange, drama about a rich brat (Carole Lombard) who falls in love with an average guy (Lyle Talbot) but her greedy grandfather (C. Aubrey Smith) forces her to marry a rich Prince so that her father will be saved from his debt. NO MORE ORCHIDS isn't a very well known film and even fans of Lombard seems to have never seen it. That's a shame because it turned out to be a pretty good gem even if the final ten-minutes are extremely bizarre and in the end they really don't work. The film benefits from a very strong screenplay as well as some strong performances. The actual story of this thing is the type of melodrama that had been going on throughout the silent era and would continue throughout the 30s as we have the bad girl falling for a good guy only to be forced into the arms of someone else. What makes it seem so fresh and original here is that the screenplay is smart enough to actually make for some nice dialogue scenes where everything plays out in a believable fashion. This includes several scenes of Lombard having to really think through her decision and this makes for some very good drama. The screenplay is smart enough to make her character more than just a single note and the viewer certainly benefits from this. Lombard does a very good job as she was perfectly capable of playing the brat side of this woman but we also believe her when the character slowly starts to change due to her feelings for Talbot. As for Talbot, he too turns in another winning performance as does Walter Connolly as the father and Louise Closser Hale nearly steals the film as the fast-talking grandma. Smith turns in his typical fine performance as well. Fans of pre-code will be happy to see some rather risky dialogue about Lombard not being a virgin and we even get a sequence where she takes her rob off and is standing around in her bra and panties. Not too shocking in today's age but this was 1932 after all. The film takes a rather obvious twist towards the end and I think what the father does, which I won't ruin, doesn't work at all. The screenplay tries to milk this sequence for everything it's worth but I felt it fell flat on its face and didn't pack the punch it was going for. Even so, NO MORE ORCHIDS is still a fine little film that deserves to be seen by more.

Spoiled rich girl (Carole Lombard) falls in love with poor boy (Lyle Talbot). But her father's financial troubles may force her to marry a wealthy prince. Pre-Code soaper features a scene of Carole Lombard in her underwear, which is as good a selling point as any. Carole's good in this and, of course, beautiful. Talbot does okay. Nice supporting cast. Louise Closser Hale is great as Carole's grandmother, Walter Connolly her extremely likable father, and C. Aubrey Smith fine in a villainous role. Enjoyable enough. It's not a bad movie of its type. Helps if you're a big fan of Lombard. The ending seems silly on paper but was surprisingly effective.