A Disappointing Continuation

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

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).

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.

"The White Orchid" is a little on the meandering side and short on thrills (for example, every single animal the heroes meet during their journey turns out to be harmless! They should have thrown a little more danger in there), but it's a good-looking film (even in its current jumpy and somewhat deteriorated DVD prints), and it's also interesting for its morally ambivalent characters; you can even say it was progressive for its time, since the main "foreign" person turns out to be the noblest of the three main characters. Oh, and Peggie Castle looks absolutely yummy, and you can easily see why she made so many films in similar genres - she feels right at home away from home. **1/2 out of 4.

Opens with Robert Burton (William Lundigan "Santa Fe Trail") dictating into his recorder. He is giving the story of El Taxim, the Mayan Temple, but during this and other parts of the film, the sound is choppy and small portions are missing. This disc is part of a 50 film collection of "action classics" from Treeline/TCM, and much of the color is also faded and washed out . Burton meets up with Kathryn Williams, ( Peggy Castle, who made lots of westerns in the 1950s) who has been assigned as his photographer. Burton doesn't like the idea of having a female photographer along, but later decides she's not so bad. We also get to witness some interesting native Mexican festival rites which may or may not be authentic. Local native Juan Cervantes (Armando Silvestre, actor from Mexico who made many movies from the 1940s right up until 1999) promises to help her find the jungle to research a more primitive, traditional population, but of course this only causes more friction with Burton, her boss. Through Burton's stupidity, they lose supplies in a sandstorm; moving on, they stop at Juan's ranch before continuing on their expedition, with their singing band of helpers. At one point, they cross paths with a raccoon, and Kathryn asks "What's that?" One might think she would recognize a raccoon, on either side of the border...Then the troubles begin... and things get a little unbelieve-able, but I guess we're just along for the adventure. The travel to exotic lands would have been quite interesting before people did as much travel as they do today.