No Orchids For Miss Blandish (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
”Slim, still grinning, held the knife-point just below Riley’s navel and put his weight on the handle. The knife went in slowly as if it were going into butter. Riley drew his lips back. HIs mouth opened. There was a long hiss of expelled breath as he stood there. Tears sprang from his eyes. Slim stepped back, leaving the black hilt of the knife growing out of Riley like a horrible malformation. Riley began to give low, quavering cries. His knees were buckling but the cord held him up. His weight on the ropes pushed the knife handle up so that the blade slowly cut deeper inside him.Slim sat on the grass a few feet away and gave himself a cigarette. He pushed his hat over his eyes and squinted at Riley. ‘Take your time, Pal, We ain’t in a hurry.’ He gave him a crooked smile as his fingers traced the sky. ‘Ain’t them clouds pretty?’ Slim Grissom is a psychopath. His tendencies for cruelty manifested themselves when he was still in grade school. He cut up small animals, and tortured little girls. He liked to inflict pain. James Hadley Chase created Slim Grissom. He was a bookseller in London when he decided to write a hardboiled American gangster novel. With the help of an American slang dictionary and books on the criminal world of America he wrote his first novel, No Orchids for Miss Blandish, over six weekends. Published in 1939 the book become one of the best-sold books of the decade. It was made into a play and was filmed in 1948 by a British film crew. In 1971 under the name, The Grissom Gang, the American version directed by Robert Aldrich was released. The book hit a nerve. I’m still picking the GRIT out of my teeth. Two guys named Riley and Bailey had this idea to steal the Blandish necklace worth fifty thousand dollars. The necklace turns out to be attached to the beautiful daughter of one of the richest men in the state. As tends to happen when stupid people plan a crime everything goes wrong and they end up with the girl and the necklace. ”I know these rich girls,” Bailey complained, his upper lip curling in disgust. “They don’t know what they’re here for.”Now when two-bit thieves step up to a kidnapping they tend to get over their heads in a hurry. As you have already experienced from the opening quote to this review Slim Grissom and his gang get in on the action. They take the girl and bring her home to Mom. Ma Grissom, the leader of this nefarious organization, is as ugly as Miss Blandish is beautiful.”From her chair, Ma Grissom soaked Miss Blandish into her brain. She was both transfixed and irritated by her beauty. Ma was a hulking contrast to the girl. Ma Grissom was big, grossly fat and lumpy. Flesh hung in two loose sacks either side of her chin. Her crinkly hair was dyed a hard, dull black. Her little eyes were glittering and as impersonal as glass. Her big floppy chest sparkled with cheap jewelry. She wore a dirty cream colored lace dress. Her huge arms, mottled with veins, bulged through the lace network like dough compressed in a sieve. Physically she was as powerful as a man. She was a hideous old woman, and every member of the gang, including Slim, was afraid of her.” Ma Grissom from the 1971 movieMa has a plan on how to get the money and get away clean, but Slim unexpectedly throws a monkey wrench into the carefully designed scheme. He decides he wants to keep the girl. Now this takes everyone by surprise because he’s never shown any interest in girls except as creatures weaker than him that he could inflict pain upon. Miss Blandish is beautiful “like something out of a story book” and she is brittle, helpless and most importantly she is in his grasp.Slim gets his way.”The naked lamp, swinging in the ceiling, suddenly went out. The darkness came down on her like a smothering blanket. She felt his cold hands turning her on her back so that she lay across the bed, her head hanging over the side. Her hair hung an inch off the dirty carpet. She stared up into the blackness, the tears welling up in her eyes and running down her face. The hot air of the room suddenly rushed over her body and a cruel and impossible weight pinned her to the crumbling sheets. Her resistance was gone, hidden by a heavy cloud that wrapped her brain. She whispered to him a small, panic-ridden voice. ”You’re hurting me...” Linden Travers who played Miss Blandish in the 1948 movie versionYes... at this point in the book I found my hand over my mouth. I was having trouble catching my breath. The cruelty of the moment, of someone who had grown up in this bubble of security finding herself in an impossible situation that she is left shattered unable to even fathom how or why her life took such a sad and sordid turn.Chase received the attention of the literary establishment in particular by George Orwell who wrote an essay highlighting the virtues of this book. He even compares No Orchids for Miss Blandish with William Faulkner’s work. ”To begin with, its central story bears a very marked resemblance to William Faulkner's novel, Sanctuary. Secondly, it is not, as one might expect, the product of an illiterate hack, but a brilliant piece of writing, with hardly a wasted word or a jarring note anywhere. Thirdly, the whole book, récit as well as dialogue, is written in the American language; the author, an Englishman who has (I believe) never been in the United States, seems to have made a complete mental transference to the American underworld. Fourthly, the book sold, according to its publishers, no less than half a million copies.” James Hadley Chase keeping his writing inspiration close to hand in the form of Mylene Demongeot who starred in a film adaptation of one of his novels.Orwell makes the case that the book is really all about the pursuit of power. The book contains eight full-dress murders, an unassessable number of casual killings and woundings, an exhumation (with a careful reminder of the stench), the flogging of Miss Blandish, the torture of another woman with red-hot cigarette-ends, a strip-tease act, a third-degree scene of unheard-of cruelty and much else of the same kind. It assumes great sexual sophistication in its