JAMES HADLEY
CHASE- A Tribute by a Die Hard Fan
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No Orchids For Miss Blandish / The Villain and The Virgin |
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This controversial first novel of Chase, described as path breaking. shocking, enthralling and unique in its own way, deserves a detailed description. First written in 1938, it was in instant hit, as already described in the Homepage of this fansite. It was published by Jarrolds (London) in 1939. In 1948, it was published by Avon as The Villain and The Virgin. The novel was subsequently re-written and revised by Chase and published by Panther under its original (now famous ) name in 1961, as the author felt that the original text, with its outmoded dialogue and 1938 atmosphere would not be acceptable to the new generation of readers, who may be curious to read the most discussed, and the best known gangster story, ever to have been written.
It all begins when a gang of petty hoodlums, the Riley gang, try to snatch
a diamond necklace from Miss Blandish, a birthday gift given to her, by
her father, millionaire John Blandish. In the melee, Miss Blandish's fiancée,
MacGowan gets shot dead and Miss Blandish is bundled into the robbers' car, not
quite the way it had been planned. However, a much larger and vicious gang, lead
by Slim Grissom, confronts these robbers and snatches Miss Blandish, while
killing all the members of the Riley gang and burying their bodies in the desert
sand. Later, Miss Blandish is kept in confinement by the Grissom Gang, and
subjected to repeated rape and depravities by Slim, himself a degenerate killer.
Very soon, Ma Grissom, the actual leader of the gang loses control over the
course of events. The police, in the meantime, have no clue about Miss
Blandish's actual whereabouts and continue to suspect the Riley gang, who are
already dead. The ransom money extracted from John Blandish, is used by Ma
Grissom, to set up a high security gambling joint, but Miss Blandish remains a
personal captive with the moronic Slim, whom none of the other gang members dare
to challenge.
In desperation, John Blandish hires Dave Fenner, private eye, to trace the whereabouts of his daughter. Fenner succeeds in linking the Grissom gang with the chain of events and also manages to rescue Miss Blandish from their clutches. In the shoot-out that follows, the Grissom gang is decimated and their high profile gambling joint, the Paradise Club is destroyed. However, Miss Blandish, who is pregnant, with Slim's child, commits suicide from a high rise hotel.
It has been alleged that Chase more or less based this first novel of his, on William Faulkner's 'Sanctuary' (1931). No Orchids for Miss Blandish has also been the subject of two studies, one by the late George Orwell, called "Raffles and Miss Blandish" (Horizon, October 1944) and the other by D. Streatfield, called "Persephone" (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1939).
A sordid concoction of sex and violence, fashioned around the kidnapping of an heiress, which became an immediate bestseller - The Times
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