Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Richard Chatten The most original moment of this glorified Mexican travelogue in colour is the opening scene which initially seems to be being narrated to us by William Lundigan, who then turns out to be dictating into a tape recorder. Unfortunately, with the appearance a few minutes later of gorgeous high-maintenance Peggie Castle to introduce herself as his photographer he responds with the usual boorishness towards women that heroes in these films always display and banality is the order of the day for the remainder of the film. Things actually get worse when Armando Silvestre enters the picture as their guide, since the two of them thereafter bicker incessantly over her. (She's wearing a wedding ring, but no one ever mentions that, including Ms Castle.) Peggie herself looks a treat as usual, especially after she changes into jeans and a blouse to go on safari (during which she continues to wear lipstick); but director Reginald LeBorg is perplexingly extremely parsimonious with close ups of her.The 'plot' however is just the glue holding together the Eastman Color footage of fiestas and Mexican scenery shot by Gilbert Warrenton and local cameraman Enrique Wallace (billed as 'Henry'). Lundigan is supposed to be a famous archaeologist who has written books and given lectures about the area, yet has to keep asking Silvestre to explain everything they encounter; and at the end demonstrates his respect for the local culture by burning their village to the ground (Miss Castle's photographic film making good firelighters).

jadzia92 Released in 1954, The White Orchid is about an expedition to a hidden Mexican civilisation. Not a bad movie but too bad about the sacrifice at the end. Overall the dialogue in The White Orchid is not something worth remembering about and the romance that goes on here is easily forgettable and unremarkable. What happens very late in this movie could easily be the highlight of the movie but I don't feel any excitement with it and all this cause by an accident that could easily have been avoided.

mark.waltz No wonder some people believe in the saying, "Stay in your own back yard!" Peggie Castle's magazine photographer longs to get a look at the natives of the land now known as Mexico who still live according to the old tribal customs far away from civilized society. She is sent to Mexico on assignment and finds herself not very welcomed by William Lundigan's archaeologist who expected a man to be tagging along to help record their findings. But after he agrees to take her, they enlist the help of quiet Mexican plantation owner Armando Silvestre who at first wants no part of their quest but agrees after some persuading from the seductive Castle. Their trek to his plantation is difficult enough with Castle encountering supposedly harmless iguanas and the group dealing with sand storms and excessive heat. Silvestre's love-lorn servant girl (Rosenda Monteros) is immediately jealous of Castle and pleads with Silvestre not to take them on any further but he refuses, having found himself falling in love with the beautiful blonde vixen. The attractions towards Castle from both Lundigan and Silvestre makes for a pretty rocky journey, but nothing as rocky as when they do find the natives which leads to a violent encounter.The story of the white orchid is explained by Silvestre as being made from the blood of two star crossed lovers, and this is a metaphor for the encounter with the seemingly peaceful natives who have traded with Silvestre in the past but don't trust outsiders. For good reason, it seems, because Lundigan's use of a gun and a fight between him and Silvestre changes the native's minds towards receiving North American outsiders. This is a story of nosy civilized people going where they shouldn't, much like how the cultured Europeans took over much of North and South America in an effort to convert what they considered pagans to Christianity. Obviously by seeing the civilization they live in, they are fine without outside help, and when one of the tribesmen is killed, it is justified revenge that one of the trio heading into the jungle is made a sacrifice. This brings on more destruction caused by the outsiders and one of the three must make a sacrifice of their own in order to save the others.Certainly I can understand a love of exploration and a need for a greater understanding of what happens outside the world close by us, so I can't fault the characters for their desires to explore. However, Lundigan's character seems to have no feelings outside his own lust for Castle and certainly has no appreciation for the privacy of cultures he has no real understanding of. Silvestre is quietly passionate, masculine rather than macho, and a much more desirable man in my mind, making me question Castle's taste in men. There is a fascinating scene of a carnival where Silvestre and five other men perform a flying stunt that has to be seen to be believed. This is a beautifully filmed adventure which has many life lessons that society still hasn't seemed to pick up on. The color on the public domain print which I purchased isn't as crisp as other color movies of the period which indicates that it needs some sort of restoration, but as an independent production, it is still extremely well made. Hopefully the survivors of the group in real life would come out of this adventure learning some major lessons, but something tells me probably not.

Snow Leopard The location photography in Mexico is a noticeable plus in this adventure feature, which is watchable but just fair overall. The story follows a very familiar pattern, yet it opens up some good dramatic possibilities. The cast and characters don't always make full use of the opportunities, but there is enough to make it worth seeing.William Lundigen stars as a diligent but rather small-minded archaeologist, who is reluctant to take a female photographer on an important and hazardous trip to a remote part of Mexico. Once the expedition is underway, he and the group's guide find themselves rivals for the photographer's attentions, which makes the hazardous situations they face even more difficult.The combination of a love triangle with a hazardous quest is the kind of setup that can make for a fine movie, and this one gets enough out of the setup to be interesting, but it could have been quite a bit better. The dialogue is too bland to give the actors a lot to work with, and as the lead, Lundigen is believable but one-dimensional. Peggy Castle is attractive enough to make it easy to believe that the two males could make fools of themselves over her, but likewise she and her character remain one-dimensional. Armando Silvestre is somewhat more interesting as the guide.On the plus side, the settings and the situation are interesting, and they offer a slight change of pace from the usual action film premises. Even with some of the color having faded from the print, the rugged scenery is often well worth seeing just for itself, and the outdoor photography adds considerably to the atmosphere. Overall, though it has some apparent flaws, it's not bad and it has some definite pluses.