readers (there is a scene, for instance, in which a gangster, presumably of masochistic tendency, has an orgasm in the moment of being knifed), and it takes for granted the most complete corruption and self-seeking as the norm of human behaviour. The detective, for instance, is almost as great a rogue as the gangsters, and actuated by nearly the same motives. Like them, he is in pursuit of "five hundred grand." It is necessary to the machinery of the story that Mr. Blandish should be anxious to get his daughter back, but apart from this, such things as affection, friendship, good nature or even ordinary politeness simply do not enter. Nor, to any great extent does normal sexuality. Ultimately only one motive is at work throughout the whole story: the pursuit of power.For those of you interested in more about what Orwell had to say about this book here is a link to the essay. http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca/Orwell-...So much happens in this book, there is not a wasted page. It is lurid and filled with tough talk set in a world where compassion is a dirty word. I guarantee you will cringe, and you too will want revenge. Your hands will itch for your own Tommy Gun. You might even dream about pulling the trigger and watching Slim and Ma and Eddie and Flynn and Woppy all dissolve under a hail of bullets.For another opinion of this book don't miss the excellent review by my friend Mike Sullivan. The Excellent Sullivan Review
This was not the audiobook that would be advisable to listen to as I drove the 250 mile round trip to visit my family yesterday......but guess what, it was the audiobook I listened to. Truly horrendous. Infested with cruel and callous murderers who rifle and stab and beat people to death with a passion. And I use that word advisedly. The main man, as far as the slaughter goes, is a horribly vicious psychpath called Slim Grissom whose description was so powerful, whose bestial joy in killing anyone who happened to catch him on an off moment, was so evident that i could not have stopped to give a lift to a stranger if my cat's life had depended upon it. Hadley Chase creates a monster and I know that is an overused term in literature but i think Grissom was so foul he qualifies murderous hands down.The story is of the eponymous Miss Blandish, the wealthy socialite daughter of one of the richest men in Kansas. She, alongside her handsome but drunken boyfriend, are driven off the road by three z list hoodlums. In the ensuing ambush, her beau is murdered, the first of many brutal deaths, and she is kidnapped although the original intention had just been to steal her diamonds. The cack-handed ambushers crash from one misfortune to another and early on they lose the girl, the diamonds and any further involvement in the story if by further involvement is meant a pulse and the ability to breathe in and out. They are deaths two, three and four. Savage, bloody and scarily believable.The rest of the story, the lionshare, if you like, is of the various people involved either in maintaining the young heiress' incarceration or in trying to find her and set her free. There are a large cast of characters none of which reflect well on humanity and indeed the two that do bring a small part of fellow feeling towards the poor girl( it can't be described as anything as positive as compassion or sympathy) are done to death fairly early on.It is a page turner or would have been had I been turning pages. It was a CD switcher of the first order and i could not have not listened to the last CD when I got back home to Poole last night for all the Prosecco in Venice though the rather upmarket nature of Prosecco jars when being infected by the grime and violence and downright nastiness of this story.Re-reading this I wonder that you might be thinking why in God's Name would anyone want to read this; well, it does make for a horribly uncomfortable 7 hours but it is an extraordinary experiment in almost writing by numbers. A british man sets his hand to create a story set in the gang-ridden streets of Kansas and writes dialogue and descriptions which sweep you along and yet I read somewhere that he had set open in front of him a book of US slang terms and the like. People who are more knowledgeable and well read in this genre might find it unimpressive or derivative but being a bit of a virgin in this sphere or at least one with limited experience I found it riveting.Towards the end there is a moment when you feel it might just work out ok for Miss Blandish but always in the back of my mind was the bitter experience of the first series of 24 when I used to be shouting at the tv for the two women to stop f**king about and just escape.....they never heard or if they did, they didn't listen and faffed about until the baddies came in and their chance to escape was, yet again, wasted. Miss Blandish and her rampantly dubious kinight in shining armour have much the same effect.One of the truly inspired but awful elements is the appalling decay and ruination of the poor girl's life. Her previous experiences were of admiration and adulation, adoration and ease; these come back with avengeance but corrupted, misshapen and demonic. Slim Grissom, who has never looked at a women with anything but contempt before, sees her beauty and that is that. You cannot say he falls in love, Chase does not really give us that opportunity in the horrible slimy tunnel of Slim's mind. For him to fall in love would involve the possibility of redemption but too often it has been made clear to us that he is beyond any scope of human salvage but something happens and it destroys her; not physically but hope, joy, anything good indeed, these things dwell far outside her reach after he and the other members of the gang, including the truly frightful Ma Grissom, beat and belittle and destroy her mind. There is a deeply tragic lament she stammers towards the end in which she blames no-one but herself, as if her previous easy, unchallenged life was something she needed to answer for or to have drawn an inner strength from that she felt she failed to do. This simple but awful speech was one of the most heartbreaking things about this book.
