BLACK ORCHID
US, 1958, 98 minutes, Black and white.
Sophia Loren, Anthony Quinn, Virginia Vincent, Frank Puglia.
Directed by Martin Ritt.
The Black Orchid is a star vehicle for Sophia Loren. After a career in her native Italy, she had the opportunity to start making American films in 1957 with Boy on a Dolphin, The Pride and the Passion and Legend of the Lost. During 1958 she made Desire Under the Elms, The Key, The Black Orchid, Houseboat. She was to make another five films before going back to Italy to play in Two Women, for which she won the 1961 Oscar for best actress. In her early years in Hollywood she appeared with such actors as Alan Ladd and Clifton Webb, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra, Anthony Perkins, John Wayne, William Holden. In this film she stars with Anthony Quinn and was to appear with him also in 1960 in Heller in Pink Tights.
The film has a Mafia background. Sophia Loren plays a young widow who has to support herself after the murder by the Mafia of her husband. She is wooed by another Italian-American?, played by Anthony Quinn. He, however, has problems with his own daughter which makes the film a very strong domestic drama.
The film was directed by Martin Ritt, a very reputable director who had begun working in films in 1957 with Edge of the City and No Down Payment. Then he made The Long Hot Summer and The Black Orchid. He made a number of significant films during the 1970s and his casts were often Oscar-nominated. Patricia Neal and Melvyn Douglas won Oscars for their performances in Ritt’s Hud. He directed Robert de Niro and Jane Fonda in Stanley and Iris just before his death in 1990. Other significant films include The Outrage, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Hombre, The Molly Maguires, Sounder, The Front and Norma Rae for which Sally Field won an Oscar for best actress.
1. The significance of the title, its reference to Rose and her name?
2. The importance of black and white photography, musical background? The importance of an authentic atmosphere in New York locations, the slum area. the country environment? How genuine did the atmospherq6ee,m for, this plot?
3. The structure of the two relationships, the paralleling of parent and child relationships, the interaction? How interesting was the comparison and the contrast of the parallel relationships? How much understanding of the relationship between parent and child came from this film?
4. The focus on Rose, her Italian background In America. as a widow and mother, love for her gangster husband and the impact of the funeral? Her sharing of his dreams for wealth and hopes in America and their failure with his death? Her way of life in the district, the way people regarded her and she interacted with them? The people in the tenement? Her work with her flowers? Her son and her love for him end her hopes? The separation from him at the farm? Her need to, build up her confidence in herself and relate to people?
5. The portrait of Ralphie as a young boy from this kind of environment, his life at the farm, his love for his mother, the growing trust in Frank and the quality of the father-son relationship, the irony of his hopes being dashed and his running away? How convincing was this portrayal of a young boy?
6. The importance of the resolution in the church? The encounter between Frank and Ralphie? The re-uniting at the bar, the bond of interest and love?
7. How attractive a character was Frank? As a man, as a widower, in his relationship to his daughter and the memory of his wife? Hie background, his home, his loneliness? The encounter with Rose and persuading her to go out? The quality of their outings, his visits, the style of his wooing? The gradual encouraging of confidence in Rose? The bond with Ralphie? The irony and pathos of his having to cope with Mary?
8. How credible a character was Mary with her tantrums, her possessiveness of her father, looking herself in her room, her violence and madness? Was this presented in convincing detail? The contrast with Ralphie’s love for his mother?
9. The importance of the encounter between Rose and Mary and the resolution of their difficulties -as paralleling the encounter between Frank and Ralphie? Did these interactions throw light on the other?
10. How much humanity was portrayed in this film, love, needs. Hopes? The selflessness of giving up relations for the good of others?
11. How satisfying was the happy resolution?
12. What were the basic values of human nature and relationships explored? In the context of wealth and
poverty? Of city life?
