Paper Orchid 1949 Based on the novel Paper Orchid by Arthur La Bern, screenplay by Val Guest, directed by Roy Ward Baker.
I'm always on the search for Sid James movies, there's still a few of his earlier films I've not seen. Sid still gets some love in the UK, they're still making documentaries about him nearly half a century after he died. I first started seeing Sid in the 60s on British TV shows and the Carry On films. Some might remember him from The Lavender Hill Mob with Alex Guinness. He's in one of my favorite films Hell Drivers. It's got a great cast beside Stanley Baker and Sid, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins, Patrick McGoohan, William Hartnell, Sean Connery and Alfie Bass.
That Hugh Williams and Sid, Hugh is the editor of a newspaper and Sid's a reporter. The owner of the paper dies and his wife takes over. Some of the staff leave and some are driven out, Hugh in the latter lot. He gets a job on a rival paper that's in the midst of change too.
There's a certain level of humorous friction until the sculpture guy gets his throat cut. The crime investigation is over shadowed by the newspaper story and that's OK, it's those people that are interesting. I found it entertaining and enjoyed Sid quite a bit. You can check it out on YouTube, sadly the copy is fuzzy. I still watched it.
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