What do You think about No Orchids For Miss Blandish (1998)?
No Orchids For Miss Blandish: James Hadley Chase's First Novel "I'm ashamed of myself. I'm a person without any background, any character or any faith. Some people could cope with this because they believe in God. I haven't believed in anything except having a good time.” She clenched and unclenched her fists, then she looked up; her fixed smile made Fenner feel bad." Miss Blandish to Dave Fenner I'm quite sure that my rating might have been a bit higher had I actually been reading No Orchids For Miss Blandish as James Hadley Chaseoriginally wrote it in 1939. However, having difficulty finding a copy, I thought I would be pleased with the copy I downloaded on my Kindle. Pictured is the 1951 Harlequin paperback edition. Though I have reason to doubt that even that contains the content of that edition.I found myself distracted by anachronisms appearing throughout the edition I read. In a novel written in 1939, Slim Grisson has two televisions to which he is glued for hours at a time. During a climactic chase scene, the police use a helicopter to track down Slim and Miss Blandish. Once again, the television enters the picture with law enforcement having the networks to broadcast the facts of Slim's escape and a request that anyone with information call in to aid in his apprehension.For a comparison between the various editions of "No Orchids for Miss Blandish," I highly recommend http://www.jottings.ca/john/kelly/sba... , containing an in depth analysis of the novel, its various editions, and its critical reception, compiled by Ernest Kelly. First edition, the genuine article.Chase, the Author, and the writing of "No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase (24 December 1906 – 6 February 1985)Chase was born René Lodge Brabazon Raymond. Chase was but a number of pseudonyms under which he wrote ninety novels. He served in the RAF during World War II, allegedly arising to the rank of Squadron Leader. That appears the stuff of legend, possibly fostered by Chase himself.Professionally he was a wholesale bookseller. He became intrigued with the American Gangsters, particularly those working in the midwest, rather than the large syndicates out of New York and Chicago.Using maps and a dictionary of American Slang, Chase claimed to have written "No Orchids" in six days. Other sources indicate the span was over twelve days. But one cannot discount how prolific an author Chase became.The Story"No Orchids for Miss Blandish" appears to be a blend of Ma Barker and her gang of sons, and the very basic plot line of Sanctuary by William Faulkner. Ma Barker, such a sweet face. She died with a Thompson in her hands in 1935.Miss Blandish, whose first name we never know, the stand in for Faulkner's Temple Drake, is the daughter of millionaire John Blandish. Celebrating her engagement to a suitable young gentleman, her father bestows on his daughter a diamond necklace worth $50,000. Movie Poster for "The Story of Temple Drake," starring Miriam HopkinsA small time gang, Riley, Bailey, and "Old Sam" take on a job to big for their outfit and kidnap Miss Blandish. During the snatch, Bailey murders Miss Blandish's fiance'. If they're caught, it's the chair for all of them.But not to worry, Eddie Schulz, a member of Ma Grisson's gang, spots the Riley gang and recognizes Miss Blandish. In the world of gangsters, the more powerful group wipes out the inept bunch who initially snatched Miss Blandish.Ma Grisson is ecstatic. The blame can be put on the Riley gang. While the Grisson's can reap the benefit and collect a million dollar ransom from John Blandish.There's only one fly in the ointment. That's Ma's beloved son, Slim, a , shall we say, deranged, depraved, and psychotic killer. Slim's never had a girlfriend. He claims Miss Blandish as his own, bucking Ma's authority for the first time in his life, even pulling a knife on Ma. There's a change of authority in the gang that takes place before the reader's eyes.Of course, Miss Blandish is not the type of young woman to have anything to do with someone like Slim, who has greasy stringy hair and has a tendency to wear dirty clothes. Ma engages the services of Doc Williams to drug Miss Blandish so Slim can work out his repressions to his heart's content.Enter Dave Fenner, Chase's PI. Fenner is a former crime beat reporter for a newspaper. He's the best, with connections to the underworld