Paper Orchid ** (1949, Hugh Williams, Hy Hazell, Sidney James, Garry Marsh) – Classic Movie Review 12,703

Roy Ward Baker’s lively 1949 British black and white newspaper world crime thriller film Paper Orchid stars likeable Hugh Williams and Hy Hazell, along with Sid James and Garry Marsh.

Roy Ward Baker’s lively 1949 British black and white newspaper world crime thriller film Paper Orchid stars likeable Hugh Williams and Hy Hazell, along with Sidney James, Garry Marsh, Andrew Cruickshank, Ivor Barnard, Walter Hudd, Hughie Green, Vida Hope, and Ronald Fraser.

Hugh Williams plays a reporter who is the prime suspect in this mystery surrounding the death of a man discovered in the apartment of ‘the Orchid’, the name used by a newspaper gossip columnist (Hazell). A rival newsman (James) and an inspector (Cruickshank) join in the hunt for the truth.

Paper Orchid is an amusing, fast moving British B-movie, with quite enough mystery, newspaper detail, suspense or surprises built into Val Guest’s screenplay, based on a 1948 novel by Arthur La Bern.

It is capably made by Roy Ward Baker, injecting some energy, and features some convincing, spirited, juicy acting, which these British stalwart actors do so well, including Hughie Green as Harold Croup and Andrew Sachs as Office Boy!

It is shot by Basil Emmott at the Walton Studios, near London, on sets designed by Bernard Robinson.

Paper Orchid is directed by Roy Ward Baker, runs 86 minutes, is shot in black and white by Basil Emmott, is made by Ganesh Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Val Guest, based on a novel by Arthur La Bern, is produced by William Collier Jr and John R Sloan, and is scored by Robert Farnon.

Release date: 11 July 1949,

British writer Arthur La Bern made his name in 1945 with It Always Rains on Sunday. Four of his novels were adapted as films, including Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock as Frenzy (1972).

Sid James plays Freddy Evans.

The cast are Hugh Williams as Frank McSweeney, Hy Hazell as Stella Mason, Sid James as Freddy Evans, Garry Marsh as Johnson, Andrew Cruickshank as Detective Inspector Clement Pill, Ivor Barnard as Eustace Crabb, Walter Hudd as Briggs, Ella Retford as Lady Croup, Hughie Green as Harold Croup, Vida Hope as Jonquil Jones, Frederick Leister as Walter Wibberley, Vernon Greeves as John Deane, Patricia Owens as Mary MacSweeney, Rolf Lefebvre as Peter Pasterman, Brian Oulton as Nightclub Manager, Andrew Sachs as Office Boy, and Ray Ellington as himself.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,703

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