Expert: Mel - 2/21/2008

Question
Sir…the use of “fifty years” in your introductory note on Expertise prompted me to ask my question. I don’t have any idea whether it fits in your area or otherwise, if not, please discard the request. Ok….there was a film namely “Grissom Gang” (hope I spell perfect) and many regard this as one of the cult movies of the era. Will you please enlighten me on this movie as seniors around always talk when they gather for their weekly meet in library. Of course they never ever allowed us (we still are post-graduation students in English lit.) to participate in their chitchatting on movies.
Thanks
Raj (India)


Answer
Hello Raj,

"The Grissom Gang" (1971) is a remake of the 1949 British melodrama "No Orchids for Miss Blandish", both inspred by the bestselling novel by James Hadley Chase. Kim Darby plays a 1920s-era debutante who is kidnapped and held for ransom. Her captors are the Grissoms, a family comprised of sadists and morons, and headed by Ma Barker clone Irene Dailey. One of the Grissoms, played by Scott Wilson, takes a liking to his prisoner, which results in a bloody breakdown of the family unit.

Why this, or any film, is regarded as a "cult movie", I have no idea. I can only assume it's what happens when a well regarded Director makes a less than average film. The intelligentsia cannot bring themselves to admit that one of their favourites has created anything less than perfect, and so they term it a "cult movie". If you study them, you will find that many of the films labelled with the status of "cult" are, in fact, not that good. Obviously some are excellent. So, why not just call them good films!

To my mind, a film can be good, bad or indifferent. This one was an average film of its kind. There were many similar in the late 60's/early 70's that followed the lead of 1967's "Bonnie & Clyde" (e.g. "Bloody Mama" -1970; "Big Bad Mama" -1974).


Hope that's of some help. Cheers.......Mel.