and a gift for digging up information. John Blandish retains Fenner with a $3,000.00 check and a future payoff of $30,000.00 should he find the men responsible for kidnapping his daughter. He's convinced that his daughter is dead. He wants the men that killed her.The PayoffThough never critically lauded, Chase became the king of the European thriller. Chase's plotting keeps the reader to keep flipping the pages to see what happens next.I found the dialog attributable to Chase having watched to many Jimmy Cagney movies. "Yeah, Copper, come n' get me. Top of the World Ma!"Characterization is sparse, though Chase clearly outlines Fenner more clearly with future Fenners in mind."No Orchids for Miss Blandish" has been staged in England, was filmed in England in 1948, and refilmed as "The Grissom Gang" in the United States by Robert Aldrich in 1971. Though I've not seen it, the reviews I've read are highly favorable. Movie Poster for the 1948 English Film Movie Poster for the American re-make, 1971So, am I done with Chase? Maybe not. Not if I can get hold of the genuine article not "updated" for the modern reader.RATING: 3.5 STARS
—Mike
Le roman se résume dans une phrase qu'à dit Eddieau début et qui m'a bien marqué :" Les femmes et le pognon c'est ce qui fait tourner le monde ! "à chaque fois que je lis un roman policier ou autre je me rends compte du rôle important que jouent des détails, du hasard des coïncidence, de l'argent et de la "Karma is a bitch" dans nos vies .. Ce qu'a dit Miss blandish a la fin m'a profondément marqué :" Je n'ai jamais eu à me battre, jusqu'à cette histoire toute ma vie n'a été qu'une longue partie de plaisir, je n'ai jamais eu aucun sens des valeurs . c'est l'occasion ou jamais de montrer ce dont je suis capable, n'est ce pas ? mais j'ai l'impression que c'est un piège et non une épreuve , et je ne sais pas si je serai de taille à m'en sortir. "là j'ai lu ce que mes parents ont tjrs voulu que j'évite à tout prix , je me rappelle qu'ils m'ont souvent parlé de pareils gens qui n'ont jamais souffert, et souffriront intensément lorsqu'ils feront face au premier problème .. Contrairement à elle .. j'ai pas à sentir que ma vie n'a été faite que de plaisir, mais je suis en une pareille situation d'hésitation face à un problème qui décidera le cours du reste de ma vie , et j'avoue que quoi qu'on ait souffert avant , on continuera à souffrir d'une façon moint atténuante mais affreuse comme même. .j'ai bcp aimé le plan de M'man , très bien dressé , mais il y manquera tjrs des détails qui ruineront tout ..et cet tjrs pour/à cause d'une femme/l'argent que ça tombe dans l'eau !
—Rahil Swààn
The total lack of mystery (we always know exactly who’s done what to who, why that guy got knocked off, what this cop is thinking) doesn’t matter.The casual sexism (One of the important facts of life that Paula had learned the hard way was not to keep any man waiting. ) (and if you’re a female in this novel you’re going to get your bottom patted) doesn’t matter.The cardboard characters (There was Eddie Schultz, one time bodyguard of Murder Incorporate. There was Woppy, a clever safe expert…Slim Grissom’s background was typical of a pathological killer) don’t matter.The beyond-cliché dialogueAnyone who touches her has me to reckon with.I don’t know nothing about nothing!You’ve got nothing on me.I don’t know what you’re talking about, copperYour only hope is to come cleanLet’s make it quick and gory.You’re surrounded! Come out with your hands in the air! You haven’t a chance! doesn’t matter.The shock realisation that this hardestboiled American crime thriller was written by a public school educated upper middle class English gent (this was a jolt similar to realising that McNulty and Stringer Bell were played by English actors in The Wire, I didn’t know that until half way through!) doesn’t matter.WHAT DID MATTER WASThat one of the career opportunities open to young women in those days was being a "gun moll". (Although it did sound like a minimum wage kind of gig). That the victim of this robbery-turned-kidnapping is always called “the Blandish girl” or “Miss Blandish” occasionally but never ever is given a first name. That was a brilliant touch.That this was one of those books I read in one day because I couldn’t stop. It goes at 97 miles an hour. That the end has a ghastly Shakespearian inevitability. It can be no other way. Noir pulp brilliance from 1939.
—Paul Bryant
